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My next build will include 16GB of RAM and a decent video card with at least 1GB of video memory (e.g. a Radeon HD 7750 or 7770). I have heard that Windows 7 Home Premium may not handle this well but Windows 7 Professional handles this much RAM with ease. Is this true or just a rumor?

Thanks in advance.

Link

Edit: fixed link

Let's see if I can post that link better...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

In short, here are the limits for each version of 64-bit Windows 7, according to that page:
Home Basic - 8gb
Home Premium - 16gb
Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate - 192gb

Hope that helps.

MJZ82 wrote:

Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate - 192gb

It would appear that they've taken the "640K ought to be enough for anyone" lesson to heart...

16GB seems a little low considering Win 7s potential lifetime, even for the home version.

SuperSpy wrote:

16GB seems a little low considering Win 7s potential lifetime, even for the home version.

Until fairly recently most consumer motherboards couldn't address more than that. Since most home users don't move Windows licenses between systems (they just buy new PCs with Windows pre-installed), I don't really see it affecting very many people. If they buy a new PC with more than 16GB of RAM, they'll get a version of Windows that supports it.

just brew it! wrote:

SuperSpy wrote:

16GB seems a little low considering Win 7s potential lifetime, even for the home version.

Until fairly recently most consumer motherboards couldn't address more than that. Since most home users don't move Windows licenses between systems (they just buy new PCs with Windows pre-installed), I don't really see it affecting very many people. If they buy a new PC with more than 16GB of RAM, they'll get a version of Windows that supports it.

That's putting a lot of faith in OEMs

These will be the same OEM's that shipped 32-bit Windows 7 on 4GB machines?

Since the restriction is on physical RAM, and given the point in the boot process when I believe the check happens, I don't think the OP has anything to worry about: some RAM will get hoisted out of the way of the DMA devices (most notably the video card) so the memory map will extend out past 16GB, but that RAM will still be available and used by Windows Home since it still totals no more than 16GB. I don't actually have a system handy to verify that (I have a 16GB machine but it's running Pro) but if anybody happens to have this configuration already (16GB, W7HP, and a discrete video card) they can use a variety of utilities (eg SysInternals' RamMap) to check.

Chrispy_ wrote:

These will be the same OEM's that shipped 32-bit Windows 7 on 4GB machines?

Hey, they got around to it eventually. Actually, that wasn't a precisely analogous situation, since switching to 64bit Windows had a huge train of implications for the OEMs in terms of supported hardware, drivers, and so on. If Windows 8 Home raises the RAM limit, the OEMs don't have to do anything to support it (assuming they've moved on to motherboards that support more than 16GB and actually offer configurations with that much RAM). In the meantime, they can always steer people to 7 Pro.

Chrispy_ wrote:

These will be the same OEM's that shipped 32-bit Windows 7 on 4GB machines?

Try getting a new 32-bit Win7 machine with 8GB on board. My other work lappy will be 64-bit Win7 with 4GB, so I'm pretty sure that some surgery will be in order once I have both in hand.

Sounds like I should get Windows 7 Pro x64 rather than Home Premium x64. Thanks.

riviera74 wrote:

Sounds like I should get Windows 7 Pro x64 rather than Home Premium x64. Thanks.

The more knowledgeable gerbils could correct me if this is incorrect, but based on what I've read, the 16 GB limit in Home Premium (64-bit) applies only to the physical RAM and not video memory. So, if you do not intend to upgrade your total RAM capacity beyond 16 GB, Home Premium should work just fine.

In retrospect as a OEM Home Premium (64-bit) owner, I should of come up with the exxtra cash and went with the PRO version. I did my research and heard that the only thing different was the networking. Come to find out there are other internal things (features) that are also different. Should of known since the OEM is cheaper for some reason. It's all about Licensing of Features, which equal $$$$. My vote is for the Pro version. Worth the extra bucks. Go for it!

Jaker wrote:

I did my research and heard that the only thing different was the networking. Come to find out there are other internal things (features) that are also different.

Next time, use TR's handy table instead of relying on hearsay.

Jaker wrote:

Should of known since the OEM is cheaper for some reason. It's all about Licensing of Features, which equal $$$$.

You mean Home Premium vs Professional vs Ultimate? OEM vs retail is not about those kind of feature differences.

Flying Fox wrote:

OEM vs retail is not about those kind of feature differences.

Yeah. Home Premium and Pro (for example) are both available in both OEM and retail forms. Home Premium OEM has exactly the same features as Home Premium retail; the OEM version is cheaper because it's not (legally) transferable -- it's supposed to stay with the hardware it was first installed on, and can't (legally) be uninstalled and then reinstalled in another system. This gets into a gray area when you're talking about major system upgrades, as there's an acknowledged "Ship of Theseus" problem when you start replacing most of the key pieces of the system (particularly the mobo). In practice you can usually get away with reactivating an OEM install after those kinds of upgrades, provided you're not doing the kinds of frequent swaps that might raise suspicions you're just a screwdriver shop pumping out systems with a single copy of Windows, but you're on much firmer ground with a retail copy.

UberGerbil and Flying Fox, Thank you for clearing up my thoughts of what i should of said. That's a complement in a good way. Now we know why you team leaders. And again Go PRO