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Author Topic: RAM Issue  (Read 1178 times)

Offline Serenity

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RAM Issue
« on: March 06, 2009, 03:43:44 PM »
Alright, I recently purchased 2, 1GB RAM sticks to add to the two 512MB RAM sticks I already had in the computer. While my computer reads them just fine according to the control panel, a game I have, Pacific Storm: Allies, reads only 2GB of RAM instead of 3. This doesn't make sense as there was never only 2GB of RAM in the system. Any ideas?
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Offline MrRiplEy[H]

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2009, 04:32:01 PM »
Quote from: Serenity on March 06, 2009, 03:43:44 PM
Alright, I recently purchased 2, 1GB RAM sticks to add to the two 512MB RAM sticks I already had in the computer. While my computer reads them just fine according to the control panel, a game I have, Pacific Storm: Allies, reads only 2GB of RAM instead of 3. This doesn't make sense as there was never only 2GB of RAM in the system. Any ideas?

A 32-bit application on a 32-bit OS can use only 2Gb of ram at once unless it's specifically coded to use a larger memory.
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Offline Serenity

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2009, 04:42:32 PM »
Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on March 06, 2009, 04:32:01 PM
A 32-bit application on a 32-bit OS can use only 2Gb of ram at once unless it's specifically coded to use a larger memory.

Ah, thank you. So now I am wondering why this game is so SLLLOOOOOOWW on this computer if I have the max RAM and a good vid. card...
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Offline BaldEagl

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2009, 06:13:20 PM »
Quote from: Serenity on March 06, 2009, 04:42:32 PM
Ah, thank you. So now I am wondering why this game is so SLLLOOOOOOWW on this computer if I have the max RAM and a good vid. card...

Try removing the two 512 chips.  Also make sure the 1 Gb chips are in the bank closest to the CPU.
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Offline Wingnutt

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2009, 05:18:48 PM »
mismatching ram can do funky stuff.

believe it or not you may actually have better overall system performance if you yank the 512 sticks and just go with just the 2gb sticks..  sounds odd but it can happen.
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Offline Serenity

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2009, 05:57:19 PM »
Quote from: Wingnutt on March 08, 2009, 05:18:48 PM
mismatching ram can do funky stuff.

believe it or not you may actually have better overall system performance if you yank the 512 sticks and just go with just the 2gb sticks..  sounds odd but it can happen.

Honestly, when I get my first paycheck, I'm probably just going to replace the 512s with another 1GB
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Offline TheZohan

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2009, 07:04:38 PM »
Quote from: MrRiplEy[H] on March 06, 2009, 04:32:01 PM
A 32-bit application on a 32-bit OS can use only 2Gb of ram at once unless it's specifically coded to use a larger memory.

no a 32 bit OS can read 3.25 GB of memory

also  64 bit OS can read 16.8 terabytes of memory but its limited to the motherboard


also what is the specs of your motherboard? best place to start for memory configuration.

what are the densities of your ram chips? double sided?

you may only be able to put 2GBs on the board 4 x 512 meg

theres alot of factors.
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Offline Serenity

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2009, 07:06:06 PM »
Quote from: TheZohan on March 08, 2009, 07:04:38 PM
no a 32 bit OS can read 3.25 GB of memory

also  64 bit OS can read 16.8 terabytes of memory but its limited to the motherboard


also what is the specs of your motherboard? best place to start for memory configuration.

what are the densities of your ram chips? double sided?

you may only be able to put 2GBs on the board 4 x 512 meg

theres alot of factors.


Um... Motherboard is an AMD Athalon 4200 X2 I think? As for the RAM chips... single sided I believe.
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Offline TheZohan

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2009, 07:18:18 PM »
your cpu chip is a AMD 4200 x2 your motherboard is not ..

whats the brand and model of your motherboard. usually silkscreened on it ..
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Offline MrRiplEy[H]

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2009, 07:20:35 PM »
Quote from: TheZohan on March 08, 2009, 07:04:38 PM
no a 32 bit OS can read 3.25 GB of memory

No a 32-bit Windows OS is limited to 4Gb addressable memoryspace of which system peripherals such as videomemory take their own portion typically leaving 3-3,5Gb visible to the applications.

This however has nothing to do with the 2Gb limit _per application_.
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Offline Serenity

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2009, 07:54:37 PM »
Quote from: TheZohan on March 08, 2009, 07:18:18 PM
your cpu chip is a AMD 4200 x2 your motherboard is not ..

whats the brand and model of your motherboard. usually silkscreened on it ..

Hmm... I don't recall ever seeing anything silkscreened on anything when I have opened up the tower... Oh well, Ill take a look next time I'm near the computer.
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Offline TheZohan

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2009, 08:08:33 PM »
okay a 32 bit OS can see 4 GB of ram .. the OS is bios limited to only 3.25 though

the windows 32 bit kernel can only utilize 2 GB's at a time

doing a google on the subject i also found out that even with X64 OS you can limited to 3.25GB cause of the chipset
« Last Edit: March 08, 2009, 09:29:34 PM by TheZohan »
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Offline BaldEagl

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2009, 10:32:48 PM »
Quote from: TheZohan on March 08, 2009, 08:08:33 PM
the OS is bios limited to only 3.25 though

The BIOS has not one single thing to do with the RAM limitation of a 32 bit operating system.  If it did you'd have to change your BIOS to upgrade to a 64 bit OS and you don't need to do that.

A 32 bit OS is limited to 4 Gb addressable memory.  Video memory (although not nessesarily on a one to one ratio), USB ports and devices, the motherboard itself and other system devices eat into that.  Two otherwise identical machines with different motherboards can show great discrepencies in visible memory.

Regardless of that mixing memory modules can cause issues which is why I recommended pulling the two 512 chips to see if it helped.  Also, sometimes just utilizing all four memory slots will cause problems.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2009, 10:35:04 PM by BaldEagl »
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Offline TheZohan

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2009, 10:41:24 PM »
umm i hate to differ .. you find 1 person with a computer running a windows 32 bit OS and says 4GB in there properties i will leave this game and never post again again .. EVER!!!

i bet you dont have the ball to make that same bet!

and i even bet skuzzy will back me up on that one!


but in reguards to his motherboard and memory .. if the slots only accept 512's then he will only see 1 GB with 2 - 1GBS .. why i told him to find the model of his motherboard and look at the manual to check .. some motherboard only see 4 x 512 maxing out at 2GB. expecally if hes running a 939 Motherboard.. i been doing this for 20 years i think i know what i am talking about

oh and baldeagl

hate to bust your bubble

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=2142293

and a even better article

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1035670&highlight=%2F3gb

and one from asus

http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5P800
« Last Edit: March 08, 2009, 10:56:04 PM by TheZohan »
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Offline BaldEagl

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Re: RAM Issue
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2009, 10:58:16 PM »
Quote from: TheZohan on March 08, 2009, 10:41:24 PM
umm i hate to differ .. you find 1 person with a computer running a windows 32 bit OS and says 4GB in there properties i will leave this game and never post again again .. EVER!!!

i bet you dont have the ball to make that same bet!

and i even bet skuzzy will back me up on that one!

A 32 Bit OS will never see the full 4 Gb of memory for the exact reasons I stated so you are correect; no 32 bit OS will "see" it all because it's already deducted video RAM, etc., etc., etc.

Trust me.  I've done a lot of reasearch on this topic so I don't need to go look at your articles.
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