New
#1
Perhaps this will explain:
The system memory that is reported in the System Information dialog box in Windows Vista is less than you expect if 4 GB of RAM is installedNote When the physical RAM that is installed on a computer equals the address space that is supported by the chipset, the total system memory that is available to the operating system is always less than the physical RAM that is installed. For example, consider a computer that has an Intel 975X chipset that supports 8 GB of address space. If you install 8 GB of RAM, the system memory that is available to the operating system will be reduced by the PCI configuration requirements. In this scenario, PCI configuration requirements reduce the memory that is available to the operating system by an amount that is between approximately 200 MB and approximately 1 GB. The reduction depends on the configuration.
Although the article is for Vista, the same would apply for W7.
hmm......strange it has never reported this before..??, all apps up until the reinstall have shown 8192mb.
it could have something to do with the 2nd GPU i added.
cheers.... :)
Not sure, but on some BIOSs there is an option regarding video shadowing that permits a GPU to share space with the physical ram, but I wouldn't have thought that would be the case with your hardware. However, I just noticed that you have paired an ATI card with an Nvidia card, and I have no idea of what to expect from that.
Open Resource Monitor and check out the Physical Memory diagram.
I bet a big portion is Hardware Reserved, most likely the Graphics card. (Notorious with Nvidia)