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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows Vista > General Discussion > [Solved] Vista 64 Bit Only Shows ~3GB?

[Solved] Vista 64 Bit Only Shows ~3GB?

Forum Windows Vista : General Discussion [Solved] Vista 64 Bit Only Shows ~3GB?

Hello, I recently put together a new computer and have been having issues getting Vista 64 Bit Ultimate to show 4GB in the Task Manager.
Quick Specs: Asus Maximus Formula; 2x2GB G-skill PC8000; Q6600
I have a dual boot with 64-bit vista ultimate and 32-bit xp pro. I have enabled memory remap in the bios. Vista shows 4GB in system properties but not in task manager (see pics):

I have read about BDCEdit using forceenable but that seems to be only for 32-bit operating systems.
I have done a bit of searching on this still with no luck, if anyone has had the same problem I could use the help.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by The_Prophecy on 06-06-2010 at 11:06:07 PM

Heres my experience with this issue whether totally related to either ASUS M/Bs, or ASUS M/Bs with Nvidia chipsets I'm not sure about that, only the tests I've run relating to my experience is what I'm sharing here.

It seems in what I've discovered so far that the issue is directly related to the memory remapping BIOS feature, when memory remapping is disabled on my M/B in Vista64 I show 2.5G of memory available to Vista, the missing memory is reserved for any components that have onboard memory, in my case I'm running 2 8800GT in SLI each card sporting 512mb of onboard memory, so automatically 1,024mb of system memory is reserved to cover the use of those cards, don't ask me why? I don't know why the M/B reserves this memory for cards that have their own onboard memory, but it does!!!

If I drop to a single 8800GT the memory available to Vista is 3G.

So obviously as with I'd guess most of you, you want the full use of your memory you've paid for, even though you're actually getting it, but you don't realize it, so as for myself I enabled the memory remapping feature in the BIOS setup and Wallaah, Vista64 showed the full 4G available to it, so my thoughts were, wow my performance has to have increased because of this, so I ran benchmarks to test this new developement out, well?

I was disappointed to discover my benchmark performance had seriously!!! Declined???

I challenge you to do your own testing!

Vista64 with 4G available of system memory by enabling BIOS Memory Remapping Feature, 3Dmark06 score = 8,998
Vista64 with 2.5g available of system memory by disabling BIOS Memory Remapping Feature, 3Dmark06 score = 11,744

Thats a 2,746 score difference on the same machine, that seriously affects gaming, which is what 70% of my computer use is all about!

Disabling memory remapping definitely is a performance booster even though in my case Vista can only use the 2.5G.

The full 4g of memory is actually available, just some of it is reserved.

This is my discovery, on my computer, the whys and wherefores, I don't know nor do I care!

So for what its worth I hope this information helps someone! Ryan

vista reads 4, try dxdiag if that reads 4 than who cares about the task manager neways, plus from the looks of how it read 3.3 it might be stuck in xp pro. vista is full of junky 1 in a million little problems like that. my vista when it reads available memory it shrinks by the hour, the memory is still there just vista seems to think its taken up. vista is simply put junk.

Reply to trancemix

Vista caches frequently used data in RAM... this is why the amount of available RAM can seem to "shrink". If the memory is needed, Vista will free it up. More FUD.

------------------------------ Desktop: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Intel Q6600 CPU; E-VGA 780i SLI motherboard; E-VGA E-GeForce 8800GT; OCZ Vista 4GB dual-channel kit; Ultra X2 750W power supply; 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB in RAID 0. Laptop: Acer Aspire 8730-6314; Windo
Reply to Zoron

My physical Memory (MB) - Total = 4094 for me.

Really don't know why yours is less than that.

Reply to LoneEagle

i had this problem too...xp only sees 3.25 G while vista 32x only sees 3.25 or something, until you put on the service pack...

Reply to benna696

It's not a problem... it's a limit of 32-bit memory addressing. However, the OP is using 64-bit Vista... sooo...

Go with what trancemix said and run dxdiag.

Reply to runswindows95

Coops07 wrote :

I have a dual boot with 64-bit vista ultimate and 32-bit xp pro. I have enabled memory remap in the bios. Vista shows 4GB in system properties but not in task manager (see pics):

With BIOS memory remap disabled what does Vista show in Task Manager?

Reply to WR2

i have the exact same problem...

I installed 8gb on vista64 ultimate.. and in system properties it says 8gb

but in Taskmanager it only shows 3gb!

I am expecting its the fault of Asus motherboard ?

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to sider

Best answer

If I drop to a single 8800GT the memory available to Vista is 3G.

I was disappointed to discover my benchmark performance had seriously!!! Declined???

I challenge you to do your own testing!

Thats a 2,746 score difference on the same machine, that seriously affects gaming, which is what 70% of my computer use is all about!

Disabling memory remapping definitely is a performance booster even though in my case Vista can only use the 2.5G.

The full 4g of memory is actually available, just some of it is reserved.

This is my discovery, on my computer, the whys and wherefores, I don't know nor do I care!

So for what its worth I hope this information helps someone! Ryan

Message edited by 4Ryan6 on 10-20-2008 at 06:41:16 PM

------------------------------ Cooling Fan Roundup
Thermal Compound Roundup

Reply to 4Ryan6

sider wrote :

I installed 8gb on vista64 ultimate...and in system properties it says 8gb...but in Taskmanager it only shows 3gb! I am expecting its the fault of Asus motherboard ?

There is a bug in Vista that can cause this, a hotfix for which is available from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950233/en-us

You'll need to request the hotfix and submit a valid email address for the download link. It may also be a BIOS issue, check for an updated BIOS from ASUS.

Reply to tcsenter

On my Asus mobo A8n sli deluve, you have 2 options to remap memory in mobo Bios, hardware and software, you have to disable hardware and enable software remap over 4 gigs. It should all show then.

Reply to maximiza

Best answer selected by mousemonkey.

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Reply to Mousemonkey

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey

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Reply to Mousemonkey

If I drop to a single 8800GT the memory available to Vista is 3G.

I was disappointed to discover my benchmark performance had seriously!!! Declined???

I challenge you to do your own testing!

Thats a 2,746 score difference on the same machine, that seriously affects gaming, which is what 70% of my computer use is all about!

Disabling memory remapping definitely is a performance booster even though in my case Vista can only use the 2.5G.

The full 4g of memory is actually available, just some of it is reserved.

This is my discovery, on my computer, the whys and wherefores, I don't know nor do I care!

So for what its worth I hope this information helps someone! Ryan

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