Windows not making use of my 4GB RAM.

By BryanChung
in Microsoft (Windows)

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O.G

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So means I can save all my trouble of installing back all my data and simply do the upgrade? Keeping all my applications, games, programs?

No. You cannot perform an upgrade from 32bit to 64bit, you must boot from the media and perform a clean install without formatting. You will still need to reinstall your programs (some work just fine if you just move them from the old /program files/ folder to the new /program files (x86)/, if not, install).

What you wont lose is your documents, movies, pictures, ect, or anything else from your old install. With Vista and 7 the whole file system from the old install gets moved to a folder so any data can be retrieved and the windows.old folder can then be deleted.

If you were installing XP64, you'd need to backup any documents or the like in your user account folders to a folder, say c:\docs, or another drive as they will be overwriten by the new install. But it's crap anyway, so don't.

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Dashel

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That hasn't been my experience actually. Before you jump to 64bit you should know that there is a good chance your memory status will be exactly the same. Just having a 64bit OS does not always move the available memory allocated for hardware addressing. With your current stats, its quite possible you will need 5GB to show 4GB usable. A 64bit OS is only part of the puzzle. Onboard video memory allocation and proper BIOS/Mobo support are also factors.

And even then keep in mind that 32bit applications can still only use 2/3GB of RAM per process. I see little point in upgrading to 64bit unless you have more than 4GB of RAM.

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Scorbing

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14092009235215.png

I have 4GB of RAM but my computer is making 3GB usable only. I have read a few articles regarding this issue and having to enable "Physical Address Extension" >3GB seems to solve the problem.

Can I confirm this is the solution I need to use to make my computer make use of my full 4GB? If so, can someone please kindly advise me how I should do it clearly? Step by step would be nice.

Related Articles:

http://www.megaleecher.net/Windows_XP_PAE

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-90275-m...play-in-windows

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa...28VS.85%29.aspx

32 bit can ONLY read up to 3GB of RAM my friend. It's a limit of the 32 bit architecture. If you want your PC to use all 4GBs you need to have a 64 bit OS.

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BryanChung

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That hasn't been my experience actually. Before you jump to 64bit you should know that there is a good chance your memory status will be exactly the same. Just having a 64bit OS does not always move the available memory allocated for hardware addressing. With your current stats, its quite possible you will need 5GB to show 4GB usable. A 64bit OS is only part of the puzzle. Onboard video memory allocation and proper BIOS/Mobo support are also factors.

And even then keep in mind that 32bit applications can still only use 2/3GB of RAM per process. I see little point in upgrading to 64bit unless you have more than 4GB of RAM.

Thanks for sharing. "More than 4GB or RAM", how about if I am just at 4GB then? :)

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Brandon Live Veteran

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With your current stats, its quite possible you will need 5GB to show 4GB usable.

No. There is no situation where upgrading to 5GB of RAM will grant you 4GB that's addressable. If you have 3GB addressable now, that's all you're ever going to get, even if you have 8GB physically installed.

If you want to address more than 3GB of physical RAM (ignoring PAE which Windows client OSes won't use to extend the address space), you're going to need three things:

1) A 64-bit CPU

2) A 64-bit OS

3) A chipset supporting >4GB of total memory

Even if you get 1 & 2, you may still be limited to 3GB of addressable memory if your chipset doesn't support more than 32-bit addressing. Most anything you buy today won't have that problem, but many low-mid range chipsets from a year or two ago had that limitation.

And even then keep in mind that 32bit applications can still only use 2/3GB of RAM per process.

Not really / not relevant. A standard 32-bit process is limited to a 4GB virtual memory space, with 2GB of app / user VM and 2GB of OS / kernel VM. Even if you're just looking at the user VM portion, this has no bearing on whether >4GB of physical memory is useful. If you were to run the 32-bit versions of Photoshop and Visual Studio together, each one (and indeed each instance) gets its own 4GB address space. So two instances of Photoshop and one of Visual Studio can each use up to 2GB of memory just for their private working sets, making 8GB of RAM justifiable (2GB per process plus 2GB shared kernel memory).

Nevermind the fact that some memory-intensive 32-bit apps can actually use more than 4GB of VM using the Address Windowing Extensions API.

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BryanChung

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Anyone with knowledge if this motherboard of mine will support the 64-bit?

--------[ Motherboard ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Motherboard Properties:
	  Motherboard ID									63-0100-009999-00101111-011408-Lakeport$1AAAA000_A7267IMS V17.8B2 011408
	  Motherboard Name								  MSI MS-7267

	Front Side Bus Properties:
	  Bus Type										  Intel AGTL+
	  Bus Width										 64-bit
	  Real Clock										200 MHz (QDR)
	  Effective Clock								   800 MHz
	  Bandwidth										 6400 MB/s

	Memory Bus Properties:
	  Bus Type										  Dual DDR2 SDRAM
	  Bus Width										 128-bit
	  DRAM:FSB Ratio									10:6
	  Real Clock										333 MHz (DDR)
	  Effective Clock								   667 MHz
	  Bandwidth										 10667 MB/s

	Chipset Bus Properties:
	  Bus Type										  Intel Direct Media Interface

	Motherboard Manufacturer:
	  Company Name									  Micro-Star Int'l Co.,Ltd.
	  Product Information							   http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodpage2&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=170
	  BIOS Download									 http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloadindex
	  Driver Update									 http://driveragent.com?ref=59
	  BIOS Upgrades									 http://www.esupport.com/biosagent/index.cfm?refererid=40

15092009093717.png

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Dashel

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Thats the tough question because there are pros and cons to each. If the sole reason you want to reinstall is to 'correct' the usable stat, I'm not sure it's worth it. More apps are going 64bit though so most of your performance gains will be in this catagory. (Games should be swapping over soon, I hope)

Brandon, I have seen firsthand machines that reported 'lower' usable increase to 4GB usable with more memory under the RC. Maybe it was just a bug. I'll have to check this behavior on RTM. So in his case, how should Windows report if he had, say, 8GB of RAM?

Per the application limit I apologize if I wasn't clear but my point was simply that running a 64bit OS doesn't generally grant more available memory to 32bit processes (like games - i.e having 16GB of RAM will still be subdivided into their own 2GB private working sets). No?

Edited by Dashel
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BryanChung

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Thats the tough question because there are pros and cons to each. If the sole reason you want to reinstall is to 'correct' the usable stat, I'm not sure it's worth it. More apps are going 64bit though so most of your performance gains will be in this catagory. (Games should be swapping over soon, I hope)

I'm seeing this possible format as a more long-term future.

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Subject Delta

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Driver support for X64 is not poor at all. Some rather older devices won't work, but anything remotely modern now has Win64 drivers. Also the argument that you can only use 4GB of ram or more with professional software is nonsense, things like games stress your system heavily

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Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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Anyone with knowledge if this motherboard of mine will support the 64-bit?

<<SNIP>>

It has almost nothing to do with your motherboard.

It has all to do with your CPU.. you can't just stick any CPU onto any regular motherboard, so YES, technically your motherboard will support 64bit? but it all has to do with your CPU... and that is a 64bit processor.

Now stop stalling and format!

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Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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Thanks people =D So can anyone verify that my chipset is okay with the 64-bit? (screen shot above)

... Your entire setup is 64bit ready.. even your case!

Now format already.

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BryanChung

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It has almost nothing to do with your motherboard.

It has all to do with your CPU.. you can't just stick any CPU onto any regular motherboard, so YES, technically your motherboard will support 64bit? but it all has to do with your CPU... and that is a 64bit processor.

Now stop stalling and format!

Oh! :) So I ran the advisor thing from Microsoft and it did say my CPU pass the 64-bit test. So yes, FORMAT now! I shall switch on my laptop to be here while formatting my desktop then! :)

Bye 32-bit, Hello 64-bit. (but of course I pray that nothing goes wrong) =X

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Andrew Lyle Global Moderator

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Oh! :) So I ran the advisor thing from Microsoft and it did say my CPU pass the 64-bit test. So yes, FORMAT now! I shall switch on my laptop to be here while formatting my desktop then! :)

Bye 32-bit, Hello 64-bit. (but of course I pray that nothing goes wrong) =X

If you noticed in one of your screenshots earlier on in the post, it says "64-bit capable: Yes" ;)

15092009002958.png

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TEX4S

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<Snipped!>

I mean how many times from how many people does he have to be told --

You'd think we were trying to get him to perform brain surgery on his mother...

No Bryan - your motherboard fan isnt 64-bit capable, only 8-bit. Therefore it wont work on normal electricity.

You're fan wont spin but @ 1/8th speed and your CPU will burn and fry - these people are all telling you the wrong info. its all a mass conspiracy against you -- we had this planned for some time now -- waiting for you to ask... :rolleyes:

I am utterly speechless - If I believed in god, I'd ask him to take me away

Edited by Andrew-DB
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