title: Why can't I boot an AVD from Eclipse with 1024 MB of RAM?
body: <p>So, like a lot of people starting Android development with Eclipse, even with a fast machine, I notice that the emulator runs frustratingly slow. </p>
  
  <p>I search SO for any tips to make it run faster and I run across <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1554099/slow-android-emulator">this question</a>, whose top answer suggests a couple of things, including making the AVD have more RAM. They suggest 1024MB:</p>
  
  <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/feihi.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
  
  <p>Sounds good. But when I try to launch it, I get this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Failed to allocate memory: 8
  This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
  Please contact the application's support team for more information.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I set it to 512MB (up from the default 256MB) it launches fine. </p>
  
  <p>But why, on a Windows 7 x64 machine with 12GB of physical RAM can I not allocate 1024MB to an AVD? Is it an Eclipse limitation? Emulator limitation? Java limitation? I presume the person in that other question got it working but I've yet to figure out how and most of the responses I see elsewhere say "yeah dial it down to 512MB" which is not the answer I'm looking for. </p>