# memory limitations?

## aditaa

ok, I just had a gen question about the kernel. I want to run 4 gb of mem on mobo, and 1 gb on vid card. I know windows xp would not support it, as it has a 4 gb limit. I was wondering if the amd64 ver. of gentoo had a limit, and if so how much?

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## Abraxas

You'll most likely be limited by the chipset before you are limited by Linux, as long as you have highmem enabled in the kernel.

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## aditaa

how do i enable that? im just starting in linux and havent done the install yet

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## x22

64bit (amd64) Linux has much higher limit than 4GB. No highmem exists for amd64, because it is not needed. 

On i386 (32bit) there are 3 kernel configuration options for maximum memory size: 1GB, 4GB and 64GB. 1GB is without highmem, 4 and 64 are with highmem.

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## PaulBredbury

 *aditaa wrote:*   

> I know windows xp would not support it

 

Hang on, video card memory is separate to system memory.

See thread for kernel config. My nvidia 8800GTS has 640mb.

Presumably such a whopper of a video card will be used for games - so I recommend installing with x86 rather than amd64, since some games need, or are tested more with, x86. See is 64-bit ready thread.

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