H55 MotherBoard i5-650 64Bit 4GB < 4GB

[idata]

Good Evening, And Hello.

I'm Paul, I have an issue with the system build I have just completed [well hopefully completed !!]

I'm sure this may have been raised before so I appologise for that in advance.

My System config is

O/S : Win 7 64 Bit

Memory : Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9MoBo : Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2HCPU : Intel Core i5 650

Having built and installed the operating system, when entering control panel and looking at the system it states that 4GB RAM installed but something like 3.74GB RAM usable. I was just wondering why there is some 0.26GB of RAM not available. I thought It may be to do the the iGPU but It appears this persists even when a dedicated GPU is installed

Any Information would be most helpful. I'm no a mission to attempt to bottom this one out

Regards

Paul

[idata]

Hello and happy New Year.

I'm not an expert but I wanted to I wanted to tell you that it happens exactly the same to me. I have 4Gbs of RAM but it appears 2.99 GB usable.

Why? I'm not pretty sure, maybe the rest is taken by the grafic or something.

I would like an answer too =)

Greetings!

[idata]

Hi....2.99GB usable results in a lot of RAM allocated for iGPU. My figures are more like 0.26GB. Searching around it appears to be a "feature" of the chip set, but there is no real explanation as to why the system does not dynamically allocate RAM. More like a bug within the design of the chipset I suspect. Without reworking it cannot be fixed. It would be interesting to see how the RAM allocation varies if a graphically intensive application were running. I may contact intel direct to determine their view on this anomaly....Regards Paul

[RGiff]

This why you don't see all of your memory look at attached file OK.

[idata]

Robert, Thank For the Graphic. Sorry for my lack of knowledge on this front, but is this a chipset characteristic. I assume so. I do not really understand why this is particular to the H55. I would have though it would be inherent within all 1156 socket based boards. This is very strange........

Kind Regards

Paul

[RGiff]

The graphic was to show that there other things that use RAM resources besides the main board and the CPU.

[idata]

Thanks for the graphic, Robert. I also believe that also it depends on waht processor you have, or mainboard. Look, you have more RAM than I have and my processor is, theoritecally, more powerfull than yours. I have the Intel Core i7 k875

I don't know, if your computer is working fine then you shouldn't be worried.

Greetings to both!

[idata]

Hi, It was one of those instances, where I built a machine for a family member, then when initially checking it over looking at the system information within the control panel. I noticed the oddity of the missing RAM. I really just wanted to know where it had gone. My own PC is an old Socket 775 with a Q9450, there was no such anomaly with installed and available RAM. I was just curious as to why more advanced chipsets and processors exhibited this behaviour [i.e windows reporting less RAM than was physically installed] whereas my older system [and as I understand none H55 chipset] did/do not.

Regards

Paul

[RGiff]

The first graphics I posted was from a DX38BT , So I thought I'd Post one from a H55 Board. There's not much difference.

[idata]

Hi, I understand that Memory has to be used for other resources within the system. But I still do not understand why for this chipset windows states that less that the 4GB are available. Other chipsets to not [as I understand] exhibit this behaviour -or- is it simply Windows 7 is better at translating total installed RAM to "usable" RAM.

I must of course thank you for your time and effort you have spent providing me with answers thus far - it is most appreciated

Kind Regards

Paul

[RGiff]

On your keyboard hit Ctrl, Alt, Delete, all at the same time , That will bring up a screen where you can open Windows Task Manager, In task manager you can see ( live Usage of the RAM ) What you have total what is Cached and what is Availble, and what is Free ( not being used ) , You can also see a graph of the CPU working . This will show you usage and whats availble.

[idata]

if you knew how task manager in windows client draws its information you'd understand how useless that information is for this unlike http://live.sysinternals.com/procexp.exe http://live.sysinternals.com/procexp.exe that said android2008's assertion that windows 7 is better somehow translating installed to usable ram is pretty close to the mark...I'm going to ignore the history lesson and Microsoft UI changelog for this explanation and stay technical

first know it isn't just Intel, ClarkDale, H55, i5-650 or anything else specific to your configuration including Windows 7, you're just not being lied to by the system like would have been the case in the past (:

each and every logical device in your system with firmware (which is any PnP/USB/PCI 'device') requires enough RAM reservations to 'cache' a copy of its firmware code for execution as well as to store any settings that can by changed by the driver/user/OS or any telemetry provided simply for the device to be recognized and initialized properly and to continue operating properly . . . that's before you even consider devices that much reserve larger memory ranges for 'capacity' and 'utility' like GPUs

(this is true of even higher-end dual-GPU cards with multi-GB frame buffers onboard, not limited to integrated Gfx, though those definitely require memory allocations idsproportionate to their capabilities even in modern processor-integrated Gfx)

according to http://ark.intel.com/compare/42703,43546 Compare Intel&# 174; Products the H55 chipset supports 12 initial usb ports, 6 sata ports, dual displays ofrom processor-integrated gfx, onboard audio, gigabit ethernet and 6 PCIe 2.x channels

each of those must have roughly 1MB allocated by default, much more in the case of audio, video, networking and if your PCIe devices have a long chain of logical devices, such as multiport RAID HBAs or NICs

you can view the hardware/firmware memory reservations in Windows Vista or higher via System Information [msinfo32] "Hardware Resources" --->> 'Memory' and view the relationship between logical hardware resources in Device Manager [devmgmt.msc] 'View' --->> "Devices by Connection" and "Resources by Connection"