will 8GB of RAM have any speed benefit on 32-bit prog in Vista 64?

I am going to be building a new PC soon mainly to do 3D animation work along with some picture/video/audio editing. Software I will be using is 3DS Max 9, Adobe CS3, Premiere and After Effects. I have read a lot about the issues with usable RAM with 32 vs 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. I am leaning towards getting Vista 64x because it can allow for using the full 8GB of RAM (32bit Vista is <4GB usable). My question is if I am using mainly 32-bit programs on Vista 64, will they even take advantage of the extra RAM even if Windows recognizes it?

Also if 32bit programs can still only recognize/use <4GB of RAM, will having 8GB of RAM on Vista 64 still be beneficial if I run lots of applications at once? Generally when I am working I have 3DS Max, Photoshop, iTunes, and a couple internet windows up (a lot of times streaming video). With having all these programs running at the same time, would I see any performance difference by doing 8GB of RAM? General RAM I am looking at is G.Skill DDR2 800mhz

In a broad sense, heavy duty apps should all run their best since the 64 bit OS can allow each their full load of memory. The limitations inherent in a 32 bit OS obviously having been removed.

Having said that - Understand that the applications themselves may still have memory limitations: In 32 bit windows, the space available for a given app is typically 2GB. Therefore it is not uncommon for individual apps to be programmed to use that, and only that much, address space. In the situation where that is the case, the application itself will only use what it's capable of.

Some apps, particularly ones intended for heavier duty may be able to handle more addressing than the 2GB, these will be able to use more. How much?? Varies - You'll have to ask the maker to know for sure - but 3GB may be a reasonable guess for a 32 bit 'Large Address Aware' program.

In practical terms, what this means is that even under a 64 bit OS, just because you have 8GB (or however much), doesn't necessarily mean that the software you are running on the OS will be able to use it all. It'll surely be able to use as much of the available RAM as it can, though.

Also understand that nothing runs alone: So even if your program is somehow restricted to say, (pulls ficticious number from his behind) 3GB, there is still advantage to be had in the setup you are contemplating since the entire 3GB could be allocated to the app - It won't have to compete for memory with other applications since there is address space and RAM available for lots more.

hi there,
i just wanna say i have the same issue here!!
just purchased 8 gb ram but AE cs3 + Photoshop cs3 ONLY USES 4GB !!!
When AE loads plugins etc ...shows only 4 gb

Does cs3 can use more than 4gb 0n xp 64-bit ??
However my system shows that the available ram is 8gb !!!

any suggestion?


I'm on XP x64 sp2
board asus p5w dh deluxe Intel 975x
Intel core 2 extreme QX 6700 2.66Ghz (quad)

I'M afraid i need more than 4 gb
i'm working on a vanishing point project in AE That is 11000 pixels x 4000....

and i was planning to change motherboard just to add 16 gb of ram...
but i wasn't sure if this could actually works in AE ..

so there is nothing i can do?

thnx

CS3 has an internal paging system, so it will swap data between ram and harddrive when necessary, when working with very large datasets.

Only very few 32bit apps can address more than 4GB RAM. 64bit applications is the way to go. And Adobe knows this