Why is my computer reading 4gb out of 6 gb of ram?

[irvinth]

Im using windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and when i got to see the systems specifications my computer only reads 4 gb out of 6gb of my ram, it says "2gb system reserved" what does that mean? does that always happen in computer ram? if thats so do i need to get at least a 8gb of ram because i plan to play crysis and other high end graphic games?

My specs are:
Intel core i7 980x 3.33 ghz
GIGABYTE GA X58A UD3R
CORSAIR HX 850W
ATI RADEON HD 5870
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 CASE
KINGSTON HYPER X 6GB (3* 2GB) RAM
SEAGATE BARRACUDA 1.5TB HDD

 

[fizzle22]

Have you opened up the Windows Task Manager > Performance to see how much is being utilized?

Mine reads as follows (roughly):
Physical Memory (MB)
Total: 8087
Cached: 6484
Available: 6426
Free: 0

Also, have you tried using different slots (I assume you have 4)?

Edit: You can also open up Resource Monitor to get a better idea of how the RAM is used. Even though I have 8192 MB installed, only 6417 MB is available and 6444 MB is cached.

I have never seen my RAM usage exceed 6 gigs and that was under some heavy geoprocessing loads with ArcMap 10.

 

[jaquith]

4 gb out of 6gb of my ram, it says "2gb system reserved" what does that mean?

KINGSTON HYPER X 6GB (3* 2GB) RAM

It means one of your three sticks has been determined by the BIOS to be 'bad' so the BIOS is Disabling one of the sticks to prevent errors.

I would re-seat all three sticks and test again and if that fails the simplest is to boot with (1) stick at a time to find the culprit and RMA the bad stick to Kingston.

CPU: | -- | 2GB | -- | -- | -- | -- |

Normal Resource Monitor looks like this (<50MB as Hardware Reserved):

 

[irvinth]

Best answer selected by irvinth.