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If I use vmware workstation v6.5 on a vista 32-bit host with 8GB memory, will a 64-bit guest OS (win7) be able to use more than 4GB physical memory (depending on vmware memory settings)?
P a u l
Posted 2009-07-30T05:54:44.347
Reputation: 1 245
How does vmware guest OS memory usage work?
Answers
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Someone already tried that (besides the one that you have found), and it appears that it is not possible.
If you will install 64-bit OS as host, then it will work. But VMWare can't use more RAM than the amount host OS can provide.
Kirill Strizhak
Posted 2009-07-30T05:54:44.347
Reputation: 1 119
+1 All virtual machine software is limited by the amount of memory that can be physcally addressed. – BinaryMisfit – 2009-07-30T07:00:20.907
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No, because it is the host OS which allocates memory for the guest (the 32-bit virtualization program). No 32-bit program will be able to access over 4GB of memory with a 32-bit address space.
John T
Posted 2009-07-30T05:54:44.347
Reputation: 149 037
+1 and you can create a 64-bit guest with more than 4GB, but anything over that will be paging and not actually addressing any physical RAM beyond 4GB. – hyperslug – 2009-07-30T06:51:39.987
This thread has 2 completely contradictory answers on this:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1265695%3Bjsessionid=C9BD948EA24781483F8A33096939E168#1265695
Probably that person, who gave contradictory answer, thought that he has 64-bit OS as a host. Or just took a wild guess, without trying it himself :] – Kirill Strizhak – 2009-07-30T06:18:20.990
refer also: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/219571
– hyperslug – 2009-07-30T09:04:19.407