Ram and 64 Bit Workstations

[rjason71]

I am reading that a 64 bit windows WorkStation can support up to 16 terrabytes of virtual memory. I am curious to know how much of that will SWorks be able to take advantage of. Does anyone know where I can find that info on the SWorks website?

 

[pdybeck]

Practically all of it, I beleive - at least more than you could practically configure in a windows pc at the moment. 8 GB of RAM seems popular for machines that run 64 bit Windows. You would have to be running some very, very large assemblies in SolidWorks to exhaust RAM and at that point your CPU might be more of a limitation in processing all of that info.

 

[Hacaro]

Hi there,

I hestitated for a long time before switching to x64.
I'm still using SW2005, so there is no 64bit version available, but using sp4 and up you can run it on x64.

I have 'only' 4 Gb of Ram, but in x64 SW can use ALL of it!
So the main advantage is a better memory management of Windows. I now can open my largest assemblies (>10000 parts) without any problems and even make drawings and section views without a problem! This was absolutely impossible on XP pro machines with 4 Gb (and yes, 3Gb switch turned on...). System would choke at 2.5 Gb memory in use.

PS: be aware that not all software will run properly on x64.
But office 2000 and solidworks 2005 run fine. Most of the problems I encountered with finding proper graphic drivers and printer drivers. But definintely worth the trouble !!!