Hardware reserved Memory?

It does make you wonder why Microsoft doesn't just enable the extra memory in 32-bit Windows for special usages - a default RAM disk, supplemental pagefile.sys for the current session or just a place to use for Superfetch/Readyboost caching instead of regular main memory.

Then again, with the ongoing 64-bit crusade this is becoming less and less relevant anyway.

Interesting point in case: I actually use a RAM disk on my laptop with 4GB RAM in the invisible memory. Windows only sees 2.75GB because the onboard video takes a 256MB chunk from 2.75GB to 3GB for itself. Only a few MB above 3GB is actually wasted to map PCI address space, so I'm able to use nearly a full gigabyte for the RAM disk.

(I've since discovered that the laptop's BIOS maps the fourth GB of RAM to an address space from 4096MB to 5120MB, leaving a 1GB hole between 3072MB and 4096MB. Crazy!)

I've arranged for pagefile.sys to live exclusively in that RAM disk so I don't need one on the HD, saving me extra space - and in terms of security, it's the ultimate solution since the pagefile is zapped into nothingness with every reboot. :)

This is what that is,

Video Memory Virtualization - A Brief Guide

The card doesn't map its memory into the PCI address space all at once. The claim that you'll lose whatever onboard RAM the card has is a myth.

It does map its onboard memory through a much smaller window to transfer data to and from the CPU/system RAM. Portions of the videocard's onboard memory are dynamically mapped in and out as needed through that window.

As for the 2417MB shown in DXDiag, that's the amount of shared system memory your card can use if its own onboard memory fills up completely (1GB onboard plus ~1417MB system RAM), but Windows has the last word on that. Don't worry, it doesn't mean the card actually keeps 1417MB of your RAM from being usable.

whs said:

Why don't you just leave it as is. There is no reasonable way to make use of the 750MBs with a x86 system. If you want to use that total RAM, you will have to get a x64 system. If you keep playing around with it, you will just ruin your system.

My system is x64 capable but noway i'm going to reinstall all the applications to use 64 bit os.