Settings for additional RAM

[Will Fleenor]

OS: Vista Business all patches installed
Hardware: HP XW6400 workstation Xeon 5130 dual

Issue: Control panel System dialog box indicates I have only "Memory (RAM):
3071 MB"
In reality I have 6GB of RAM installed (and recognized by Setup) and have
the page file set at 4605 minimum.

I am concerned that I have RAM that Vista is not recognizing and will never
be able to use.

Question: Is there some setting in Vista I need to make to have it
recognize the 6GB of RAM or is the System screen display just in error with
no negative consequences?

Guess at possible answer: Since I have a dual processor it is only showing
the memory that is allocated to each processor.

Thanks, Will

 

[Tom Porterfield]

OS: Vista Business all patches installed
Hardware: HP XW6400 workstation Xeon 5130 dual

Issue: Control panel System dialog box indicates I have only "Memory
(RAM): 3071 MB"
In reality I have 6GB of RAM installed (and recognized by Setup) and have
the page file set at 4605 minimum.

I am concerned that I have RAM that Vista is not recognizing and will
never be able to use.

Question: Is there some setting in Vista I need to make to have it
recognize the 6GB of RAM or is the System screen display just in error
with no negative consequences?

Guess at possible answer: Since I have a dual processor it is only
showing the memory that is allocated to each processor.

Thanks, Will

Which version of Vista are you using, 32 or 64 bit? If 32 bit, the max
amount of RAM it can use is 4 GB, but it will only report a little over 3 GB
as the rest is used by other things. If you need to be able to utilize the
full 6 GB of RAM then you need 64 bit Vista.

 

[Adam Albright]

OS: Vista Business all patches installed
Hardware: HP XW6400 workstation Xeon 5130 dual

Issue: Control panel System dialog box indicates I have only "Memory (RAM):
3071 MB"
In reality I have 6GB of RAM installed (and recognized by Setup) and have
the page file set at 4605 minimum.

I am concerned that I have RAM that Vista is not recognizing and will never
be able to use.

Question: Is there some setting in Vista I need to make to have it
recognize the 6GB of RAM or is the System screen display just in error with
no negative consequences?

Guess at possible answer: Since I have a dual processor it is only showing
the memory that is allocated to each processor.

Thanks, Will

You can tell a lot about your system by just typing 'system' in the
space that says 'start search' AFTER you click on the Start button.

So typing 'system', then pressing enter brings up the system
information window that among other things shows current version of
Windows you're running, your system name, details about your CPU, your
BIOS, the memory Windows sees, your paging file size, etc..

To see how Windows uses resources bring up Task Manager. Just a quick
Ctrl-Atl-Del key combination away. This window by default is designed
to float over others. Go to the performace tab. For even more details,
click on Resource Monitor, then for still more information, expand one
of the four areas, by clicking the little down pointing arrow to learn
how each process is using your CPU, memory, hard drive and your
Network configuration.

From the more technical side it depends on which version of Vista
you're running, 32 or 64 bit. If I remember correctly Windows 32 can
handle 4 GB of RAM. How it gets used is another matter. Many issues.

The real issue is why do you have 6 GB of RAM? That is way more than
99% of users need, unless you're a serious game nut. I don't take such
people "seriously". I use my computers for WORK.

You may like to read comments here:

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/544193-can-vista-handle-4-gb.html

and these informative artices:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/26/can_your_pc_really_handle_vista/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/13/how_much_ram_do_you_really_need/index.html

Note in particular on the above link about memory most of the tests
are for games. If you play a lot of games, more RAM is better. However
look at pages 8 and 12 for more real world cases. I do lots of video
editing. Note the impact on memory useage. Surprised? You shouldn't
be. Now ready Tom's summary on page #12. Again, more confirmation of
what I've said countless times. For most people, 1 GB of RAM should be
plenty, even if you do intensive tasks.

 

[Dustin Harper]

If you are using Windows Vista 32 Bit version, it is correct. It can
only address 4 GB of RAM. This includes your video memory and other
devices that map to the RAM.

The 64 Bit Version can address up to 8 TB of RAM.

So, my guess is you are running the 32 Bit version of Vista, therefore
you are only seeing 3071 instead of the whole 6 GB.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dale White]

Some have suggested that you can turn on the PAE option and should be able
to access more. But I don't know if it's more than 4GB. You can use Vista
Boot Pro to turn on this option, you can download it for free from
www.vistabootpro.org, the option is under advance settings
http://images1.filecloud.com/402040/pae_options.jpg

Here's the MSDN article that talks about it. I only have 2GB of ram, so I
can't confirm or deny how this will or won't work.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa468629.aspx

 

[Dale White]

The real issue is why do you have 6 GB of RAM? That is way more than
99% of users need, unless you're a serious game nut. I don't take such
people "seriously". I use my computers for WORK.

I'm going to venture a guess that he's not a serious game nut, as he's using
a workstation class box with Xeon processors. Which is not even a hardcore
gamer's config.

Hardware: HP XW6400 workstation Xeon 5130 dual

And even us nuts, really don't need 6GB of ram for even today's demanding
games

 

[Dustin Harper]

YES WE DO NEED 6 GB OF RAM!! 8 GB!!!

<Psycho laugh>

May not need it, but I would love to have it.

 

[Adam Albright]

YES WE DO NEED 6 GB OF RAM!! 8 GB!!!

<Psycho laugh>

May not need it, but I would love to have it.

I want as much RAM as Mr. Data of Star Trek fame has. ;-)

Something on the order of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000K

 

[Tom Lake]

If you are using Windows Vista 32 Bit version, it is correct. It can only
address 4 GB of RAM. This includes your video memory and other devices
that map to the RAM.

The 64 Bit Version can address up to 8 TB of RAM.

Let's see, the DDR2 sticks I have in my machine hold 2 GB each. How many
would I need to make 8 TB? How much power will they consume?

8^0

Tom Lake

 

[cvp]

Well.. I've seen this stated so many times that I almost hesitate to correct
it at this stage. The limitation in 32-bit windows goes back to the late
80's when a decision was made by Microsoft and IBM, first in OS/2 32-bit and
thus in NT and subsequent Windows versions, to architecturally limit their
use of the available modes of the 386 and subsequent processors to a
simplified, flat, 4GB VIRTUAL memory space (to allow for compatibility with
other processor architectures which didn't have the base/offset capability)
and that was mapped into the available RAM. At that time 2MB of RAM was a
BIG machine and increases by 3 orders of magnitude were far off! Even with
that architecture the virtual memory was split into two parts - one for the
system and one for the application. That architecture made/makes it
difficult to access more than 4GB of REAL memory but not impossible, hence
various minor extensions to allow applications to make use of it while not
disturbing most of the underlying OS architecture. The 64-bit Vista 'merely'
extends that architecture to a much larger VIRTUAL memory space.

Now there are REAL memory (i.e. RAM) restrictions which come in
motherboard/memory controller flavors in addition to the difficulties
overcoming the VIRTUAL memory architecture, but the important point is that
it is a VIRTUAL memory restriction being relieved by Vista 64-bit.

And since history repeats itself, I guess in less than 20 years we'll be
moaning about the 8TB VIRTUAL memory restriction in Windows (and linux and
....) <sigh>

 

[Craig]

I wonder if running Memmaker would help?

Craig

Let's see, the DDR2 sticks I have in my machine hold 2 GB each. How many
would I need to make 8 TB? How much power will they consume?

8^0

Tom Lake

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "cvp"

And since history repeats itself, I guess in less than 20 years we'll be
moaning about the 8TB VIRTUAL memory restriction in Windows (and linux and
...) <sigh>

Sure -- This isn't the first time around for many of us.

First in my lifetime was the 640KB limit, got around it using EMS
(anyone else remember EMS? If you do, you understand why the hack to
get past 4GB-minus-hardware-mapped-into-RAM is a bad idea)

 

[cvp]

Oh yes! The joy of EMS! Compared to that the 4GB flat address space seemed
close to infinity!
Prior to that, I think I went through a whole bundle of 64KB limits ("Surely
nobody will EVER need more than 64K?"). One a year, on all sorts of 16bit
address architectures. The PC was just another one in the list.
Before that the introduction of the IBM 370 virtual memory had some worried
that the smallest 370 would have to be a massive 128KB - about 4 years later
there was concern about what to do with the physical memory that couldn't be
mapped from the virtual address space!

We'll get there...

 

[Guest]

yup i do!!! and i also recall a man name'd ( BILL GATES ) stating know one
will ever need anymore then 640K!

 

[breaker]

I want as much RAM as Mr. Data of Star Trek fame has. ;-)

Something on the order of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000K

Naw...if it had that much ram it would of course start thinking for
itself and start spending all my money building little clones of
itself.

 

[Chupacabra]

yup i do!!! and i also recall a man name'd ( BILL GATES ) stating know one
will ever need anymore then 640K!

No you don't, he never said that Urban legend.

 

[Dale White]

Ok, he recalls hearing an urban legend of Bill Gates saying that.

 

[Adam Albright]

Ok, he recalls hearing an urban legend of Bill Gates saying that.

Real or not, here's some more, some pretty damn funny:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bill_gates.html

 

[Will Fleenor]

Yes, I am running the 32-bit version of Vista Business.

BTW, had 2GB, wanted more, bought 2 GB stick, realized it would not work
because you need to add 2 sticks at at time (already had 2 1GB in sticks
slots 1 and 3). Decided just to order another 2gb stick. Realize it is not
needed now but probably will be with next rev of the OS.

Thanks to all for input.

Will