Windows 7 64-bit and still using only 3GB of RAM

A

adiabatic

New Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
6
I've installed Windows 7 on a Toshiba A100-VA9 laptop (Core2Duo T5500 [64-bit capable], Intel 945 chipset, 4GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB video). A little investigation shows Windows using 3GB and 1GB of RAM is being assigned to the video card in addition to its 256 MB of dedicated RAM.

Any ideas here?

Windows 7 64-bit runs fine, seems stable but I really want to use all my RAM. Previously I was running Vista 32-bit so I can't compare memory availability with Vista 64-bit.
 
Solution

Have you looked in the BIOS to see if the amount of system ram allocated to video is configured there?
Sort by date Sort by votes
That's probably because your PC isn't pulling for anywhere near that 3 GB.
It assigns the extra video memory based on need.
If you were actually using something that took the 4 GB of RAM (Like editing a large movie, or doing a high res photo manipulation in Photoshop) then you'd see the PC use all or close to all of that RAM.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Hm. Dynamically allocated VRAM above the 256 MB on-board would be an undocumented feature on this laptop. I'll load up the applications and see what happens.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
pretty simple: right click on my computer -> properties and just see how much RAM windows detects. if it's 4GB you're alright.

regards
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kyle said:
That's probably because your PC isn't pulling for anywhere near that 3 GB.
It assigns the extra video memory based on need.
Click to expand...

After a bit of reading I've discovered that the onboard video has 128MB dedicated VRAM + 128MB system RAM. What seems to happen with more than 3GB installed is Vista and Windows7 assigning all RAM above 3GB to the video card.

I'd assume that memory would be released if needed but it is just silly to see 1GB being assigned to VRAM... that's a totally unnecessary amount of RAM even as a starting point for a dynamic number.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Have you looked in the BIOS to see if the amount of system ram allocated to video is configured there?
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
  • Solved
Windows 7 Massive Physical Memory Usage on Windows 64 bit
Replies
12
Views
5K
Saltgrass
V
  • Solved
Windows 7 Window 7 64 bit freezing when streaming video e.g Youtube, PPTV etc
Replies
17
Views
8K
Adamsappleone
A
M
  • Solved
Windows 7 Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit
Replies
5
Views
2K
Medico
B
  • Solved
Windows 7 Random BSOD Win 7 64-bit
Replies
4
Views
10K
cybercore
H
  • Solved
Windows 7 Windows 7 64 Bit Feezes when going from 4gb to 6gb of ram.
Replies
1
Views
2K
Joe S
J