memory query

# 1 24-09-2007 , 01:19 AM

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Hello folks,

I've just put my mew PC together and upon checking the system info it says thyat I only have 3.25Gig of Ram. Concerned by this I ran CPU-z and it says that I have 4Gig (highlighted in red), has anyone got any ideas which I should believe and why they give different values.

Cheers for your thoughts,

Mat.

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# 2 24-09-2007 , 01:43 AM

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windows cant use 4 gig of ram, i think that only vista buisness which is 64-bit can recognize 3.5Gb.

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# 3 24-09-2007 , 03:48 AM

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32 bit Operating Systems can only use 4096MB of RAM, and this includes RAM on your video card. You will have to look into getting a 64 bit Operating System to utilize all the RAM in your machine.

There is a 64 Bit XP, and I believe all versions of Vista come in 64 Bit form as well.

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# 4 24-09-2007 , 07:59 AM

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Hmmm.... no i have Q6600 quad to with 4 gigs of ram on a 64 bit i dont have a problem...

but i have vista

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# 5 24-09-2007 , 08:22 AM

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Originally posted by starjsjswars
Hmmm.... no i have Q6600 quad to with 4 gigs of ram on a 64 bit i dont have a problem...

but i have vista

Originally Posted by

That's why you don't have an issue, 64 bit OS can use up to 8GB of RAM, while 32 bit can only use up to 4GB.

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# 6 24-09-2007 , 09:39 AM

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also note that 32 bit operating systems can only have up to 1.5 gig per process. so if maya uses over 1.5gig, it'll shut down with a memory error.

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# 7 24-09-2007 , 10:31 AM

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Great explanations guys, cheers.

I knew that a 32Bit OS could deal with 4Gig but had no idea that this included the graphics card RAM, also that only 1.5Gig per process is permitted is news to me too.

I guess that I'll have to just pull out one of my memory sticks until I can afford to buy a 64Bit OS.

Cheers again,

Mat.

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# 8 24-09-2007 , 11:35 AM

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Just leave it in man.

Shouldent cause a problem, and you might loose some performance if its in dual channel mode anyway.

Load up a massive scene with hair (as its really ram intensive)and then render it with mental ray and have a look at the task manager, that should tell you how much ram your using.

I didnt know that graphics ram was included as I thought it was a sepperate part of the machine, other wise why dosent it show it as a processor too?

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# 9 24-09-2007 , 12:29 PM

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Man I'm having serious porblems, BSOD city!!

I'm going to be bald (from tearing my hair) by the end of the day at this rate!

ARGHHHHHhhhhhh,

Mat.

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# 10 24-09-2007 , 03:53 PM

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I've taken one pair of sticks out of my machine and everything works fine now, no BSOD or glitches of any kind.

I spoke to a couple of people at my university who said that their system properties also showed low values (2.8Meg and 3.5Meg) when they had 4Meg inserted.

Anyway I've gone and purchased Vista 64Bit, it should arrive tomorrow so hopefully my problems will be sorted then, I'll probably run into a whole bunch of new ones from what I've heard about Vista though!!

Cheers,

Mat.

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# 11 25-09-2007 , 03:26 AM

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I'm pretty sure that graphics ram is not included in system memory as its not system memory, just the framebuffer and texture ram for the gpu (think of it as a big cache).

Windows will reserve a bit of memory for the graphics card to swap textures and stuff in and out, but that does not subtract the total amount of memory you have as Windows can reallocate it if it needs to.

happymat27 > 'I've taken one pair of sticks out of my machine and everything works fine now, no BSOD or glitches of any kind.'

Are you sure your board can support that much ram reliably? I heard somewhere that filling your board out with RAM could draw too much power or something and that can cause crashes.

happymat27 > 'Anyway I've gone and purchased Vista 64Bit, it should arrive tomorrow so hopefully my problems will be sorted then, I'll probably run into a whole bunch of new ones from what I've heard about Vista though!!'

lol! Good luck!

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# 12 25-09-2007 , 07:57 AM

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Hello Again,

I've just been reading the manual from my motherboard and it states that....

"If you install four 1Gig memory modules, the system may only recognise less than 3Gig because the address space is reserved fopr other functions.This limitation appears on Windows XP/Vista 32-bit operating system which does not support Physical Address Extension."

They don't make things easy!! I Ithink that I should be fine with the 64Bit operating system, or if I had bought two 2Gig sticks.

Cheers,

Mat.

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# 13 25-09-2007 , 11:08 AM

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Hey Mat

If your installing vista you might need to get another 2 gig just for the hardware crunching OS that it is!

Seriously, hope you get it sorted.

Edit - On the Graphics RAM being shown I just looked on my uni PC that has 4 gig of ram and it says its got 3.5, if I take out 2 sticks it goes to 2 gig, so I doubt the graphics is included otherwise It would have said its got 2.5 gig in (dual 1650 ATI's at 256 meg RAM each)

Also my laptop says its got 3.5 gig in too, and I remember that when I had 2 gig of RAM it only said it had that a and did not includine the 512 on my graphics card.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Last edited by gster123; 25-09-2007 at 11:17 AM.

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