Out of 4gb ram i can only use 3.25 gb

[matewinslet]

Hello,i have dual core e5400 processor,and recently i instlled a new 2gb ddr3 1333 ram with the previously instlled 2gb ddr3 1333.but my pc says out of those 4 gb ram 3.25 gb is usable.why is that?whats the problem?what i need to do to use the full 4gb ram?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

You can only use 3.25 as the remainder is used by the operating system to function,
its normal, dont worry, and if your on a 32bit O/s it will only use 4Gb anyhow, for more ram you'll need a 64bit O/s
Moto

 

[matewinslet]

You can only use 3.25 as the remainder is used by the operating system to function,
its normal, dont worry, and if your on a 32bit O/s it will only use 4Gb anyhow, for more ram you'll need a 64bit O/s
Moto

nope u didnt understand,i know os needs some ram,but here in spite of having 4 gb ram my pc only can access 3.25 look at the attached picture

 

[jsc]

You need a 64 bit OS to be able to access 4 GB of memory. It is not a matter of the OS needing RAM. Because of something called "memory mapped i/o", the OS needs a pretty large chunk of the address space (not the same thing). If you have 2 GB of RAM, you never notice. With 4 GB, you do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_mapped_I/O

 

[matewinslet]

You need a 64 bit OS to be able to access 4 GB of memory. It is not a matter of the OS needing RAM. Because of something called "memory mapped i/o", the OS needs a pretty large chunk of the address space (not the same thing). If you have 2 GB of RAM, you never notice. With 4 GB, you do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_mapped_I/O

thanks.can i convert from 32 to 64 bit with any software for example?

 

[Max Collodi]

thanks.can i convert from 32 to 64 bit with any software for example?

If you have a full retail copy of the Windows 7 disk it should have both 32 and 64 bit versions, but you will have to re-install Windows. If you only have the OEM disk you will have to purchase the 64bit disk.

---Max

 

[Matari]

I am having this same issue and I did a little reading up on this before I decided to post.

First I am running Win 7 64bit just to address that right off the hop. I have 2 2gig sticks and a 6570 ati hd card and a WiFi card. I think the ram is being used for the on board video chipset as my system resource monitor is saying that I have 770 mb of Ram locked off for hardware. So still could be on board video am not overly experienced with hardware. More of a software person, anyway I do know my way around the BIOS to some degree so if someone could give me a heads up on what I should be looking for so that I can get this ram back I would be extremely happy.

Having that 770mb of ram back for my 3d applications rendering would make my life a slight bit easier.

 

[ky_ecsusa]

The folloiwing link is for your reference:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7