4GB in system... Vista says 3.5GB...???

which version of vista are you using? Because if you're using 32bit instead of 64bit vista wont be able to see all 4 gigs
 
32 bit operating systems can only address 4GB of memoy: This includes any memory - video card, flash ROMs that are shadowed in memory, some BIOSs and, of course, system RAM.

The biggest pieces of that 4GB come are usually your system RAM and video RAM.

There are work-arounds... Server 2003, for example, supports phyiscal address extensions (PAE) that allows you to address 8GB of memory on a 32 bit OS at the expense of a small amount of CPU performance.

You will probably be fine with 3.5GB of usable system memory for now! Someday, if you upgrade to a 64 bit OS, you can use that last 512MB. In the meantime, you will probably never notice a difference.
 
calebb said:
32 bit operating systems can only address 4GB of memoy: This includes any memory - video card, flash ROMs that are shadowed in memory, some BIOSs and, of course, system RAM.

The biggest pieces of that 4GB come are usually your system RAM and video RAM.

There are work-arounds... Server 2003, for example, supports phyiscal address extensions (PAE) that allows you to address 8GB of memory on a 32 bit OS at the expense of a small amount of CPU performance.

You will probably be fine with 3.5GB of usable system memory for now! Someday, if you upgrade to a 64 bit OS, you can use that last 512MB. In the meantime, you will probably never notice a difference.
Click to expand...

Yeah... it is no big deal. I was just worried something might be wrong with the motherboard recognizing it, or something. Mobo sees 4GB. Vista sees 3.5. Thank God RAM is cheap enough these days ;)
 
Vista is such a memory hog, the extra .5 GB takes one look at it and runs away :eek:
 
I3roknI3ottle said:
u need a 64bit os.
Click to expand...

It should be mentioned that the OP not only needs a 64 bit OS but also a motherboard that supports more then 4 gigs of memory. A lot of motherboards that support 64 bit cpus only support 4 gigs of memory. I've seen addressing issues where even with a 64bit os the system still will only see 3.5 or 3.7 gigs.
 
If he has a PCI-E video card, the motherboard will reserve an amount of RAM equal to the RAM on the video card and that RAM simply isn't available to the system, for the most part. So if you've got a 512MB PCI-E card (lucky you) you'd be looking at roughly 3.5GB of available and system accessible RAM either way, 32 bit or 64 bit OS notwithstanding.

It's reserved RAM, mind you, not actually in use, but the hardware will still be kinda stingy with it. :) This only applies to PCI-E cards, not AGP.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
Vista is such a memory hog, the extra .5 GB takes one look at it and runs away :eek:
Click to expand...


before you run off with not knowing what Vista does with ram, you might try to read about it...

"SuperFetch keeps track of which applications you use most and loads this information in RAM so that programs load faster than they would if the hard disk had to be accessed every time."

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/03/29/windows-vista-superfetch-readyboost.aspx
 
I KNOW he was being satirical! Sometimes the keyboard really needs a "Duh" key, doesn't it?


I'd expect we'll see this question become even more prevalent than it is now, though. More and more people are installing extra RAM in their rigs and so more and more people will be encountering the 'problem' for the first time.
 
Zardoz said:
before you run off with not knowing what Vista does with ram, you might try to read about it...

"SuperFetch keeps track of which applications you use most and loads this information in RAM so that programs load faster than they would if the hard disk had to be accessed every time."

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/03/29/windows-vista-superfetch-readyboost.aspx
Click to expand...

Exactly, once one understands how Vista uses cache RAM they change there memory hog view point.
 
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