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I upgraded my total ram to 4 gigs, but system propertys say I have 2.5,
whats wrong
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On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:04:06 -0800, SomorPlz
<SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
[Quoted Text] > I upgraded my total ram to 4 gigs, but system propertys say I have 2.5,
> whats wrong
All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP) have a 4GB
address space. That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can
not go.
But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
3.1GB, but with your particular hardware, you are closer to the bottom
amount than to the average.
Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
address space to map it too.
--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
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I bought the ram for a game I play, did I waste my money? Can I increase the
amount my coputer shows by defraging hard drive?
"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
[Quoted Text] > On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:04:06 -0800, SomorPlz
> <SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > I upgraded my total ram to 4 gigs, but system propertys say I have 2.5,
> > whats wrong
>
>
> All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP) have a 4GB
> address space. That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can
> not go.
>
> But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
> have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
> That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
> available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
> use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
> range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
> 3.1GB, but with your particular hardware, you are closer to the bottom
> amount than to the average.
>
> Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
> RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
> address space to map it too.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>
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"SomorPlz" <SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:792CE0FF-BC58-4405-91E3-24E4543E630F[ at ]microsoft.com...
[Quoted Text] >I bought the ram for a game I play, did I waste my money? Can I
>increase the
> amount my coputer shows by defraging hard drive?
One way to determine if you have enough RAM is to do the following:
Access Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del. Then, click the
Performance tab. Note the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the
lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit, and Peak.
The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that
very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you
used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of
Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM.
Otherwise you are relying way too much on your pagefile, which will
always slow down a PC.
Another way to determine this is to use the following utility:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm
Defragging a hard drive should help your performance if it is
significantly fragmented, but RAM doesn't enter the equation at all.
Out of curiousity, how much RAM did you initially have?
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On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:20:08 -0800, SomorPlz
<SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
[Quoted Text] > I bought the ram for a game I play, did I waste my money?
Probably.
> Can I increase the
> amount my coputer shows by defraging hard drive?
No. Defragging has nothing to do with the amount Windows can see.
> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:04:06 -0800, SomorPlz
> > <SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I upgraded my total ram to 4 gigs, but system propertys say I have 2.5,
> > > whats wrong
> >
> >
> > All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP) have a 4GB
> > address space. That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can
> > not go.
> >
> > But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
> > have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
> > That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
> > available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
> > use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
> > range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
> > 3.1GB, but with your particular hardware, you are closer to the bottom
> > amount than to the average.
> >
> > Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
> > RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
> > address space to map it too.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> > Please Reply to the Newsgroup
> >
--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
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Been slowly adding ram, think the computer came with one gig, not sure
"Daave" wrote:
[Quoted Text] > "SomorPlz" <SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:792CE0FF-BC58-4405-91E3-24E4543E630F[ at ]microsoft.com... > >I bought the ram for a game I play, did I waste my money? Can I > >increase the > > amount my coputer shows by defraging hard drive? > > One way to determine if you have enough RAM is to do the following: > > Access Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del. Then, click the > Performance tab. Note the three values under Commit Charge (K): in the > lower left-hand corner: Total, Limit, and Peak. > > The Total figure represents the amount of memory you are using at that > very moment. The Peak figure represents the highest amount of memory you > used since last bootup. If both these figures are below the value of > Physical Memory (K) Total, then you probably have plenty of RAM. > Otherwise you are relying way too much on your pagefile, which will > always slow down a PC. > > Another way to determine this is to use the following utility: > > http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm> > Defragging a hard drive should help your performance if it is > significantly fragmented, but RAM doesn't enter the equation at all. > > Out of curiousity, how much RAM did you initially have? > > > |
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The only way to increase the amount of memory your computer "shows" is to
install a 64-bit operating system. However your hardware would have to
support 64-bit and your game might not play on a 64-bit system. So don't
worry about it if the RAM was cheap.
--
Xandros
"SomorPlz" <SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:792CE0FF-BC58-4405-91E3-24E4543E630F[ at ]microsoft.com...
[Quoted Text] >I bought the ram for a game I play, did I waste my money? Can I increase
>the
> amount my coputer shows by defraging hard drive?
>
> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:04:06 -0800, SomorPlz
>> <SomorPlz[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>> > I upgraded my total ram to 4 gigs, but system propertys say I have
>> > 2.5,
>> > whats wrong
>>
>>
>> All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP) have a 4GB
>> address space. That's the theoretical upper limit beyond which you can
>> not go.
>>
>> But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
>> have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
>> That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
>> available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
>> use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
>> range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
>> 3.1GB, but with your particular hardware, you are closer to the bottom
>> amount than to the average.
>>
>> Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
>> RAM itself. The rest of the RAM goes unused because there is no
>> address space to map it too.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
>> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>>
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