ram review

[lovepussy]

i have windows vista ultimate, with a core2 e6600 and two 1650
512mb ati cards set up in cross fire also have 2 * 1gb ram, and had a windows experience index of 5.1 not bad, but when i install another 2 * 1gb ram (ddr2 667) same as first set)) 4 gb in total, i went down to 5.0 on the windows experience index??
my system property also show only 2943 of ram?

can anyone explain and maybe a answer if their is a problem?

 

[Nelviticus]

Not sure why your experience index would go down (maybe the results vary a little each time you run it?) but the reason you're not seeing the full 4GB is because 32-bit versions of Windows are limited in the amount of RAM they can use (64-bit versions are limited too but the limit's much, much higher). This is just down to the way that computers and memory work and there's nothing you can do about it.

A quick Google search throws up hundreds of articles about memory limitations. Many are extremely techincal but if you want to know more have a read.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[kmcferrin]

The Windows Experience Index is a bit of a joke. It rates 5 or 6 subsystems, and then presents you with an "overall score", which is actually just the lowest score of the 5 or 6 subsystem scores. If you expand it you can see each score individually, it's possible that it's not the memory that brought it down. You CPU could have been running in low-power mode (at half speed or slower).

 

[Freestone]

2.9GB reported for a 4GB system seems a little low. Are you sure the added memory is compatible with both the motherboard and the memory you had prior?

Have a read here too. Memory-mapped I/O takes up some memory space:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

 

[kmcferrin]

2.9 GB sounds about right for his situation. IIRC, the OS has to set aside RAM of equal size to the video memory for storing additional textures and such. He has 2x512 MB cards, so he'll lose 1024 of his 4096 MB, leaving him with 3072. As to the other 128/129 MB, it could be taken up pretty easily by other system functions (BIOS shadowing or something similar).

Generally, if you're going to be running 4GB of RAM you have two options:

1. Accept that you're only going to get use of 3-3.5 GB of it.

2. Run a 64-bit/x64 OS.

 

[Freestone]

Good point about the 2x512MB video cards, Kevin. Missed that in my calculations. So yes, 2.9GB is about right.

Here is a good short read that describes this scenario:

http://addressof.com/blog/archive/2...B-of-memory.--Sure-it-does_2E002E002E00_.aspx

Dell