Wheres My Dissapearing Ram Going?

[diki001]

hey guys, try this one. I've got 4Gb DDR2 memory installed on my system, now my bios reports 4096, CPU-z reports 4096 but windows reports 3.5 Gb and AOL reports 2048!!!! do i have a problem or will different programs report differing amounts? on my last system that had 1 Gb of RAM it used to report less until I adjusted the onboad graphics allocated amount on the bios (I had a nvida card so didnt require any onboard graphics) now this sytem has also got an Nvida 9600GTX with onboard RAM so i dont need any of my system memory BUT I cant adjust anything on the bios so is this the reason for windows' misreporting? please help?

[PeterStoba]

Remember there's 1024 bytes in a KB, and 1024KB in a MB, and 1024MB in a GB (etc).

 

2^32 is in bytes. Divide by 1024 and you've got 4,194,304KB. Divide by 1024 again and you've got 4096MB, not 4294MB. Now 4096 - 320 = 3776MB. Basically every other bit of hardware will reserve some memory address range up in the 3-4GB range, and some in the old 640K - 1MB(?) range for compatibility.

 

 

Realistically you'll probably end up with somewhere closer to 3000MB I expect. Mine reads 3.25GB.

 

You should also keep in mind that each process can allocate a maximum a 4GB virtual address space. If you have 256MB of RAM, you still get a 4GB virtual address space. If you have 8GB of RAM, you still get a 4GB virtual address space. 2GB of this is unique per process, and for the processes private data, and the other 2GB is system wide (shared between all processes) and is reserved for the OS. I personally think it's quite a silly idea to disable the page file on a 32bit OS

[Crazy_Nate]

Looks like you're running a 32-bit operating system. Want to be able to use / address all of your memory? Switch to a 64-bit OS.

[Great_Gig]

http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl/archive/2007...am-problem.aspx

[diki001]

ok great gig thanx for that, that helps a lot BUT does that mean that my system is still using that 4Gb just reporting 3.5Gb? if thats the case then I dont care about the reporting, my concern was that my ram wasnt being used.

[exeter_acres]

a 32 bit OS cannot use all the ram...

 

so yep... some of it is wasted on a 32 bit OS......

[Great_Gig]

ok great gig thanx for that, that helps a lot BUT does that mean that my system is still using that 4Gb just reporting 3.5Gb? if thats the case then I dont care about the reporting, my concern was that my ram wasnt being used.

 

I think you have a handle on it now and for a 32 bit O/S 2GB is about the norm running dual channel. If you check peoples signatures, you can see that's what most have.

 

Everything You Need to Know About DDR Dual Channel

 

GG

[Waco]

my concern was that my ram wasnt being used.

It's not being used.

[Syngensmyth]

It's not being used.

Sometimes it's better not knowing.

 

I look at it like this. A Windows 32 bit system has a memory assignment system that sets up how all memory is handled. So video gets assigned (how much is on your card), then other important stuff gets assigned, etc. The last thing is does is look at how much RAM you have. Oh crap there is only 3.5 (or whatever) GB left in the assignment system. So that's all Windows can use. A sad little story. They should have built in a bigger assignment range and they did on the 64 bit systems.

 

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

[Waco]

Sometimes it's better not knowing.

 

I look at it like this. A Windows 32 bit system has a memory assignment system that sets up how all memory is handled. So video gets assigned (how much is on your card), then other important stuff gets assigned, etc. The last thing is does is look at how much RAM you have. Oh crap there is only 3.5 (or whatever) GB left in the assignment system. So that's all Windows can use. A sad little story. They should have built in a bigger assignment range and they did on the 64 bit systems.

 

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

It's not just Windows, any 32 bit operating system with DMA is like this.