I just received the second pair of corsair xms2 ddr2 6400 for a total of 4gb of ram installed , bios shows 4gb but as soon as i get to vista it say I have 2814 mb of ram, the same happens no ntune, cupz show the 4 gb..... I know vista would not recognize the 4 Gb but In mas last build I had 4gb of ddr and is showed that I had 3 gb like it should....Im wondering In that build I had a 320 8800gts card, now I have an Evga 8800 ultra with 768mb... will this have anything to do....?is there a way to improve this??


Cheers.


Miguel.

PD this are my specs.
Intel core 2 Quad 2,4 ghz g0
Evga Nforce 680iSLi
Evga GeForce 8800 ultra.
Corsair XMS2 4gb RAM...

32 bit OS's cant fully address 4 GB of ram. To take full advantage of 4 GB of ram you need to run a 64 bit OS.

Quote: Originally Posted by degu22 32 bit OS's cant fully address 4 GB of ram. To take full advantage of 4 GB of ram you need to run a 64 bit OS.

That's not true. A 32 bit OS can address 4GB, the issue isn't the OS, but the BIOS.

The BIOS reserves space for buffers and other stuff for expansion cards and other things starting at the 4GB mark and working it's way down. So any PC with 4GB of RAM in it will show 4GB in the BIOS, but the OS will have something less than that available. This usually ends up being between 3.2-3.8GB of RAM depending upon the hardware in the system.

Even a system with 8GB and a 64bit OS will see something less than 8gb for this reason.

And his post indicates that he expects this. His question is why does it only see 2.8GB when it should be seeing closer to 3.5GB. Unfortunately, I do not know the answer to that. To troubleshoot I would test the 2 new sticks of RAM. I would pull the original RAM and install the new to make sure it sees 2gb. If it does than put 1 of the originals in the 3rd slot to make sure it recognizes 3gb, then put the last one in the 4th slot and see what you get.

And if you get over 3GB, I would run Memtest on it overnight just to make sure all is good.


Good luck!

As I understand it the video memory is in the same address space as your main memory so the video card with more memory will make a difference, also the OS reserves some space (I think somewhere around half a gig). So once those are figured in then about 2.8 remaining sounds about right to me, though I know it sucks. I would say that the extra 2gb really will not do you anything in a 32 bit system, but that is your choice.

ummm... Its not a BIOS thing... From everything I have ever know its a Windows 32bit Memory Addressing issue.. My system is running 4GB of Ram on 64Bit and sees it all and uses it all... I have had 6GB in my system and it seen it all and used it all... 32bit apps are limited by the memory addressing scheme... and btw, use the search tool.. This has been discussed in enough threads that you will find the answers your looking for.. 32Bit windows can be made to see it and supposedly use it (I've seen no proof of this in person but there is a thread about this) but the best and most sure fire way to utilize 4GB or more would be upgrade to a 64bit OS.. it will see and use 4GB+....

EDIT
BTW, I am running Vista 64Bit with no problems...
ASUS P5N32-E SLi
E6600 2.4Ghz @ 3.2Ghz
4GB of Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 @ 1066
BFG nVidia 7950 GX2

I would really suggest you either go XP 64Bit or make the leap to Vista 64Bit... The driver support is out there now and its getting better in leaps and bounds...

64 bit computing....to be or not to be....pfft it's still not perfect. But it would be interesting to see someone try to max out a 64 bit memory limitation. 2 to the 64th power! oooh boy, you wouldn't need hard drives, well yeah volatile memory, but still. That would be 16 not gigabytes, not terabytes, not even petabytes, but exabytes...

And here's a link for those of you interested to learn about the Exabyte...

Quote: As of 2007, exabytes of data are almost never encountered in any practical context, except to refer to the address space of 64-bit architectures as 16.0 exabytes.[1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Snake2Snipe As I understand it the video memory is in the same address space as your main memory so the video card with more memory will make a difference, also the OS reserves some space (I think somewhere around half a gig). So once those are figured in then about 2.8 remaining sounds about right to me, though I know it sucks. I would say that the extra 2gb really will not do you anything in a 32 bit system, but that is your choice.

I also think thats the issue, I tried to find some solutions i the forums but to no avail so if any one has a link it will be much appreciated...

In not so keen on installing 64/os... I got a lot of issues in my XP64. plus Im gamer and I thinks most games have bug on 64..

What are you full system specs? Multiple graphics cards, etc...?

Intel core 2 Quad 2,4 ghz g0
Evga Nforce 680iSLi
Evga GeForce 8800 ultra (single).
Corsair XMS2 4gb RAM 800mb FSb...
PSU TT purepower600
Soundblaster Audigy.
Hdd WD caviar 250x2 500gb total.
Windos vista ultimate 32 (spanish).

Hope to get some help and thanks in advance.

Like I said... I run Vista 64Bit and so does Lokie... We're both gamers... BF2, BF2142, Supreme Commander, Supreme Commander : Forged Alliance, Crysis, Halflife, HL2, Counter Strike Source, F.E.A.R Combat, Bioshock, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Track Mania : Nations, Track Mania : United... Just to name a few... not one problem....

And actually this is not the first time you have asked about this... And I told you back then that 32bit Windows would not see your 4GB of memory
http://forums.pcapex.com/hardware_ad..._for_4_gb.html

Then there is this thread (came up on the first page of my search btw) which has those "tricks" that I still dont fully believe as a friend tried it on a Vista 32bit installl to no avail but maybe your lucky
http://forums.pcapex.com/general_os_...ll_my_ram.html

And then there is this article which was posted here by the news bot and has been mentioned in a lot of threads...
AnandTech: A Messy Transition: Practical Problems With 32bit Addressing In Windows

Windows 32bit has to use some of the 4GB address space in order to reference video memory and resources. Without that portion of the address space, it wouldn't be able to use those resources. So, it's not using that address space to reference part of the ram, wasting it. I wonder if sli 768MB gpus would waste 768MB or 1536MB of system memory. It would be most economic to use 2x1GB and 2x512MB ddr2 dimms.

Vista 64 home basic supports 8GB, home premium 16GB, business enterprise ultimate 128GB. XP64 supports 128GB. Windows Server 2003, Datacenter and Enterprise Edition SP2 support 2TB. You can 'tune' applications to allow them to access more memory. 4GT RAM Tuning (Windows)

To enable this feature, add the /3GB switch to the Boot.ini file. This enables applications to use the first 3-GB of the address space on the following systems:

• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows XP Professional
• Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition

Quote: Originally Posted by Seyeklopz Vista 64 home basic supports 8GB, home premium 16GB, business enterprise ultimate 128GB. XP64 supports 128GB. Windows Server 2003, Datacenter and Enterprise Edition SP2 support 2TB. You can 'tune' applications to allow them to access more memory. 4GT RAM Tuning (Windows) To enable this feature, add the /3GB switch to the Boot.ini file. This enables applications to use the first 3-GB of the address space on the following systems: Windows Vista Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Professional Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Windows 2000 Advanced Server Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition

Had a friend try that on his system running Vista 32bit and it did not work at all.. And he tried all the things that were posted by joose all to no avail... This is why I stick to my Vista 64Bit...

Thanks guys !