4GB RAM, Inspiron i9400 and Vista x64

[mobilenvidia]

Just received 2x2GB sticks of 667Mhz CL5 RAM, and I thought, I'd share my thoughts on it.

Now we all know that Windows XP and Vista x86 versions are limited to 3GB of RAM anything above is wasted.

The 3-4GB address range is used for system resources.

Now I have Vista x64 Ultimate SP1 RC, and I wasn't sure how this would get on with limits.

The OS can handle over 4GB easily but I was in doubt over the Chipset set.

The Inspiron i9400/E1705 uses the i945 chipset a 667Mhz FSB and memory chipset.

I took out the 2x1GB 667Mhz sticks and replaced them with the 2x2GB.

Booted up, BIOS tells the system has changed memory and press a button to enter setup.

After this, the machine boots and all looks as it should.

I check the system properties and see 3325MB of installed memory, so about 700MB is wasted :)

So this now confirms that the i945 chipset is linited to 3.25GB.

Now I do believe that the newer i965 chipset (with 800Mhz Core 2 Duo's) do allow for 4GB and beyond with 64bit OS's.

Anyone with experience with this may like to reply back here with findings.

What does happen with the extra memory Vista x64 loads in another 200MB worth of stuff into memory.

On first boot with 2GB it used 800MB just to load the OS and all the bits and pieces.

Now with 3.25GB the OS takes up 1.05GB, at least now I have 2GB free as before only 1.2GB.

So let this be a lesson to you all, Vista wants AT LEAST 2GB this way everything is loaded into RAM and optimal performance is achieved.

This applies to Vista Utimate you could do with less RAM if running Vista basic which has no AERO effects but then you may as well not have an nVidia powered GPU either :)

Applications behave pretty well the same, 7zip (x64 version) uses 2.8GB settings by default instead of 1.4GB as with 2GB RAM.

But the drivers I compress to upload to the server must be too small to need more than 1.9GB (total) as the effect is the same with both 2 and 4GB RAM .

But using a total of 1.9GB with 2GB total RAM only leaves 100MB free, with 4GB RAM this still leaves 1GB+ free and other apps can still be opened, which is a bonus as I often have many apps on the go when working on drivers.

I bought the RAM from Ascent it cost me NZ$82ea (~US$65) delivered (with discount for prompt payment)

This I think is so cheap, both 2GB sticks were cheaper than 1x1GB stick over a year ago, whicj at the time I also though was cheapish.

I can highly reccomend getting one of these and keeping an existing 1GB stick to make 3GB total.

It will make loading of big apps and games smoother, less swapping to HD and overall better performance (even though slight)

One downer will be those that use Hibernate, it will take longer to get in to hibernation as there will be more memory to write to the HD.

The above applies to Vista which is VERY memory hungry, WinXP will absolutly swim with 3GB of RAM.

A very good explaination of how things work with RAM:

It's not matter of chipset, the 0.75 gigs you're missing are used for buffering graphics memory and maybe some other buffers (e.g. for sound card). Chipset memory support is related to module size, not the sum of RAM installed. So if it was for the chipset, it wouldn't recognize the modules at all.

In the 32bit Windows (XP or Vista), the whole 4GB address space is virtually available no matter how much RAM the system has. If there are less than 4 gigs of memory, the buffers are virtually mapped above the physical RAM addresses and applications "can" access all of the RAM. But as soon as the hardware buffer is needed, the required space is swapped to the disk and remapped to the virtual address space. However, with 4GB installed, there's no more address space for these virtual ranges and they are permanently reserved in the physical RAM. Therefore Windows indicates less than 4GB available.

Although 64bit Windows have address space as large as 16 million TB, for all 32bit applications (that's probably most of the apps you're using) they have to act as 32bit system. And again, these apps can access only the space that would be available on 32bit system. And this also explains why 64bit Vista uses so much RAM - it has loaded both 64bit and 32bit OS kernels to be able to run programs for both architectures.

[Guest Moochi]

Ummm...

my Inspiron 9300 has gone through Vista now back to XP even not missing out the ReadyBoost feature.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 RC1

Pentium M735 2.26Ghz

2GB DDR2 Ram 533Mhz 4-4-4-12 + 2GB Flash Ram = 4GB ram like in total

256MB nVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 380Mhz/1400Mhz GDDR2

80GB 5400RPM HDD

17" WXGA+ Ultrasharp 1440x900

My system is limited to 2GB now I have 4GB with XP SP3 RC1 + eBoostr

www.eboostr.com another program works exact same like ReadyBoost which is ONLY offered for Vista users.

eBoostr is made for XP users. yay!

[Guest Moochi]

Forgot to note that my SD Card for the eBoostr is a Panasonic 2GB SD Class 6 which is the fastest card 20MB/sec read and write.

[Guest Moochi]

eBoostr increase my battery life by x2...

Without eBoostr from 100% operating with Wireless and Full brightness: 2hrs 10min MAX

With eBoostr from 100% operating with Wireless and Full brightness: 4hrs 5min MAX

It's crazy by reducing HDD spins eating battery life faster.

[Arbeider]

I have a Gnote 17W25+ (MSI GX700) with a T7700, 4GB and Vista Ultimate 64Bit and have 2x2048MB 800MHz modules installed. Windows sees all of the 4GB without any problem. The only problem is that the FSB of this chipset to CPU is 800MHz but to the memory controller it's only 667MHz. I also have 1GB of intel turbo memory which adds another little boost. So yeah, the Intel PM965M chipset has no problems with 4 gigs of ram.

[mobilenvidia]

Cool, that is what I thought :)

Yes, it would have been nice if the i965 supported 800Mhz RAM, but alas SODIMMs are not readily availble in 800Mhz (if any)

[Jasperbones]

i have bought OCZ So-Dimm DDR2 800 CL5 2x 2048 MB

~ 70? + shipping

but it is running at DDR 667 CL4...

Vista 64 (Business) uses about 1,35GB Ram + my 2 GB SD-Card (20MB/s)

(Acer Aspire 5920 intel 965 chipset)

[Guest Guest]

Dell sucks....you should've went with a Sager or Asus

[FishLemon]

I just ordered a dell desktop with 4 Gb of RAM on a 32bit system. I was aware of this issue, but when I enquired I was told again and again that while windows will only "see" 3.25 Gb on system properties etc, other apps will be able to use the total capacity.

Have I just been had?

[mobilenvidia]

Only apps that can bypass the windows memory paging will access the last 750MB (not many)

[Tomcheck]

Hi,

I just looked up the Prices of Ram here in Germany and was astonished how they fell in the last months. I have 2 Gig of Samsung Pc667 Ram in my Laptop but i cant find any modules on the market. Is it possible to mix memory from different manufacturers? I would then keep one Samsung 1gig module and exchange the other by a 2gig. By the way: Does anybody know a good utility to scan out the whole hardware of a computer? I dont know my chipset for example, and if it could handle 4 Gig i would possibly change to 64 Bit Vista Business N. I'm now on 32. All sponsored by my University ;-)

Thx in advance

Tom

Edited January 9, 2008 by Tomcheck

[jessi3k3]

This is unfortunate to know. I was wondering about this same exact thing for my Toshiba P105 (pm945 chipset) and this is why I was reluctant from making the jump from 2->4 GB. Thanks for confirming this though. I did read over Toshiba's BIOS updates and one of its earlier BIOS updates it had an entry that stated that it optimized memory access. This is what the entry says

"Added the PCI_MEMORY_OPTIMIZATION option for 4GB of memory."

Can you check if you have the latest BIOS update from your provider to see if they have done something about this?

Also, with Vista SP1, you may be tricked on how much memory your system will have access to. Vista will now report how much memory you have installed, NOT how much memory it has access too. It will now show that you have 4GB in vista 32bit/64bit although you may only have access to 3.25 GB or so.

Edited January 9, 2008 by jessi3k3

[mobilenvidia]

Vista x64 for me reports 3.25GB as does the BIOS.

But this discussion here is good as a lot of people will be confused what happens after 3GB mark.

[Tomcheck]

Just recieved my pair of 2 gig Kingston Modules. I have the Intel PM965 Chipset. Bios shows correctly 4 gig but Vista Business N 32bit can only use 3.07 of them. Sad, but 3 gig are better than 2 and a got the ram for 70?, so all in all a good investment ;-) I'm thinking about changing to 64 bit. But i heard that for gaming 64 bit is not very suitable, is that right?

[Guest qee]

It's not matter of chipset, the 0.75 gigs you're missing are used for buffering graphics memory and maybe some other buffers (e.g. for sound card). Chipset memory support is related to module size, not the sum of RAM installed. So if it was for the chipset, it wouldn't recognize the modules at all.

In the 32bit Windows (XP or Vista), the whole 4GB address space is virtually available no matter how much RAM the system has. If there are less than 4 gigs of memory, the buffers are virtually mapped above the physical RAM addresses and applications "can" access all of the RAM. But as soon as the hardware buffer is needed, the required space is swapped to the disk and remapped to the virtual address space. However, with 4GB installed, there's no more address space for these virtual ranges and they are permanently reserved in the physical RAM. Therefore Windows indicates less than 4GB available.

Although 64bit Windows have address space as large as 16 million TB, for all 32bit applications (that's probably most of the apps you're using) they have to act as 32bit system. And again, these apps can access only the space that would be available on 32bit system. And this also explains why 64bit Vista uses so much RAM - it has loaded both 64bit and 32bit OS kernels to be able to run programs for both architectures.