Only seeing 2 out of 4 GiB of ram

I've read all of the "I'm not seeing all of the 4GiB of ram" articles and
none of them seem to match my problem. I have 2 sticks of 2GiB ram (Mushkin)
installed in dual-channel. The bios on my mainboard (EVGA) recognizes all
4GiB of it, so that isn't the problem. I'm running SLI graphics cards with
512MiB each. When I look at system info, it says I only have 2GiB installed.

I just don't see how 4GiB turns into 2GiB even with the graphics card ram
subtracted out. I would expect to see around 3.3 to 3.5 GiB.

Thanks for looking,
Jason

I have seen as little as 2.5GB with only one graphics adaptor installed so
don't be too sure that that is all there is to it.

"Jason" <Jason@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B296AF54-FD30-4FA7-95C5-4CFACE289F37@microsoft.com...
> I've read all of the "I'm not seeing all of the 4GiB of ram" articles and
> none of them seem to match my problem. I have 2 sticks of 2GiB ram
> (Mushkin)
> installed in dual-channel. The bios on my mainboard (EVGA) recognizes all
> 4GiB of it, so that isn't the problem. I'm running SLI graphics cards
> with
> 512MiB each. When I look at system info, it says I only have 2GiB
> installed.
>
> I just don't see how 4GiB turns into 2GiB even with the graphics card ram
> subtracted out. I would expect to see around 3.3 to 3.5 GiB.
>
> Thanks for looking,
> Jason

Are you using Vista x86 or x64? Only x64 can use 4GB+ of RAM as 32bit
operating systems cannot address 4GB so it will only display however much
ram the system is addressing even if you have 4 or more installed.

Trac

"Jason" <Jason@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B296AF54-FD30-4FA7-95C5-4CFACE289F37@microsoft.com...
> I've read all of the "I'm not seeing all of the 4GiB of ram" articles and
> none of them seem to match my problem. I have 2 sticks of 2GiB ram
> (Mushkin)
> installed in dual-channel. The bios on my mainboard (EVGA) recognizes all
> 4GiB of it, so that isn't the problem. I'm running SLI graphics cards
> with
> 512MiB each. When I look at system info, it says I only have 2GiB
> installed.
>
> I just don't see how 4GiB turns into 2GiB even with the graphics card ram
> subtracted out. I would expect to see around 3.3 to 3.5 GiB.
>
> Thanks for looking,
> Jason

Jason wrote:
> I've read all of the "I'm not seeing all of the 4GiB of ram" articles and
> none of them seem to match my problem. I have 2 sticks of 2GiB ram (Mushkin)
> installed in dual-channel. The bios on my mainboard (EVGA) recognizes all
> 4GiB of it, so that isn't the problem. I'm running SLI graphics cards with
> 512MiB each. When I look at system info, it says I only have 2GiB installed.

On Asus boards, it's common for it drop all the way down to 2 GB when
memory remapping is enabled in BIOS - when using 32-bit Vista or XP. If
that is the problem, you might win a few megabytes by disabling it.

I have seen reports of Vista after its boot up memory check only recognizing
one stick of RAM when the two sticks were not a matched pair running at the
same speed.
"Jason" <Jason@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B296AF54-FD30-4FA7-95C5-4CFACE289F37@microsoft.com...
> I've read all of the "I'm not seeing all of the 4GiB of ram" articles and
> none of them seem to match my problem. I have 2 sticks of 2GiB ram
> (Mushkin)
> installed in dual-channel. The bios on my mainboard (EVGA) recognizes all
> 4GiB of it, so that isn't the problem. I'm running SLI graphics cards
> with
> 512MiB each. When I look at system info, it says I only have 2GiB
> installed.
>
> I just don't see how 4GiB turns into 2GiB even with the graphics card ram
> subtracted out. I would expect to see around 3.3 to 3.5 GiB.
>
> Thanks for looking,
> Jason