Windows 10. 12GB installed 8GB availble.

AceScottie · Apr 21, 2016

OK simple question this time. My graphics card seems to be hogging 4GB of my RAM.how do i prevent that ?

System speck:
Gigabyte 990FX Gaming
Nvidia GTX 660 (2GB)
Windows 10 64-bit
3x4GB Corsair Vengence 1333

P.S 12GB was usable in windows 7

Hlsgsz · Apr 21, 2016

AceScottie :

How did you draw that conclusion?

AceScottie · Apr 21, 2016

System menu showed "12GB installed 8GB usable" checked BIOS and found all 3 slots registering correctly. Checked dxdiag to see graphics card has 6GB of memory availbel.

http://prntscr.com/av92rd = system

http://prntscr.com/av92v5 = dxdiag

TJ Hooker · Apr 21, 2016

I think dxdiag can be unreliable. I've never heard of a discrete graphics card reserving system RAM, but you can try using GPU-Z and looking at the listed video card memory. But I'm pretty sure the cause of your problem is something other than your graphics card.

AceScottie · Apr 21, 2016

http://prntscr.com/av94rf GPU-Z output. Shows 2048MB (which is what the card has, but not whats available to it) Also included IOrbit Proformance Monitor which shows 7.98GB RAM availble for system.
just in case it comes up, CPU-Z memory information http://prntscr.com/av999b

I know the graphics card is not the problem, windows 10 is the problem.
There a setting somewhere which windows 10 has set 4GB RAM to PCI devices.

Hlsgsz · Apr 21, 2016

AceScottie :

It's not your graphics card. "Max available memory" does not mean memory allocated to the card buit it's own memory + what it can access from the system(access, not take over).

HIt Win+r Type "msconfig" run go to boot > advanced options > make sure "maximum memory" is unchecked.

AceScottie · Apr 21, 2016

Already tried the msconfig option before posting here, its unchecked by default.

photonboy · Apr 21, 2016

1) Your GPU memory has NOTHING to do with this so forget that.

2) Your 8GB available is a problem however, and there are ways to fix that in software provided it's not a hardware issue.

3) Other: using thee sticks will prevent dual-channel working so is probably going to reduce performance in some situations. It's better to have 8GB at full bandwidth than 12GB at half bandwidth.

Hlsgsz · Apr 21, 2016

I've read somewhere that switching the sticks helped someone

)
Anyway, hmm, are you coming from another version of windows of is it a clean win 10 install?

photonboy · Apr 21, 2016

http://www.eightforums.com/drivers-hardware/57316-16-gb-ram-installed-but-only-8-gb-usable.html

Drop down to the one with pictures. make sure "maximum memory" is enabled.

msconfig->
boot->
advanced options

(I'm in Windows 10, and mine is BLANK for the CPU and memory though it works fine. Anyway, many people have fixed a similar issue as yours with the above though I still recommend staying with 8GB for dual-channel)

AceScottie · Apr 21, 2016

photonboy :

tried setting it to 12288 when the option is checked however the setting will not stick. (everything i reboot/ click advanced options again the setting reverts to blank)

And yes its a clean windows 10 install (3rd time lucky)

Switching sticks was one of my first ideas, Due to only having 3 sticks on 4 channels i ran into an issue like this before (on windows 7 and an older motherboard) I have tried sticks in slots 1-3 and 2-4

Also i understand about performance however right now its more about quantity than quality. I should be getting another 4GB stick soon as one failed on me.

Hlsgsz · Apr 21, 2016

photonboy :

AceScottie :

If switching doesn't work, i'd go into the bios and disable XMP.

AceScottie · Apr 21, 2016

I dont believe XMP is an option in my BIOS. When i went to OC my CPU i never saw it anywhere.

Hlsgsz · Apr 22, 2016

AceScottie :

Ah, you're on amd. It must be called somethign else then. teh idea is to run teh memory at a lower, standard, frequency.

AceScottie · Apr 22, 2016

Hlsgsz :

I dont think its the memory speed (i have tried OC RAM to 1600 and down to 1033 with no change to available memory (default 1333)

OhioLeda · Apr 22, 2016

Have you disabled the Onboard video in the BIOS?
Not sure if this board does this but, some will use system memory even with a a GPU installed.

AceScottie · Apr 22, 2016

OhioLeda :

yea checked that as well default device is PCI-e and no option to disable onboard outright.. (this BIOS sucks)
Fullily enough though Windows says 7.98Gb available with 12GB RAM.. now on another PC (also with windows 10) it says it also has 7.98Gb RAM available.... It only has 8GB installed.

Just found it interesting and maybe relevant that on 2 completely different machines it shows exactly the same amount of RAM available.

OhioLeda · Apr 22, 2016

AceScottie :

Maybe this is your problem??
Here are the upper RAM limits for the different editions of Windows 7:

Starter: 8GB
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Professional: 192GB
Enterprise: 192GB
Ultimate: 192GB

OhioLeda · Apr 22, 2016

Also, if using 32bit Aka: x86 Win 7

32-bit Windows has an address space of 4GB. Part of that is used by system BIOSes and graphics memory.
With a 256MB graphics card about 3.3-3.5GB of RAM can be addressed and used, assuming you have 4GB fitted.
If you fit a graphics card with 1GB of memory only about 2.6-2.8GB of the RAM would be addressable and usable.

TJ Hooker · Apr 22, 2016

The OP says he has win 10 64 bit in the first post.

OhioLeda · Apr 22, 2016

TJ Hooker :

Oops! And even as the bold subject and comment with PS: 12GB was usable in windows 7
Been reading lots of posts and got my mords wixed.

Clearly Win10 somewhere is the culprit..

OhioLeda · Apr 22, 2016

Is the OP sure he has x64 maybe?
Checking win10 ram limits..

Windows 10 Home 32 bit 4 GBs
Windows 10 Home 64 bit 128 GBs
Windows 10 Pro 32 bit 4 GBs
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 512 GBs
Windows 10 Enterprise/Education 32 bit 4 GBs
Windows 10 Enterprise/Education 64 bit 512 GBs

AceScottie · Apr 23, 2016

OhioLeda :

pretty sure its x64 (i even posted screenshots) and the 7.98GB of usable RAM should be a dead give-away.
Also exact same setup on Win 7 Ultimate x64 did have 12 Usable. No errors in BIOS with all 12GB being detected.

Also im currently doing a computer and networks degree, standard easy problems i can fix, only when things baffle me do i post on here.

Also i have Windwos 10 Pro

tsnor · Apr 23, 2016

MB max is 32gb.

Load any linux distro you want on a usb stick and boot from it. if it sees 8gb you have something broken in hw. if it sees 12gb then you have something broken in sw. i'm assuming it's software.

I'm sure that you checked mem in bios, and it showed 12gb.

Do you have a spare drive that you can wipe? Removing your current boot drive and doing a clean install of win10 on the scratch drive without any usb devices like network adapters will bring windows up without loading drivers that might be restricting or reserving memory. This will also correct any bad overrides you set for video memory. there are some video options that will reserve memory and make it unavailable to windows.

AceScottie · Apr 23, 2016

tsnor :

Tired your suggestion, however there seems to be a problem with the motherboard. When booting a Linux Distro the screen switches to bash and floods with USB errors.
Its something i have noticed while running windows as well. on boot everything works fine up until the end of BIOS then the mouse flickers and keyboard turns off until the operating system loads. this is not a problem with windows however prevents Linux form ever booting.
I have contacted Gigabyte about the problem and also about the RAM issue as im starting to believe its on their end as well however i doubt i will hear back from them for a while.

Until then thanks for everyone for trying to assist me with this issue.

Windows 10. 12GB installed 8GB availble.

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