Cubase 8 32bit and RAM (will it see 8GB?)

Well then I am not sure what you are asking, or just venting maybe? If you still want a solution, find the maybe 4 plugins that use the most ram (and you use a lot) Simply take that very heavy project and start unloading plugins with device manager open and see which one makes a big difference. Might be even only one. And then bridge this or these plugins with Jbridge. Will take maybe half an hour and you are fixed for good. Will take no hard disk space. Jbridge is small only few MB and bridged plugins are only a pointer and take 1kb.