Need Help Regarding Open Rails

[Aditya maurya]

Hello Guys,
My P.C. Having 4 GB Of RAM With 32 Bit Of Operating System So I Want To Know Is Is Necessary To Check The Option Of Large Aware Binary In Open Rails Or I Will Leave It Unchecked.

[mikeebb]

Hello Guys,
My P.C. Having 4 GB Of RAM With 32 Bit Of Operating System So I Want To Know Is Is Necessary To Check The Option Of Large Aware Binary In Open Rails Or I Will Leave It Unchecked.

You only need to uncheck Large Address Aware if you're running 32-bit Windows (with its default 2GB RAM (technically, virtual address space) limit on user processes). Even then, the LAA binary should work; you just won't get the benefit of being able to use all 4 GB of RAM available to a 32-bit process (which OR is) in a 64-bit copy of Windows, and the LAA executable file may be slightly bigger cutting into the amount of that 2GB available for data. If your Windows is a 64-bit version (which nearly all recent copies outside of some tablets are), and you have at least 4GB of RAM installed, you should leave LAA checked.

Having more than 4GB of RAM is strongly recommended for systems running 64-bit Windows. These days, 8 is generally considered minimal, 16 adequate, 32 or more ample. However, being a 32-bit program, Open Rails cannot use more than 4GB. The rest just provides space for system and other processes to run more effectively (with less swapping to disk), and allows OR to use all 4GB that it's allowed in 64-bit Windows by pushing some hardware buffers outside of the 4GB virtual memory allocation for 32-bit processes. Even in 64-bit Windows, a computer with 4GB of installed RAM generally has only 3.5GB or so available for user processes (like Open Rails) because of the space needed for various buffers and other system uses.

Note: if the computer is 64-bit capable (nearly any CPU built by Intel or AMD in the last 20 years is, so the motherboard and BIOS control things), you can run 64-bit Windows in 4 GB of RAM. With a solid-state disk for the virtual memory swapfile, such a computer can run surprisingly well. And you need that 64-bit o/s to be able to use as much of the 4GB space for Open Rails as possible (with LAA checked). But more is better - 8GB is more comfortable. Old computers are, of course, hard to upgrade because parts like larger memory sticks are no longer available or very expensive, or for really old stuff might just not work (2GB hardware limits on RAM were common in the early 2000s).

Note2: are you sure you have a 32-bit version of Windows? Is that what the "About" or "System Information" display for Windows says? 32-bit versions of Windows are normally supplied only for computers with very limited (2GB) RAM, such as very cheap tablets. Running 32-bit Windows if 4GB RAM basically wastes 1/2 of the RAM since unless you do certain tweaks user processes are only allocated 2GB. With 4GB or more of RAM the computer should have come with 64-bit Windows.

[ftldave]

Old computers are, of course, hard to upgrade because parts like larger memory sticks are no longer available or very expensive ...

That's certainly not true here in the midwest. Our local university (my place of work) has baskets full of used DDR2 and DDR3 1GB, 2GB, 4GB RAM sticks for sale at the surplus shop. I believe a "preowned" 4GB DIMM costs a whole $5. Upgrading an older pc is not expensive or hard to do, at least not around here in Hoosier land.