4 gb of system ram shows up as 2.5 gb of ram!

[fkloster]

Mobo: evga 680i
Ram: 4 x 1GB sticks of Corsair DDR2
Video: 2 x evga 8800 gtx (1.5 gb video memory total)
OS: WinXP Pro 32 bit version

All stock and running great.
Bios shows 4 gb of memory
OS shows 2.5 gb of memory

any tricks I'm missing here?

Thanks in advance!

 

[HannibalX]

Windows XP Pro 32 bit - that is your problem. XP Pro 32 won't see more than 2.5. Server 2003 32 bit won't see more than 3.6.

You need the 64bit version.

 

[InlineFive]

1. Yes, you are running into 32-bit addressing limitations. You can try the /3GB switch in the boot.ini file but remember that each process is still limited to 1GB.
2. Why are you giving your video cards 1.5GB of video memory? I think that best performance is somewhere in the 256-512MB range.

 

[Boyo]

Well for starters, Win Xp can only utilize 3GB of RAm at the most. So right there, your 4GB of RAM won't be used. As to why it is showing up as 2.5, did you try switching the sticks in different dimm slots?

Sweet rig BTW.....

 

[fkloster]

Originally posted by: InlineFive
1. Yes, you are running into 32-bit addressing limitations. You can try the /3GB switch in the boot.ini file but remember that each process is still limited to 1GB.
2. Why are you giving your video cards 1.5GB of video memory? I think that best performance is somewhere in the 256-512MB range.

Video cards have 768 on board memory a piece... I have two of them... I was wondering if windows subtracts that 1.5 gb and somehow leaves me w/just 2.5 gb of my system memory

 

[fkloster]

Will Vista 32 bit be any different?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: fkloster
Will Vista 32 bit be any different?

No it won't. If you boot with a memtest86 boot CD how much memory is shown? It should be 4096MB.

Generally, XP32 systems will recognize 3GB max.

 

[fkloster]

Thanks guys.... this is kind of a tough spot.... upgrade to WinXP 64 bit and loose most driver support for games and such or stick w/32 bit windows and no use of a lot of my memory... what would you guys do?

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: fkloster
Thanks guys.... this is kind of a tough spot.... upgrade to WinXP 64 bit and loose most driver support for games and such or stick w/32 bit windows and no use of a lot of my memory... what would you guys do?

Why did you buy 4GB of ram in the first place?

 

[fkloster]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: fkloster
Thanks guys.... this is kind of a tough spot.... upgrade to WinXP 64 bit and loose most driver support for games and such or stick w/32 bit windows and no use of a lot of my memory... what would you guys do?

Why did you buy 4GB of ram in the first place?

I would'nt have... but i got a deal I could not refuse on the other two sticks..... couldn't help my self..... now that being said.... what should I do?

 

[Seekermeister]

You could use those extra sticks in IRAM.

 

[Rubycon]

Unlike AMD systems (2T vs. 1T) there is no speed penalty for leaving that ram in there. Use XP32 for now with full compatibility and you could possibly dual boot to XP64 for your memory hungry applications.

That's what I've settled with. PIA? Yep but still far better than dual booting Win98/NT 4.0. At least the lesser capable OS can recognize more than one CPU core. (Win98 never saw the second Pentium Pro, then Xeon CPU in the day. Then the VCACHE line had to be edited once ram went over 512MB.) Those were the days. GUTB was on these forums back then and I was a lurker. :Q

 

[Seekermeister]

MS Dawn,

I know that 1T is desirable, but when I have chosen that in the bios, it went back to 2T on it's own. Is that normal for an AMD system?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Seekermeister
MS Dawn,

I know that 1T is desirable, but when I have chosen that in the bios, it went back to 2T on it's own. Is that normal for an AMD system?

I guess that really depends on your BIOS settings and whether you've chosen to select manual ram timings or auto (using SPD settings).

My FX60 at 3.0GHz gains about 700MB/S in Sandra using 1T. Of course that means 2GB instead of 4GB ram. That system exclusively runs a 64bit OS and needs the memory capacity over the speed so the *slight* speed penalty of 2T is not an issue at all.

 

[Seekermeister]

I'll have to check the bios settings, I can't remember if it is set to manual or auto...probably auto, because I never overclock anything. Since I only have 2x512MBs of ram, I guess 1T should work the same in my x64, x32 and Linux multiboot equally well???

 

[Rubycon]

Yes it should.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
I guess that really depends on your BIOS settings and whether you've chosen to select manual ram timings or auto (using SPD settings).

Never seen a newer BIOS that'll let you select memory timings without specifying first that you want manual timings instead of relying on the memory module's SPD. You probably forgot to save the settings or you may have a program in Windows that set it back (such as one of those tuning devices that you think does nothing but changes your settings on you ). Also, I don't think Cool-n-Quiet affects memory timings at all.. I believe it only steps the CPU multiplier down, so I doubt that'd do anything (if you even have the CnQ driver installed).

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Never seen a newer BIOS that'll let you select memory timings without specifying first that you want manual timings instead of relying on the memory module's SPD. You probably forgot to save the settings or you may have a program in Windows that set it back (such as one of those tuning devices that you think does nothing but changes your settings on you ). Also, I don't think Cool-n-Quiet affects memory timings at all.. I believe it only steps the CPU multiplier down, so I doubt that'd do anything (if you even have the CnQ driver installed).

My AN32SLI Deluxe will allow 1T/2T/Auto without manually setting timings.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
My AN32SLI Deluxe will allow 1T/2T/Auto without manually setting timings.

I said memory timings, Command Rate is the MCU's timing .