136
Off Topic / Re: Why are old PC games limited to run on 2 GB of ram
« on: August 29, 2018, 08:29:42 AM »
It probably has to do with a combination of hardware and software limitations of the time.
32 Bit systems, by design, can't address more than 4GB of memory. Some much older 32 bit CPUs couldn't even address the full 4GB or would only allow so much to be allocated to a given program. Software designed for 32 bit systems will have roughly the same limitations as the hardware (plus overhead).
On top of that, some software had further limitations imposed due to an expectation of never needing or seeing that much memory on a home system.
These factors can combine to create software that can act strangely, fail to properly utilize resources, or even fail completely on modern systems.
32 Bit systems, by design, can't address more than 4GB of memory. Some much older 32 bit CPUs couldn't even address the full 4GB or would only allow so much to be allocated to a given program. Software designed for 32 bit systems will have roughly the same limitations as the hardware (plus overhead).
On top of that, some software had further limitations imposed due to an expectation of never needing or seeing that much memory on a home system.
These factors can combine to create software that can act strangely, fail to properly utilize resources, or even fail completely on modern systems.