What's the maximum amount of RAM your computer can use?

[Simetrical]

Actually this is not technically true. That gig (actually half a gig) is used by the bios for System ROM, APIC(s), Integrated PCI devices, PCI Cards, Graphic Card, PCI Express Cards (if applicable.) The BIOS then releases the rest of the RAM and Windows reads whats left, typically 3.5 gigs. So, as you can see, it is completely usable, and available for that one purpose. Not wasted at all.

You're confusing RAM and physical address space. RAM is a physical piece of electronics sitting in your computer, address space is the collection of numbers used to refer to pieces of RAM and other things. BIOS uses the top part of your address space to refer to things other than RAM, which you list. This means that those addresses are not available to refer to RAM, so the system can't use that part of your RAM. It's unused.

To see that this is correct, just consider what happens when you use the exact same hardware with a 64-bit OS or with PAE. You get all 4 GB of your RAM. If you were right, this would mean that that RAM couldn't be used for your ROM and video cards and whatever, so why don't those stop working? Because they were only using address space in the first place, not RAM.

Put another way: if you get 3.5 GB of memory displayed as usable to a 32-bit OS, and on the exact same hardware you get 4 GB of memory displayed as usable to a 64-bit OS, and everything else works just as well on the latter OS – then that 0.5 GB of RAM is wasted on the 32-bit OS, however you slice it.

[Omar Nelson B.]

Is it possible to have only one of the RAM slots, not the stick its self, that is corrupt or broken? Reason I ask is that I have 2Gx2 and 2 512mb. I put all four in and get a blue screen o doom!! randomly esp if I play a game like BFBC2 but if I shut down and take the last of the 4 sticks out(one of the 512) everything works fine. I'm running 64bit Vista. Is this just me being silly and imagining a solution or is this problem possible?

Let me know I need to reword or explain differently. This was just kind of a "train of thought" post.

[Karamazovmm]

have you tried to cicle the memories to ascertain that its not a bad stick?

if yes, then the connecter might broken or just dusty

[Omar Nelson B.]

Yes all of the sticks work individually (individual memory test) and the comp also runs fine with just the first two slots taken up. How can I tell if the connecter is broken?

[Karamazovmm]

you just did

[Omar Nelson B.]

Bam! Thanks.

[Karamazovmm]

some older programs dont run well on vista

[Strelok]

Most of them are fine in my experience. Mainly because a lot of them make a minor update to support Vista.

Some of them will still work due to the immense amount of compatibly resources (~4GB in size in C:\Windows\WinSXS) but ultimately some won't.

[The High King of Ireland]

Windows 7:
Starter - 2GB
ANY 32-bit - 3/4GB
Home premium 64-bit - 16GB
Professional/Ultimate 64-bit - 192GB (I've maxed this out of course!)

[The Vitiated Mind]

Is this normal ?

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.50 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.49 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.03 GB

To me it looks like my pc is using 1.50 GB from 4.00 GB RAM ?

[irishron]

It's actually using 2.5gb of memory. What are you running? I only do this when serious gaming.

[The Vitiated Mind]

It's actually using 2.5gb of memory. What are you running? I only do this when serious gaming.

Is this addressed to me ?

[irishron]

Yes.

[The Vitiated Mind]

Ok .

It's actually using 2.5gb of memory

Can you please explain to me how do you know that ?

What are you running?

If You mean OS , Windows 7 64 bit

I only do this when serious gaming.

This got me confused in the first place , doing what ?

[irishron]

Just in round figures, you have 4gb of ram.
Available free physical meory is 1.5gb.

4gb minus 1.5gb tells me your computer is using 2.5gb and if you're not gaming, homework, or just at what is considered idlea nd surfing can be considered idle by me as no browser uses much ram, you have something serious going on in the background. Antivirus scan?

No, I meant other programs. Shogun2, BF3, Metro 2033 come to mind.

I have Win 7 64bit and 4gb of ram. With Task Manager open, I've watched mine go over 2gb ram and a couple of times, kingdoms.exe pushing past the 1gb point by itself.

[The Vitiated Mind]

as no browser uses much ram

I don't know i always thought Firefox eats up a lot of my Processes .

4gb minus 1.5gb tells me your computer is using 2.5gb and if you're not gaming, homework, or just at what is considered idlea nd surfing can be considered idle by me as no browser uses much ram, you have something serious going on in the background. Antivirus scan?

I had RTW (Rome Total Realism Mod ) ,Firefox , Winamp , Last Fm Scrobbler and some smaller programs .

This is without them .

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.65 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.49 GB
Available Virtual Memory 6.31 GB
Page File Space 3.75 GB

[irishron]

You just gained yourself 1.15gb of ram.

[The Vitiated Mind]

But i still feel like 1 gb is missing .

[irishron]

No, you're not. The most you're missing is a quarter of a gigabyte, about 250mb. That's all. Odds are it's two thins, the way Windows allocates ram and BIOS overhead.

[florin87]

sorry if i am off-topic but i have a question regarding RAM and i don't think it warrants its own thread.



i have a MSI 7387 main-board which can handle a maximum of 2 gb of ddram 2 (1gb in each slot) running at 333/400/533/667 Mhz. i already have 1 gb ddr 2 runnin at 333,4 Mhz and i want to add another Gb.

the problem is that every store i've been to only has ddr 2 memory running at 800 something Mhz. my question is what happens if i install it on my motherboard. will it work even though it runs at higher frequency?
one of the salesmen said that my computer will automatically adjust the memory's frequency to match the limits of my mother-board. is that true?


i'm kind of a noob at this kinds of things and i don't want to spend money on something that does not work. i will rep anyone who can help me.