# Why isn't all of my ram usable?



## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

Sorry guys I'm a little OCD and I noticed my 64 bit windows 7 operating system says its using 3.87 out of 4 gb ram, is this normal or is a bios setting off or something wrong... Thanks in advance.


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## Law-II (Jun 4, 2012)

Hi

welcome to TPU

Hard to tell as you have not provided any information with regard to the system you are running; fill in your system specs in UserCP, this will allow the TPU community to assist you further.

atb (all the best)

Law-II


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/profile.php?do=specs

Please fill in system specs and mark yes for visibility.


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

Hey thanks for the replies I appreciate it, I am going to fill in the specs right now, its a prebuilt pc and here is the link, tomorrow I am ordering my new baby lol, I was just messing around and noticed that all of my ram wasn't being used and its really getting to me.

Link (My old pc): iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 918i Desktop PC Intel Core i...


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

Still using the HD5450?


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

Yea


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## caleb (Jun 4, 2012)

RAM is shared as Video Card memory ?


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

wait what? why would the ram in the video card be shared with the system memory?


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

caleb said:


> RAM is shared as Video Card memory ?



Yup! The HD5450 is pulling ~ 200MB from system memory. Really nothing to worry about and it won't effect day to day performance any as I really REALLY doubt you game with Skyrim mods and/or Battlefield 3 max'ed on that system.


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

That's whats happening, so why would the video card pull from the system memory and not its own?
Why does windows label what the gpu uses as *non-usable* ?


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

Even my own system with 2x 460's does it. @ *non usable*, because it reserved by hardware. Nearly every configuration I know of pulls from system memory to some extent, whether it be hardware reserved or shared memory.


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

Alright thanks a bunch man, it just triggered a thought in my mind because I was watching a pc building tutorial on newegg and saw that the rig they had said that he had the full 8gb usable memory and I was like wtf is mine not full. I think its because he didn't do the windows experience test or something. IDK thanks a bunch tho.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

Link me if you don't mind.


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

Right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RxaVBsXEiok
At 29:24 you can see it.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

I see! Aero is disabled. Try this; Disable it on yours, by picking the classic theme in the "Personalize" menu. Uninstall video drivers. Restart then reinstall. May not look pretty but _should_ work if it really is bothering you that much.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jun 4, 2012)

andrewhignight said:


> Alright thanks a bunch man, it just triggered a thought in my mind because I was watching a pc building tutorial on newegg and saw that the rig they had said that he had the full 8gb usable memory and I was like wtf is mine not full. I think its because he didn't do the windows experience test or something. IDK thanks a bunch tho.



Im sorry, but this is total misinformation. WEI has *NOTHING* to do with how much ram your systems sees.

When your PC is not seeing or using all the ram you have installed, It could only be either 1 or 2 of 4 reasons..

#1. Bios not configured correctly - theres a bios setting that has to be configured, something like memory hole. before it sees all the ram

#2. You *are not* using a 64bit operating system. the 32bit windows can only address under 4GB of ram - *Dont forget that the amount of ram on your graphics card also effects the final amount of ram your system sees
*
#3. Shared Graphics/Hyper memory - some graphic cards, especially the built in GPUs use some of the systems ram as their own dedicated memory and its upto the driver/operating system to allocate how much ram to the graphics. HOWEVER there are settings in the bios where you can set the maximum amount of ram that the graphics can be allocated.

Hyper memory cards dont quite work on the same basis as most of them, already come with their own dedicated memory and will only use system memory if their own buffer has been filled and it requires it

#4. BIOS/CHIPSET Limitations - earlier bios's and both early mobile and desktop chipsets were often limited to the amount of ram you can use. Infact, some of them are still limited...take a look at Intels ATOM CPU netbook line up. with most atom netbooks you cant use more then 2GB of ram because the limitation has either been hardcoded into the chipset or the CPU.



NOTHING to do with WEI at all


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Im sorry, but this is total misinformation. WEI has *NOTHING* to do with how much ram your systems sees.



Ok then explain this to me

http://img.techpowerup.org/120604/Capture017.jpg 

Have to correct myself, mine was dedicated to integrated video


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

Yea @FreedomEclipse it obviously see's all of my RAM, its just hardware limitations or graphics pulling  a little from your ram cause windows is just like that. Now if I was only seeing 2gb out of my 4gb it would be bios but it sees all 4gb but can't use a small portion of it.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> Ok then explain this to me
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/120604/Capture017.jpg
> 
> Have to correct myself, mine was dedicated to integrated video



Something you should check.


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## andrewhignight (Jun 4, 2012)

@JrRacinFan, how do I check if its dedicated to integrated video?


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 4, 2012)

andrewhignight said:


> how do I check if its dedicated to integrated video?



In advanced bios features. Check for init display, onboard vga, and video frame buffer.


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## qubit (Jun 4, 2012)

My Sandy's IGP takes some system RAM, but none of my discreet graphics cards do. However, in the driver control panel, they all show that they would if onboard memory became tight. This includes my GTX 580 1.5GB VRAM.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Jun 4, 2012)

guys im his cousin and his system is prebuilt. I think a lot of prebuilt rigs have this thing where its a 64 bit os you have 4gb of ram and it says only 3.8x amount is available.

I have the same thing on my laptop where i have 6gb installed 64bit os but only 5.87gb usable. It uses a AMD Llano CPU/GPU so the GPU is pulling from the system memory.


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## DarkVision (Jun 5, 2012)

memory remapping enabled in bios?


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