Do I need 4gb installed RAM, or 4gb usable for gaming?

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Christopher Belk

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May 2, 2013
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I have 4gb ram installed on 64 bit windows 7 ultimate, but only 1.99 gb usable, 1.40 available. All my other specs are in the recommended range of games like Battlefield 3, but RAM seems to be lowest. I just need to know if it would make a difference if I had more than 4gb usable and available.
 
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Christopher Belk

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May 2, 2013
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Well, I went ahead and bought 8gb of RAM. Now all I need is a new graphics card, and a SSD, and my gaming experience will no doubt boost by ten fold. Thanks for the help!
 
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pteradox

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Feb 3, 2013
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4GB installed is not enough for many games. For example, I noticed a significant drop in performance in Skyrim when half of my RAM slots went bad (4 of 8GB). 8GB is a solid number and should be enough for a while, and since RAM is one of the cheapest components upgrading shouldn't be a major hassle.
 
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Christopher Belk

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May 2, 2013
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Actually, I checked BIOS and it says 2gb installed memory. It's not a Windows problem because I had Windows XP before and it said the same thing about my RAM.. Either my RAM is faulty or BIOS is messed up.. I don't know what to do about BIOS, and I see no feature for memory mapping or anything like that. I also don't have a user manual for this motherboard so idk what to do.
 
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Christopher Belk

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May 2, 2013
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UPDATE: I've replaced the RAM to every single socket, and to no avail. It just says 2gb in the BIOS. I am using 64 bit windows by the way. My Mobo is a a75ma-g55 msi motherboard, and I have tried looking for memory remapping in BIOS, but I cannot find a single thing about it. I downloaded a manual for the mobo on the MSI website, but nothing about remapping at all. :(
 
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pteradox

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Are you using 2 sticks of RAM or just 1x4GB? If it's 2, then put one single stick of RAM into the board and read the memory amount in the BIOS. Do this again in another slot, until you've put that stick in all four slots. Then repeat with the other stick of RAM. If any of the slots are bad, or a stick of RAM is bad, this should tell you. If it's 2x2GB and you can only read 2GB it really does sound like a bad stick of RAM.

If it's 1x4GB, you said you've already used it in all four slots so it sounds like bad RAM to me, or a BIOS/motherboard issue.

Try checking the memory with Memtest86+ or Windows' memory checker (which I believe is included with their repair disk which you can burn from Windows 7).
 
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Christopher Belk

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May 2, 2013
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Memtest showed no errors. I have no idea what could be wrong with the BIOS. I think it's up to date too. I don't have money for a new mobo :(
 
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Christopher Belk

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I've tested every slot, memtested, checked msconfig, and nothing changes. I've also tried new RAM and I get the same type of limit. With 8gb installed RAM, I get about 2.99 total in system information. I've put all my RAM in the sockets, including the old sticks. Now don't worry, I know you shouldn't mix and match, but these are all the same clock speeds and timings. With all 4 stick of RAM, I get 12gb installed, 7.99 total, and 6.14 available. Virtual memory is 16 GB total, and 14 GB available. Page file space is 7.99 GB. This is everything I read in system information.
 
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