3dmark06 Ram Question

[xxcoop42xx]

i just installed 4GB of OCZ SLI ram and windows vista home premium see's 4GB but 3dmark06 only reports 2.5GB. why is it only seeing 2.5GB when its 4GB?

its DDR2 Dual Channel ram and i have the ram in matching slots ( grey/grey or black/black) so it will run dual channel. thanks for any help.

 

[lucuis]

Let me guess, Vista 32bit? You need a 64bit operating system to recognize more then 3.5gb.

 

[V3NOM]

2.5 or 3.5?

what graphics card (s) do you have?

 

[xxcoop42xx]

Let me guess, Vista 32bit? You need a 64bit operating system to recognize more then 3.5gb.

no man, when i right click on computer it says 4GB RAM. i am on 32-bit and it says 4GB. so why isnt 3dmark06 seeing 4GB? or even 3.5GB? it only shows 2GB.

i also have SLI GTX 260-216

 

[Silverion77]

Well theres ur problem u have 4 Gigs, but 32 bit is limited by ur GPUs

Those Gpus are taking 1.75 gigs, so ur actually left with around 2.5 gb so 3D Mark is right

 

[xxcoop42xx]

so then whats the point of the cards having 896mb of memory on them if its just going to take the ram? is it because its SLI ram? before i installed this ram today i had 3gb of dell ram and 3dmark06 saw 3gb of ram, so why is it any different with this ram? im confused truly here. and thanks for your help so far but if you could explain whats going on here that would be even better/more helpful as i dont understand apparently.

 

[kingtz]

so then whats the point of the cards having 896mb of memory on them if its just going to take the ram? is it because its SLI ram? before i installed this ram today i had 3gb of dell ram and 3dmark06 saw 3gb of ram, so why is it any different with this ram? im confused truly here. and thanks for your help so far but if you could explain whats going on here that would be even better/more helpful as i dont understand apparently.

Nothing to do with your cards or your ram, the failing lies in your 32bit OS.

Just upgrade to 64bit Vista and windows will recognize your total ram amount.

 

[xxcoop42xx]

so in a game, the game uses the ram of the SLI GTX 260-216 (1.8GB) and then uses 200 or so MB of the 2.5GB that is used by windows?

so for example crysis, it requires 2GB ram. the gpu's have 1.8GB of ram so crysis uses that and then takes 200 or so MB from windows to make it 2GB ram? is that how it works? i still am a little confused on how games use ram. thanks for any help