CS4 32bit on a 64bit Win7 install - Ram?

Just built a new rig, 12gb ram, Win7 (Which I have to say is suprisingly good to use after being an aredent XP fan for 10 years).

I have both the 32 and 64 bit install of CS4 but some of the plugins will only work in 32bit.

My main reason of going to 64bit was so I could use more ram in photoshop.

Will the 32bit version of CS4 utilise this extra ram or is it limited as it would be running in a 32bit OS?

Thanks,
Gel

The way I understand it is that only the 64 bit version can utilize the extra ram and benefits of a 64 bit OS, but I'm no expert. I'm running (32 bit) CS3 on Vista 64, and would like to upgrade to CS4 for just this reason, but I don't want to lose the use of my plugins either.

When you install the 32bit version on a 64 bit machine it actuall installs both.

It's annoying to have to close out an image and go back to 32bit in order to edit it further with a plugin that isn't working in 64bit.

These all relate to Windows 7, they may be different for previous versions:

A 32-bit process on a 32-bit operating system can use 2GB of memory.
A 32-bit process on a 64-bit operating system can use 2GB of memory.
A 32-bit process with the large address aware bit set on a 32-bit operating system with 4 gigabyte tuning enabled can use 3GB of memory.
A 32-bit process with the large address aware bit set on a 64-bit operating system can use 4GB of memory.
A 64-bit process on a 64-bit operating system can use 8TB of memory.

-J

Gel wrote in post #9918727
When you install the 32bit version on a 64 bit machine it actuall installs both.

It's annoying to have to close out an image and go back to 32bit in order to edit it further with a plugin that isn't working in 64bit.

I'm using CS3 on Windows 7 64bit and haven't noticed any odd behavior, but I don't use many plugins. My advice would be to go visit the creators of each of your plugins and find out if there are patches, updates or new versions. You could also Google each plugin with "64bit" added behind the plugin to see if there are people out there in your situation praising or complaining about said plugins.

Gel wrote in post #9918727
It's annoying to have to close out an image and go back to 32bit in order to edit it further with a plugin that isn't working in 64bit.

That is indeed true so you need to put pressure on the plugin vendor to write a 64bit version.

From what I have gathered from my win7-64 system, is that if you run Photoshop4-32bit, you get 3.2gb of memory addressable. The benefit to you is that the OS is taking zero of that space. So you are getting quite a bit more memory than if you were running the 32bit app in a 32bit OS.

This was gotten from loading the program and then loading the largest image and checking to see what was addressed from TaskManager.

Matt.

nice and handy thanks ...

juiceman72 wrote in post #9921727
These all relate to Windows 7, they may be different for previous versions:

A 32-bit process on a 32-bit operating system can use 2GB of memory.
A 32-bit process on a 64-bit operating system can use 2GB of memory.
A 32-bit process with the large address aware bit set on a 32-bit operating system with 4 gigabyte tuning enabled can use 3GB of memory.
A 32-bit process with the large address aware bit set on a 64-bit operating system can use 4GB of memory.
A 64-bit process on a 64-bit operating system can use 8TB of memory.

-J