Surely, every user of a personal computer realizes that the more RAM is installed on the computer, the better it will work. Unfortunately, OSs are only able to support a limited number of them.
What is RAM?
Random access memory is one of the most important components of a personal computer. The speed of the PC depends on its quantity, as well as the speed of processing various requests by the central processor. If the RAM becomes too small, then virtual memory can partially solve the problem.
Maximum supported RAM
When choosing and buying a certain amount of RAM, the user should take into account its maximum amount that the operating system and motherboard can support. Usually the OS is the problem. For example, Windows XP only supports up to 4 gigabytes of RAM (assuming a 32-bit version is installed). In the event that there is more of it, then the OS will simply not read it, respectively, the rest of it will not be used. As for the 64-bit versions, they are capable of supporting up to 128 GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the number of maximum supported is also limited by the version of the operating system, and not only by its bitness.
In addition, a small part of the RAM is also spent on the devices used. That is, if the user has a 32-bit Windows XP operating system and 4 gigabytes of RAM, then approximately 400-500 MB will be spent on ensuring the performance of other devices.
As for modern operating systems of the Windows family, they are able to work with 192 gigabytes of RAM, and Windows Server 2008 supports up to 2 terabytes. This expansion was made possible by the use of the virtual address space. Each user of a personal computer can learn more about the maximum supported amount of RAM for each version of Windows on their official website. In general, for good performance of a personal computer today, at least 4 gigabytes of RAM are required (provided that the computer is used as a kind of multimedia station). If only office tasks are performed on a personal computer and only office applications are used, then 1-2 gigabytes of RAM will be enough. Of course, if the user will use a PC for both games and office applications, then it is better to bring the amount of RAM to the maximum possible.
