Proliant servers (win2003 enterprise) with >4 GIG DRAM (performance loss in PAE mode)

[Perry Minyard]

Customer advisory EL041214_CW01 revision 0
released January 2005 states

"Not All Physical Memory May Be Reported By The Operating System On Certain HP ProLiant Servers"

The new System ROM releases will require that PAE mode be enabled with exactly 4 GB of memory installed for certain 32-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems if the remapped memory above 4 GB is to be used. However, HP recommends that this memory not be used due to the performance loss that occurs when using PAE mode.

--
So tell me, do I not benefit by having more than 4GB ram? Are there any published benchmarks that show this performance loss? What situations (if any) would I receive a performance gain?

If /PAE mode does not provide a benefit, then what's the purpose?

It sure would be nice if HP would back up their claim of "performance loss" with some figures that explain this further.

[Edward Sliman]

Have you tried the 3 gig switch reg fix? Not sure if it will help your situation, but we have used it on many Memory intensive servers with 6-8 gig of memory. Search MS for this reg entry.

[Colin_29]

This has been pretty well thrashed to death in the past. Take a look at
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=773121

Hope this helps.

[Igor Karasik]

Perry,
I asked similar question
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=799139
and does not receive any answer.

Will be nice if HP peoples will clarify this issue.