2GB G.Skill 1066 RAM not displaying 2GB

bigbubba139

Junior Member
Jun 6, 2009
2
0
0
Hey I was wondering if I could get some help. I recently just built a HTPC and my motherboard accepts 800/1066 RAM. However while in Vista it's showing that I only have 1792GB of RAM.

Do I need to go change some settings in the BIOS? My laptop has vista and displays 2GB. When I ran the Windows 7 RC update wizard which shows you what you need to update before upgrading to W7 it even said I need at least 2GB. It was only reading 1792GB as well.

I'm throwing this out there, but maybe I need to set them in dual channel mode? idk

Thanks for the help in advance!
 

MustISO

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,927
12
81
Do you have onboard video in that machine? It may be using some of the ram for the video if you do.
 

Harvey

Administrator<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
35,059
73
91
Is it showing 1792GB in your BIOS, or just in Windows?

I'm pulled Vista off my Compaq lappie, and I'm running XP Pro with 4 GB. The BIOS shows 4096 MB (4 GB), but it shows only 3 GB in Windows, due to the limit of the 32 bit OS.

I don't really care because I've freed up the RAM used by at least some of the onboard video system, and I've got the max possilbe amount of memory for the OS and apps.
 

Blain

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
23,643
3
81
Originally posted by: MustISO
Do you have onboard video in that machine? It may be using some of the ram for the video if you do.
Looks like he may have 256MB dedicated to onboard video.

 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Originally posted by: Blain
Originally posted by: MustISO
Do you have onboard video in that machine? It may be using some of the ram for the video if you do.
Looks like he may have 256MB dedicated to onboard video.

this +1
 

bigbubba139

Junior Member
Jun 6, 2009
2
0
0
hey everyone.. thanks for your input. I do have onboard video. I have the Radeon HD3200 on the ASUS M3A78-EM motherboard. What's that mean then? Is there anything I can or should do?
 

reallyscrued

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2004
2,618
5
81
There's nothing you *can or should* do, but you might be able to optimize it. If you are a gamer, see if there are any improvements by increasing the amount allotted for video acceleration to a higher amount; or if you never play games, see if your day to day activities are sped up by reducing it to a lower amount. These settings should be found in your BIOS.

Also, read the manual for your motherboard.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
My girlfriend has the same mobo, its been great so far so thats a good choice.

The settings are fine you should leave it alone. I found no increase in performance from upping it higher than the default setting of 256MB.

Having onboard video means that your mobo is using 256MB of your RAM for the VRAM of the built in GPU. This only leaves 1.75GB of ram for the OS to use. Its not that big of a deal, if you need more ram just buy more DDR2 is so cheap right now.

+1 on reading the manual