Windows is the most popular and widely used operating system in the world. Starting from personal computers to supercomputer and beyond, windows is an omnipresent entity in almost every other computer.
Windows was first introduced on November 20, 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Within a very short span of time Windows was able to dominate the world’s personal computer market with more than 90% market share. To this day it still continues the dominate the personal computer market, although there have been competitors like Mac OS and Linux.
Well, coming to the point of this post, how many of you are aware of the maximum memory supported by the windows version your are using?
Well, this can be a tricky question, as given the maximum memory slots provided in your PC’s motherboard, you might actually be able to install not more that 32 to 64 Gigabytes of RAM. However this is not the maximum amount of RAM that can be supported by windows.
For example: The most latest version of Windows, i.e. Windows 8, can actually support up to a maximum memory of 512GB RAM on the 64bit version of the OS. The 32 bit version on the other hand can only support up to 4GB of RAM.
For those who want to know the maximum amount of RAM that can be supported by their windows operating system, the information below will astonish you.
How much RAM does Windows XP support?
The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows XP.
| Version | Limit on X86 | Limit on X64 | Limit on IA64 |
| Windows XP | 4 GB | 128 GB | 128 GB (not supported) |
| Windows XP Starter Edition | 512 MB | N/A | N/A |
How much RAM does Windows Vista support?
The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows Vista.
| Version | Limit on X86 | Limit on X64 |
| Windows Vista Ultimate | 4 GB | 128 GB |
| Windows Vista Enterprise | 4 GB | 128 GB |
| Windows Vista Business | 4 GB | 128 GB |
| Windows Vista Home Premium | 4 GB | 16 GB |
| Windows Vista Home Basic | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Windows Vista Starter | 1 GB |
How much RAM does Windows 7 support?
The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows 7.
| Version | Limit on X86 | Limit on X64 |
| Windows 7 Ultimate | 4 GB | 192 GB |
| Windows 7 Enterprise | 4 GB | 192 GB |
| Windows 7 Professional | 4 GB | 192 GB |
| Windows 7 Home Premium | 4 GB | 16 GB |
| Windows 7 Home Basic | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Windows 7 Starter | 2 GB | N/A |
How much RAM does Windows 8 support?
The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows 8.
| Version | Limit on X86 | Limit on X64 |
| Windows 8 Enterprise | 4 GB | 512 GB |
| Windows 8 Professional | 4 GB | 512 GB |
| Windows 8 | 4 GB | 128 GB |
How much RAM does Windows Server 2012 support?
The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows Server 2012. Windows Server 2012 is available only in X64 editions.
| Version | Limit on X64 |
| Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 4 TB |
| Windows Server 2012 Standard | 4 TB |
| Windows Server 2012 Essentials | 64 GB |
| Windows Server 2012 Foundation | 32 GB |
| Windows Storage Server 2012 Workgroup | 32 GB |
| Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard | 4 TB |
| Hyper-V Server 2012 | 4 TB |
Source: Microsoft
