NET Out Of Memory Exception - Used 1 3GB but have 16GB installed

Question

I am getting an Out Of Memory exception in my C  application when the memory usage for the application goes over about 1 3GB  I had this same problem on a 32-bit machine with 3GB of memory and it made sense back then  But now I upgraded the hardware to a 64-bit machine with 16GB memory using a high-end motherboard and high-end RAM  but the Out Of Memory exception still occurs after 1 3GB  I know that there are no single objects over 2GB and 1 3 is less than 2GB anyway  so the built-in MS 2GB limit on a single object is not likely to be the problem  It seems like there is a Windows kill-switch of some sort when an app reaches a certain memory usage threshold  Then there should be a way to configure this  Is it in the registry perhaps  Any help will be greatly appreciated

User · Accepted Answer

There is no difference until you compile to same target architecture  I suppose you are compiling for 32 bit architecture in both cases     It s worth mentioning that OutOfMemoryException can also be raised if you get 2GB of memory allocated by a single collection in CLR  say List lt T gt   on both architectures 32 and 64 bit   To be able to benefit from memory goodness on 64 bit architecture  you have to compile your code targeting  64 bit architecture  After that  naturally  your binary will run only on 64 bit  but will benefit from possibility having more space available in RAM

User · Answer

Is your application running as a 64 or 32bit process  You can check this in the task manager    It could be  it is running as 32bit  even though the entire system is running on 64bit   If 32bit  a third party library could be causing this  But first make sure your application is compiling for  Any CPU   as stated in the comments

User · Answer

If you have 32-bit Windows  this method is not working without following settings         Run prompt cmd exe  important   Run As Administrator    type bcdedit exe and run   Look at the  increaseuserva  params and there is no then write following statement   bcdedit  set increaseuserva 3072   and again step 2 and check params      We added this settings and this block started    if exist    DevEnvDir    tools vsvars32 bat       call    DevEnvDir    tools vsvars32 bat     editbin  largeaddressaware    TargetPath       More info - command increaseuserva  https   docs microsoft com en-us windows-hardware drivers devtest bcdedit--set

User · Answer

As already mentioned  compiling the app in x64 gives you far more available memory   But in the case one must build an app in x86  there is a way to raise the memory limit from 1 2GB to 4GB  which is the actual limit for 32 bit processes    In the VC bin folder of the Visual Studio installation directory  there must be an editbin exe file  So in my default installation I find it under  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 10 0 VC bin editbin exe   In order to make the program work  maybe you must execute vcvars32 bat in the same directory first  Then a  editbin  LARGEADDRESSAWARE  lt your compiled exe file gt   is enough to let your program use 4GB RAM   lt your compiled exe file gt  is the exe  which VS generated while compiling your project   If you want to automate this behavior every time you compile your project  use the following Post-Build event for the executed project   if exist    DevEnvDir    tools vsvars32 bat       call    DevEnvDir    tools vsvars32 bat     editbin  largeaddressaware    TargetPath       Sidenote  The same can be done with the devenv exe to let Visual Studio also use 4GB RAM instead of 1 2GB  but first backup the old devenv exe

User · Answer

Its worth mentioning that the default for an  Any CPU  compile now checks the  Prefer 32bit  check box   Being set to AnyCPU  on a 64bit OS with 16gb of RAM can still hit an out of memory exception at 2gb if this is checked

User · Answer

It looks like you have a 64bit arch  fine -- but a 32bit version of the  NET runtime and or a 32bit version of Windows   And as such  the address space available to your process is still the same  it has not changed from your previous setup   Upgrade to both a 64bit OS and a 64bit  NET version

[c#] .NET Out Of Memory Exception - Used 1.3GB but have 16GB installed

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