Where is the rest of my 1.5 GB RAM!!!

[SKJoy2001]

Installed physical RAM of 4 GB as 2GB x 2 at dual channel interleaved but my Windows XP Professional SP3 finds only a total of 2.5 GB of RAM installed!!!

Mainboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6
RAM: Transcend aXe RAM, 2GB x 2, 1066 MHz

All BIOS settings are at recommended or automatic. Any idea?

 

[reddragon0000]

Windows XP will only recognize 3gbs of memory. Only way to get operating system to recognize more is to get Vista. I've got the same problem, got me XP

 

[foolycooly]

Windows XP will only recognize 3gbs of memory. Only way to get operating system to recognize more is to get Vista. I've got the same problem, got me XP

well, this isn't entirely correct. all 32-bit operating systems will only recognize 3gb of ram...this can be either xp 32-bit or vista 32-bit. In order to recognize more than this you will have to get a 64-bit operating system. There is an XP 64-bit and a vista 64-bit (more common).

 

[SKJoy2001]

Hmm, so, 2GB x 1 + 1GB x 1 = 3GB is recommended for Windows XP Professional with SP3?

 

[reddragon0000]

Hmmmm not sure about that. Windows XP only recognizes 3gb, but your system BIOS will recognize the entire 4gb. So does this mean programs will recognize 4gb even though Windows does not.....not sure about that

 

[reddragon0000]

On a side note. I installed Windows Vista 32 bit on a system that had 8gb of memory. I went into system information to update my Vista Score, and I saw 8gb of memory recognized. Wonder if vista released a update to read more memory

 

[SKJoy2001]

Can anyone else confirm Windows VISTA can surely utilize RAM for 4GB or more? I guess, if Windows VISTA can see 4GB or more, Windows 7 will be be the deal

 

[foolycooly]

any 32 bit operating system can NOT read more than 4gb or ram...someone else can confirm this but I know it to be correct.

 

[SKJoy2001]

Ok, at this point, can someone tell me which one of the following will be faster for 2GB RAM @ 1066 MHz?

a. 1GB x 2

b. 2GB x 1

 

[smartel7070]

Thanks to Scotteq for this reply ......

In 32 bit Windows operating systems, the total addressable space available is 4GB. If you installed total 4GB memory, the system will detect less than 4GB of total memory because of address space allocation for other critical functions, such as:

- System BIOS (including motherboard, add-on cards, etc..)

- Motherboards resources

- Memory mapped I/O

- Configuration for AGP/PCI-Ex/PCI

- Other memory allocations for PCI devices

Different onboard devices and different add-on cards (devices) will result of different total memory size. e.g. more PCI cards installed will require more memory resources, resulting of less memory free for other uses.

This limitation applies to most chipsets & Windows XP/Vista 32-bit version operating systems.

If you install a Windows operating system, if more than 3GB memory is required for your system, then the below conditions should be met:

1. The memory controller which supports memory swap functionality is used. The latest chipsets like Intel 975X, 955X, Nvidia NF4 SLI Intel Edition, Nvidia NF4 SLI X16, AMD K8 and newer architectures can support the memory swap function.

2. Windows XP Pro X64 Ed. (64-bit), Windows Vista 64, or other OS which can address more than 4GB memory.

 

[SKJoy2001]

Thanks to RedDragon & Smartel.

Can you tell me if Intel X58 chipset with Intel Core i7 supports this memory swapping feature to utilize 4GB or more RAM (of course in association with an OS of 64 bit, perhaps 128 bit or more )?

 

[theAnimal]

any 32 bit operating system can NOT read more than 4gb or ram...someone else can confirm this but I know it to be correct.

Only 32bit XP and Vista are limited to 4GB.

For example, Windows Server 2003 SP1 Datacenter Edition can use 128GB.

 

[theAnimal]

Ok, at this point, can someone tell me which one of the following will be faster for 2GB RAM @ 1066 MHz?

a. 1GB x 2

b. 2GB x 1

Keep your 2x2. Buy a better video card with 512MB of RAM and you will gain 0.5GB of system RAM.

 

[FlorinR]

i bet that your video card has 1 GB of memory...

 

[Crashman]

Thanks to RedDragon & Smartel.

Can you tell me if Intel X58 chipset with Intel Core i7 supports this memory swapping feature to utilize 4GB or more RAM (of course in association with an OS of 64 bit, perhaps 128 bit or more )?

All modern chipsets support memory mapping techniques to allow larger-than-4GB capacities under 64-bit operating systems.

 

[tman1]

Just an FYI, Vista 32bit SP1 will recognize 4GB of ram. If you look back a couple issues of MaximumPC (the one where they listed 100 things that happened in 2008), they have a screenshot of 32bit Vista listing 4GB of ram installed.

 

[firemist]

Vista 32 bit SP1 cannot use 4 gig of memory. It displays that there is 4 gig of memory installed like the BIOS does and all of it is not available to the OS or applications. It has the above mentioned limitations of a 32 bit address space.

 

[tman1]

I am not disputing that claim, all I said was recognize.

 

[cjl]

That doesn't make it more useful though. It is simply to placate users who want to see their full 4GB.

 

[tman1]

Never said it would make it more useful. Think about how many times you've seen or heard this question though. Making all 4GB visible would certainly stop people from asking about it. In a way, it does become useful then.

 

[SKJoy2001]

theAnimal & FlorinR,

Yes I do have a PCI Express graphics card with 1 GB DDR II onboard VRAM, that is nVIDIA XFX 8600 GT.

 

[dougie_boy]

theAnimal & FlorinR,

Yes I do have a PCI Express graphics card with 1 GB DDR II onboard VRAM, that is nVIDIA XFX 8600 GT.

that is why you can only see 2gig in the XP main menu.

32bit XP can only address a total of 3gig period. no way around it. so because your video ram cannot be dissabled by windows it will disable the other 2 DDR2 sticks. so your PC is actually addressing a full 3 gig.

upgrade to a 64bit OS and let your system stretch it legs.

 

[theAnimal]

that is why you can only see 2gig in the XP main menu.

32bit XP can only address a total of 3gig period. no way around it. so because your video ram cannot be dissabled by windows it will disable the other 2 DDR2 sticks. so your PC is actually addressing a full 3 gig.

upgrade to a 64bit OS and let your system stretch it legs.

32bit XP can address a full 4GB of memory, but part of this is used by the video card memory as well as other devices that are mapped to memory.

I can see 3.25GB on my system, and the OP is 2.5 not 2.

 

[cjl]

theAnimal & FlorinR,

Yes I do have a PCI Express graphics card with 1 GB DDR II onboard VRAM, that is nVIDIA XFX 8600 GT.

There is really no point in a 1GB 8600GT. You'd have a much faster machine with something like a 9800GT or 4830 with 512 MB of RAM, and you'd see 512 MB more of your system RAM (bumping it up to 3GB). Alternatively, you could just drop the $100 for an OEM copy of Vista Home Premium x64.

 

[reddragon0000]

I love my 8800gt with 512 XD