Hi guys
I upgraded an old computer with a new Motherboard and a Pentium Dual Core processor over the weekend.
I installed 4GB RAM in it --which 64 Bit SUSE 10.2 Linux recognized fine.
Windoze Home Premium Vista (32 bit) reports RAM as 3GB, same as Windoze 32 bit XP.
What gives here -- where's the other 1GB RAM. SUSE Linux 64 bit reports correctly that the system has 4GB RAM.
The boot up BIOS also shows 4GB RAM so I know the memory is not "broken".
Hopefully some computer techies can tell me where the missing 1GB of RAM is in Windoze.
I'm hoping to get better Photoshop performance (which I do actually get due to much faster (very much faster BTW) processor and more memory) but I'd still like to use the full 4GB RAM.
Seems like a reach but is there 1GB of ram allocated to an onboard video card? RAM allocated to an on board video card will be ignored by windows. This is pretty common but 1024mb seems excessive.
the OS doesn't report it because it's claimed for itself and for devices that require the address space to be reserved. anything that isn't reserved by a device will be used by the OS for itself if it is big enough. all of the Microsoft 32-bit OSs work the same way and buying the extra 1G of RAM is mostly wasted until you install a 64-bit OS.
No, if the OS cannont address the memory then the applications running on the system cant rely on the OS to place and retrieve data in those sections of RAM. If you run XP64 or Visa 64 bit it would resolve the problem.
It has been said. Your Video card is using the Ram and will not release it to the system. You may be able t oconfigure the video card to only take half of the 1 Gig.
When the os cant see some part of the memory its because its reserved for something else it doesn't mean its wasted. And it doent matter whether or not yeh got 32bit os or 64 bit os there will always be some memory the os can not use.
A direct quote, read the bold part.
"Note When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed. For example, consider a computer that has an Intel 975X chipset that supports 8 GB of address space. If you install 8 GB of RAM, the system memory that is available to the operating system will be reduced by the PCI configuration requirements. In this scenario, PCI configuration requirements reduce the memory that is available to the operating system by an amount that is between approximately 200 MB and approximately 1 GB. The reduction depends on the configuration."
One way to reduce the amount taken is to reduce the amount reserved for the graphics card
-If you video card is sharing system memory...reconfigure it in your BIOS to use less. You don't need lots of video memory to edit photos.
Windows (32 bit) will only allow 2GB for any one application. So, even if you get all the ram to be seen...you will not be able to use more than 2GB (probably less due to PS only allowing a percentage to be used)
You can modify how Windows maps memory by using the PAE switch. It's been five years since I did it...but here is a safer appproach. (It can make your system unbootable - or unstable with certain memory configs) All you need is notepad to edit your Boot.ini file located at the root of your OS drive. (usually Drive C)
Here is mine. (I made multiple configs so that I can choose which one to boot each time. Thus, I preserved the original one as the default. This is how it makes it safer.
I named mine "NORMAL" (Highlighted)
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS=""Windows XP NORMAL"" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
The other configs are spelling out "User Values" = Userva of memory to allocate to applications. The last one is the maximum you can do...which is 3GB to applications. On my system the last one will not run, but all the other Userva amounts run fine. 3030 is getting close to 3gb. I am able to let PS use about 2.7 GB.
The CRITICAL thing in this is making sure you are pointing these to the correct disk. I boot off my 2nd physical hard drive (happens to be Drive D) This is why mine says "rdisk(1)" - so use your own Boot.ini file as the template which points to the correct disk, and partition for your machine. Leave the entire boot.ini alone - and only add your configs after the original text!!! When you boot again - you will have a choice of which config you would like to try. This won't get you all 4GB for Photoshop - that is a 32 bit operating system limit, but it will get you more of the memory you already have installed. Hope that helps.
monkeyonacamer wrote:
One way to reduce the amount taken is to reduce the amount reserved for the graphics card
Unfortunately the only way to do this is with a video card that is built into the motherboard. If your non-integrated card has 512mb RAM... Windows will reserve 512mb out of the RAM even though the video card has its own ram. But it has to be mapped to be accessed.
Daniel Turner wrote:
Sort answer: You would need a 64bit operating system for more RAM than that as far as I know.
Unless you use a 32 bit server OS
Unfortunately they are cost prohibitive. Windows 2003 = Windows XP 64 and Windows Server 2008 = Vista Service Pack 1. Not exactly equal but the kernel shares much of the same code. Windows 2003 is a 32 bit OS that can see 4 gigs to I think 64 gigs depending on what version.
I took a class through work and one of the gifts was a copy of Windows 2003 enterprise. I use Windows XP64 and have considered moving to 32 bit windows for some program compatibility... but there are still some pesky driver issues. Windows 2008 looks to be a nice OS since most Vista drivers will work in 2008. Maybe I can snag a copy from an upcoming launch event hosted by Microsoft.
A lot of info, some good, some kinda right, some just wrong.
Windows (32 bit) will only allow 2GB for any one application. So, even if you get all the ram to be seen...you will not be able to use more than 2GB (probably less due to PS only allowing a percentage to be used)
32 bit windows will not allow more than 2 GB of contiguous memory. So if PS asks for a 2.5 GB chunk of memory, windows won't give it, but if PS asks for 5 half GB chunks, it will get it. JAVA programs are problematic if they demand more than 2 GB, because JVM demands contiguous memory.
You can modify how Windows maps memory by using the PAE switch. It's been five years since I did it...but here is a safer appproach. (It can make your system unbootable - or unstable with certain memory configs) All you need is notepad to edit your Boot.ini file located at the root of your OS drive. (usually Drive C)
Yes you can, but Vista does not use the boot.ini, it uses a BCD file. To add PAE in Vista, from a cmd line, type: BCDEDIT /SET PAE ForceEnable
It has been said. Your Video card is using the Ram and will not release it to the system. You may be able t oconfigure the video card to only take half of the 1 Gig.
Maybe. We don't know whether he has on board graphics or not. If he does, well shame on him for buying a large amount of RAM and a bigger CPU and not spending an extra hundred on a plug in graphics card with 256MB of it's on memory. Why any on board graphics card would use 1 GB is beyond me. High end gaming cards use and run fine with 512 MB of internal memory, so I would say its because windows needs the PAE switch, and not because of shared graphics memory.
Sort answer: You would need a 64bit operating system for more RAM than that as far as I know.
Unless you use a 32 bit server OS
Unfortunately they are cost prohibitive. Windows 2003 = Windows XP 64 and Windows Server 2008 = Vista Service Pack 1. Not exactly equal but the kernel shares much of the same code. Windows 2003 is a 32 bit OS that can see 4 gigs to I think 64 gigs depending on what version.
Not so. XP can also do this.
The sad thing is what a double edged sword windows success is. It allowed for a huge boom for other vendors of hardware and software and delivered a big economic spike, but at the same time, due to all those 3rd party vendors, it meant they all had to convert their wares to work with a 64 bit OS. We saw how crappy a job they did getting their drivers out for Vista.
Sorry to bump up an old thread, but if you have a valid license for 32-bit Vista and a processor that supports 64-bit (AMD64, for example), you can get a Vista x64 DVD for $10 from Microsoft (or if you're cheap, download an ISO off BitTorrent), and then use you existing license key to activate it. Worked for me.
The other advantage to this is you get rid of all of the crapware your average PC vendor loads onto the box. Just remember to deactivate your Adobe licenses before you re-image. I forgot to do that and I had to phone in my activation when I reinstalled, since I already had a concurrent laptop installation.
"Service Pack 1 for Vista fix this issue on our PC's with 4gb of system RAM."
Vista's "Welcome Center" speaks with forked tongue - or at least ambiguously. Under SP1 Vista shows the total memory installed instead of the total accessible memory it showed before SP1.
If you look at the performance tab of the task manager, total physical memory show how much is accessible and is unchanged.
