Windows 7 - Who do I believe - Windows or CPUZ

Hi all

I put a 4GB module into my Acer netbook -- works just fine but :

Windows 7 says I have 4 GB RAM in the computer

BIOS says I have 4 GB RAM in the computer


CPU-Z says I have 2 GB RAM in the computer

What gives ???


Judging by performance even on this farly low powered machine I can bring up 2 XP Virtual machines on it concurrently with reasonable performance !!!! which I couldn't do before upgrading the memory. I assume it IS using 4 GB.

However CPU_Z is usually reliable so is there an INFALLIBLE test to see how much Windows is actually seeing and using.

screenshots enc.

Try SIW.

Yeah. It's called msinfo32.exe.

Thanks


Cheers
jimbo

CPUZ and Windows aren't disagreeing. Notice that Windows says "2.75GB usable?"

If you look at the SPD info on the 4GB module, it probably says "4GB."

You can only address 2.75GB (which is something like 2816MB, if not exactly) of RAM in Windows for whatever reason. You may be using a 32-bit operating system. It could be anything.

I actually think they are disagreeing . . the only reason for the discrepancy I can think of is if you have on on-board graphics adapter and a portion of your system RAM is being used by the adapter . .

Yes. CPUz I believe. It is showing what windows is seeing. Cpuz is showing 2818MB of ram. If it was onlt\y showing 2GB it would be 2048MB. So, it is showing the amount windows is seeing as useable. Thats my opinion.

I don't think they are disagreeing at all it's showing 2gb's single channel, not dual channel.

Actually CPU-Z is not correct. Why is the question??? Here's my CPU-Z showing my 6gig of memory installed.



Jimbo update to CPU-Z version 1.56. Notice you have v1.52

Also notice is says single channel. Don't know anything about notebook memory so it's possible CPU-Z could be confused? But that's just a guess as I can't see how CPU-Z wouldn't read a notebook correctly (again, a guess).

Anyway updating to the latest version should confirm.

My two cents.

Exactly. That field in CPU-Z shows installed memory, not available memory . . . hence why I'm curious to know if you are using on on-board graphics adapter jimbo45?