5GB installed only 3.25GB usable

[predator2104]

Hi,
I just installed a 3rd 2GB DDR2 667mhz memory stick in addition to my already installed 3GB DDR2 sticks (all have the same speed)
But for some reason my windows 7 only uses 3.25gb.
The system ressources shows more than 1.7gb are being allocated to hardware, after a little more checking I foud them going to my Geforce GTX260. Which already has its own 896mb memory...

My Mother board is a Foxconn P9657AB-8EKRS2H (8GB DDR2 support) and it doesn't have onboard video card.
OS: Win 7 ultimate 32bits
GPU: EVGA Geforce 260 GTX
CPU: E2220

Can anyone assist me on this? Thank you

 

[RetiredChief]

Reason: You have 32 bit operating system. MAX memory is 4 gigs, and if 4 gigs is installed then windows will remap your GPU memory (along with other Hardware memory requirements) into this 4 gig limitation. Just google "Windows 32 bit memory limitations" - also applies to XP and Vista 32 bit operating systems.

To use your 5 gigs, you must go with x64 bit.

Ex from google
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

With 4 gigs installed, recommend win7 64 bit, but 32 bit ok, just know you will only be able to use approx 3.25 gigs. All my computers w/4 gigs installed use the 32 bit versions of windows. have 64 bit on mashine with 16 gigs of ram installed.

 

[kilo_17]

^Yep, If you want to use it, you'll probably want to back up your files and install Windows 7 x64

 

[predator2104]

Best answer selected by predator2104.

 

[predator2104]

Thank you guys, looks like I'm going for the 64. And a loooong night of backups!
Thans again