Added RAM not seen by Vegas

[Mike Kujbida]

Sorry but 1024 is the best you can do with 32-bit XP 🙁

[Rob Franks]

It is possible to adjust but you will need to go to INTERNAL settings and adjust the maximum. Hold the shift key down while clicking on preferences and you will see an extra tab come up marked “INTERNAL”

Look for “preview ram” and you will see that the max is set at 1024. Reset this to 3072 if you wish, but on a 32 bit system I would be careful about actually trying to use that much. Make sure you have absolutely no other programs running with the preview ram set this high with xp32.

[Dave Haynie]

User applications in any 32-bit version of Windows can only see 2GB of memory. If you run a 32-bit app in a 64-bit version of Windows, it may be able to support the 3GB user model… it may not. Depends on the binary (and, given the full 64-bit version of Vegas available, it’s kind of a non-issue).

I haven’t messed with those settings, but it may well be that the 1GB limit is just hard-coded. Obviously, the program needs to keep some resources free for, well, its own operation. It probably doesn’t need a whole GB, but for user interface purposes, it’s common to just set human-friendly limits, rather than some weird technical limit. Or, they would let you set a higher value, but never really use that much.

-Dave

[Rob Franks]

“User applications in any 32-bit version of Windows can only see 2GB of memory.”

Not necessarily true. You can very easily reset the “large memory aware” flag in any .exe or .dll file so that file will use MORE than 2 gig memory… even in a 32 bit system.

Sony Vegas preview ram can not use more than 3072M of ram…. but it WILL use more than 1 gig…. even in a 32bit system. All you need to do is reset the 1 gig max (through internal settings).

[Jim Prisby]

Bob,
I did as you recommended and set the internal RAM preview to 3,072 but when I checked the max available in preferences/video it indicated only 1664 MB…only a 640 MB increase from the default 1,024. What gives?

Thanks

[Rob Franks]

You MAY be able to squeeze a BIT more out of xp 32 by killing as many tasks as you can, but for the most part that’s about as good as you’re going to get.

In a 32 bit system you have about 3.5 gig available. XP will use some of that and it will reserve a bit more for maneuvering room, then your tasks and processes will use some, if you have a video card with SHARED memory then it will gobble some ram up, and then Vegas itself will use some (this is IN ADDITION to what you’re asking it to reserve for dynamic playback).

In a 64 bit system you can set for 3072 (but no higher) and you can actually get that… but in a 32 bit system even with the max set at 3072…. you’ll never reach it.

[Dave Haynie]

Well, actually, you have to do two things. And not all versions of Windows respect those settings, even if you do.

You have to set the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag, on the program or DLL, assuming it’s not already set. Setting this is usually a linker option, left to the programmer, since, if your program isn’t written correctly, this setting may cause chaos (pointer comparisons using signed arithmetic, stuff like that, will crash and burn).

Next, you have to boot Windows with the /3GB switch set, which turns on the 4GB Tuning mode. If this is not set, the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag is ignored. Similarly, if 4GBT mode is enabled, it only makes a difference on binaries with the large address bit set. This applies to Windows XP Professional and various server OSs, it is not supported by “Home” versions. I’m sure there’s a hack… Read more here, including the cautions:

https://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/03/23/memory-management-demystifying-3gb.aspx
https://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/08/22/218527.aspx

Even /3GB on the OS and /LARGEADDRESSAWARE on the application won’t help if there’s no free memory. How could there not be? Too much I/O… like a 1GB graphics card. In fact, this would be a general problem for 4GBT mode.

On 64-bit systems, you get 2GB user mode virtual address space with /LARGEADDRESSAWARE clear, and 4GB with it set.

-Dave