A customer built a computer with the following specifications: Single hexa-core processor 8GB DDR4 memory 256GB SSD drive Built-in graphics card 32-bit Windows OS Audio editing software The computer…

The correct answer is B. 64-bit Windows OS. A 32-bit operating system can only address a maximum of 4GB of memory (2^32 addressable bytes). In practice, some of that address space is reserved for hardware devices (GPU, BIOS, PCI devices), leaving only about 3.2–3.5GB available to the OS and applications. Upgrading to a…

Hardware

Question

A customer built a computer with the following specifications:

Single hexa-core processor 8GB DDR4 memory 256GB SSD drive Built-in graphics card 32-bit Windows OS Audio editing software The computer seems to be working, but the OS reports only 3.5GB of RAM is available. Which of the following would correct the issue?

Options

A16GB DDR4 memory
B64-bit Windows OS
CDual hexa-core processors
D512GB SSD drive

How the community answered

(42 responses)

A
2% (1)
B
95% (40)
C
2% (1)

Explanation

A 32-bit operating system can only address a maximum of 4GB of memory (2^32 addressable bytes). In practice, some of that address space is reserved for hardware devices (GPU, BIOS, PCI devices), leaving only about 3.2–3.5GB available to the OS and applications. Upgrading to a 64-bit OS removes this ceiling - 64-bit Windows can theoretically address up to 128GB–2TB depending on the edition - allowing all 8GB of installed RAM to be recognized and used. Adding more RAM or a larger SSD would not resolve the architectural limitation of a 32-bit OS.

Topics

#32-bit OS#RAM addressing#memory limitation#OS architecture

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