4 gb of ram but only see 3.5

[sem1966]

I had 2 gig of memory in my computer and i just ad 2 more gig, but my computer can only see 3.5 gig and also check in the bio had 4 gig. Please help.

computer specs

case Enermax
motherboard gigabyte P35-DS3L
processor E8400
power supply Antec Trio 550
video card PNY 8800 GT 512
memory ocz 800 ddr2
window xp with services pack 2

 

[DarkRogue]

That's normal because you only have a 32-bit operating system.
A 32-bit OS can only recognize up to 4GB of memory addresses, however, your video card also has 512MB of onboard RAM that needs addresses as well, so the total amount of system memory it can recognize is 4GB - 512MB = 3.5GB.

 

[DSF]

Yep, that's just the way it goes. Nothing to worry about.

 

[sem1966]

Thanks everybody for the respond.

 

[solog]

Originally posted by: DarkRogue
That's normal because you only have a 32-bit operating system.
A 32-bit OS can only recognize up to 4GB of memory addresses, however, your video card also has 512MB of onboard RAM that needs addresses as well, so the total amount of system memory it can recognize is 4GB - 512MB = 3.5GB.

so if you were to have a 256MB card would it see 3.75GB?

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: solog

Originally posted by: DarkRogue
That's normal because you only have a 32-bit operating system.
A 32-bit OS can only recognize up to 4GB of memory addresses, however, your video card also has 512MB of onboard RAM that needs addresses as well, so the total amount of system memory it can recognize is 4GB - 512MB = 3.5GB.

so if you were to have a 256MB card would it see 3.75GB?

No.

There a numerous factors that come into play, the amount of memory mapped for PCI-e address space is only one of them.
3.5 GB is pretty much the maximum.

I'd say venture into this thread, & if you dare, then the link i post to.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2185630&enterthread=y

Generally, you'll end up with 3-3.5 GB on x86 Windows, but it varies.

 

[DarkRogue]

I'm not sure about the various little extra megabytes assigned all over the place, this is my first system I've built that actually has 4GB of physical RAM to play with, and with a 512MB 8800GT, I'm seeing 3.5GB myself. If anything else is taking up memory addresses, it certainly isn't large enough to register a decrease down to 3.49GB within Windows.