Only 2.46 GB RAM Available

[JetsetBkk]

My friend's weird little PC has a 4GB stick of DDR3 RAM.

 

Windows 10 reports only 2.46 GB RAM available.

 

Speccy reports this:

        Memory
            Type    DDR3
            Size    4096 MBytes
            Channels #    Single
            DRAM Frequency    799.8 MHz
            CAS# Latency (CL)    11 clocks
            RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD)    11 clocks
            RAS# Precharge (tRP)    11 clocks
            Cycle Time (tRAS)    28 clocks
            Bank Cycle Time (tRC)    39 clocks
        Physical Memory
            Memory Usage    57 %
            Total Physical    2.45 GB
            Available Physical    1.04 GB
            Total Virtual    4.95 GB
            Available Virtual    3.07 GB

 

 

Any ideas why the total physical is only 2.45 GB (Win 10 reports 2.46)?

 

Here's a bit more from Speccy, if it can help:

 

Operating System
            Windows 10 Pro 32-bit
        CPU
            AMD Athlon 5350    16 °C
            Kabini 28nm Technology
        RAM
            4.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (11-11-11-28)
        Motherboard
            ASRock AM1H-ITX (CPUSocket)    40 °C
        Graphics
            Acer G205HL (1600x900@60Hz)
            512MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 8400 / R3 Series (ASRock)    16 °C
        Storage
            298GB SAMSUNG HM320JI (SATA)    46 °C
        Optical Drives
            No optical disk drives detected
        Audio
            AMD High Definition Audio Device

 

 

Thanks for any help.

 

[roban]

Because you're running a 32Bit Windows, which can't address more RAM (3GB max minus the 512MB of the graphics adapter).

Install a 64Bit Windows and you will be able to use the complete 4GB RAM.

Edited October 3, 2016 by roban

[JetsetBkk]

55 minutes ago, roban said:

Because you're running a 32Bit Windows, which can't address more RAM (3GB max minus the 512MB of the graphics adapter).

Install a 64Bit Windows and you will be able to use the complete 4GB RAM.

 

I don't think so. 32 bits can address 4 GB.

 

But the low memory availability may well be something to do with the graphics.

 

[Ginkas]

32 bit systems can address 4GB of RAM - But -

Not all of those addresses are available for RAM. There are other pieces of hardware inside the computer that need addresses, such as the PCI bus and the USB host adapter.

This leaves less than 4GB of address available for the user, often 0.5GB of the 4GB 'disappears', even more for higher end systems.

The graphics card is probably the biggest address hog. Today's graphics adapters often contain a gigabyte or more of RAM, and every one of those bytes needs an address,

so down goes the 4GB of availability. So, each byte of the 512MB card takes 512 addresses.

Thus, Windows 10 reports that 2.46GB is available for use, the rest having 'gone' into the system.

[JetsetBkk]

1 hour ago, Ginkas said:

32 bit systems can address 4GB of RAM - But -

Not all of those addresses are available for RAM. There are other pieces of hardware inside the computer that need addresses, such as the PCI bus and the USB host adapter.

This leaves less than 4GB of address available for the user, often 0.5GB of the 4GB 'disappears', even more for higher end systems.

The graphics card is probably the biggest address hog. Today's graphics adapters often contain a gigabyte or more of RAM, and every one of those bytes needs an address,

so down goes the 4GB of availability. So, each byte of the 512MB card takes 512 addresses.

Thus, Windows 10 reports that 2.46GB is available for use, the rest having 'gone' into the system.

 

Yes, I've been Googling and have come to that conclusion too. The MoBo has a graphics chip that uses "shared memory", so that's probably where a lot of the other GB of memory has gone.

[roban]

18 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

 

I don't think so. 32 bits can address 4 GB.

 

But the low memory availability may well be something to do with the graphics.

 

 

A 32 Bit Linux with a so called "PAE Kernel" can utilize more than 3GB RAM.

 

But a "standard" Win 7/8/8.1/10 - 32Bit will always detect just ~3GB, if it detects less than 3GB, that's because of graphics "shared memory" (usually 512 MB on cheapish devices), which you have to subtract from the ~3GB.

Not sure if there are any PAE patches for Win10 available.

Easiest solution: Install a 64Bit Windows - Problem solved.

Edited October 4, 2016 by roban

[Pib]

The machine's BIOS also has to be able to handle 4GB in combo with the 32 bit OS.   I had a older Toshiba laptop that was like that...with 4GB of RAM installed it would only utilized around 3GB of it.  And the Toshiba support website said it was a limitation of this particular model.

[howto]

I note the virtual memory is using 2GB (of 5GB).

Seems excessive to me.

 

Concerning the RAM,

- bloated OS,

- and the integrated gpu,

- and items in the 'Start Menu'.

The op can check that easy, and stop unnecessary items from starting.

- and perhaps malware.

 

By using 'task manager' you can

- check the 'Processes' Tab (sort by clicking the 'memory' column)

- check the 'Services' Tab

- check the 'Performance' Tab

I recommend taking 'snapshots' of these 3 tabs.

 

If you change anything in the 'Start Menu',

reboot the unit.

 

I don't recommend tweaking the gpu/video BIOS settings.

I do recommend you to 'back-up' the BIOS settings to file.

 

- howto

[JetsetBkk]

12 hours ago, roban said:

 

A 32 Bit Linux with a so called "PAE Kernel" can utilize more than 3GB RAM.

 

But a "standard" Win 7/8/8.1/10 - 32Bit will always detect just ~3GB, if it detects less than 3GB, that's because of graphics "shared memory" (usually 512 MB on cheapish devices), which you have to subtract from the ~3GB.

Not sure if there are any PAE patches for Win10 available.

Easiest solution: Install a 64Bit Windows - Problem solved.

 

Funny you should mention 64 bit Win10 - I installed it today so the machine is now dual booting 32 and 64 bit Win 10!

 

So when running 64 bit, it sees 6.45 GB RAM (we added another 4). When all his programs have been installed and checked working in the 64 bit version, we'll probably delete the 32.

 

Thanks for all suggestions everyone.

 

 

 

 

[jacnl2000]

6 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

 

Funny you should mention 64 bit Win10 - I installed it today so the machine is now dual booting 32 and 64 bit Win 10!

 

So when running 64 bit, it sees 6.45 GB RAM (we added another 4). When all his programs have been installed and checked working in the 64 bit version, we'll probably delete the 32.

 

Thanks for all suggestions everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

64-Bit Win10 will also be capable of running 32-Bit Win 10 applications.

 

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64

 

A 32-Bit application running on a 64-Bit operating system in WoW64 mode will not be seeing more memory.

However a 64-Bit application running on a 64-Bit operating system will be capable of seeing ( addressing ) more memory. Due to different techniques of memory mapping a 64-Bit application running on a 64-Bit Windows 10 operating system will be capable of seeing and using  relative more address space than the exact same 64-Bit application running on a 64-Bit Windows 7 operating system, but therefore the 64-Bit application running on a Windows 10 operating will most likely be more sensitive to memory related bugs found in its source code. A 32-Bit application will not show these kinds of memory related transfer problems.

 

 

 

 

[JetsetBkk]

An update (unconfirmed):

 

My friend reports that the Windows 10 64 bit system reports 7.45 GB RAM available. He's not sure if the 32 bit system now reports 3.45 GB RAM available, or still reports 2.45 GB.

 

So it looks like the 64 bit system "found" the missing 1 GB RAM, or maybe it simply manages the RAM differently from (better than) the 32 bit system.

 

As soon as I can confirm, I'll post here.

 

[Jdietz]

The 64bit system can address more RAM than you'll ever be able to use in your lifetime (don't quote me on that, ask Bill Gates how that went), but anyways, because of that it will map your video RAM, BIOS, System reserved areas, MMIO and what have you, outside of the area your actual RAM is. Upshot of that is that all your RAM is available for the system to use.

 

The 32bit system can address a TOTAL of 4GB for everything, so with 4GB of RAM already, something had to give to fit the other bits and bobs in.

A 32bit program on a 64bit machine will see more RAM as well, as again all RAM is available for it, up to 4GB again. If you have more RAM it'll still see only 4GB, but at least there won't be other stuff in the way and it can actually use all.

 

Your video memory is shared which means it takes from the big RAM pool to give you room for graphics. In your system settings you can select how much of  your main RAM you want to assign to it. Don't set it higher than you need, as it will not be available for anything else. 32MB for normal windows use, if you want to try 3D games (which will be a pain anyways with an integrated card), you can up it maybe to 512MB. Going any higher won't make things much better, graphic wise, and worse for the rest of your system, as you noticed.

 

[JetsetBkk]

2 minutes ago, Jdietz said:

Your video memory is shared which means it takes from the big RAM pool to give you room for graphics. In your system settings you can select how much of  your main RAM you want to assign to it. Don't set it higher than you need, as it will not be available for anything else. 32MB for normal windows use, if you want to try 3D games (which will be a pain anyways with an integrated card), you can up it maybe to 512MB. Going any higher won't make things much better, graphic wise, and worse for the rest of your system, as you noticed.

 

Can you say where these system settings are?

 

Someone else told me to check the BIOS, but since this is a dual booting PC, booting either 32 bit or 64 bit Windows 10, I don't see how the BIOS can affect the amount of RAM available for the 32 bit system differently from the 64 bit system.

 

[Jdietz]

During initial power-up (from all the way powered down) you will see a screen with something like "Press F10 for bios settings" (usually F10, F3, Escape or something like that)

 

Press it.

 

You will now be in the BIOS setup screen where you can adjust your shared video memory.

 

The reason the amount of available ram is different in 32 bits, is, as explained above, *everything* needs to fit in 4GB. So if you have set 1 GB for shared video memory, you have at most 3GB left for everything else. 

 

In 64 bit mode, the processor has a "bit" more room to map all that stuff somewhere else, it is not limited to 4GB, you will have your Video memory, the rest of your ram, your BIOS and whatever else the system needs all mapped in 64 bit address space with (much) room to spare.

 

[JetsetBkk]

I had a look at the PC yesterday. It definitely says 2.46 GB available (of 8 GB installed) when running the 32 bit Win10 system and 7.45 GB available in the 64 bit Win 10.

 

The BIOS didn't have any page containing settings for shared Video RAM that I could find.

 

Next time I'll take Sysinternals "RamMap.exe" and capture the output.

 

[Chicog]

On 10/4/2016 at 2:13 PM, howto said:

I note the virtual memory is using 2GB (of 5GB).

Seems excessive to me.

Windows loves memory.