Should I or Shouldn't I?

[Hoody123]

I just got a new Advent Roma 3001 a budget laptop.
It has 4GB ram, with Windows 7 32-bit with an integrated intel mobile 4 series.

As you can see Im only getting 2.93gb of my 4gb ram usable

Now i've read (on this forum ) that this is down to me being on 32-bit windows as 32 bit only shows 4gb ram.
Now I'm wondering, if I format my laptop with 64 bit windows, will I get my full 4gb ram and is it safe too, and is it worth it because my harddrive is already packed with all my files so should I or shouldn't I?

Thanks

 

[DocBrown]

Just worked on this yesterday for another member

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...only-2-93gb-usable-my-4gb-ram.html#post886435


There are several screen snips that might help you in these 4 pages

 

[Hoody123]

That person has 64-bit already though.. Im on 32 bit and I tried going into advanced options and max memory is already unchecked and ive tried checking it and rebooting and still same so I unchecked it again

 

[DocBrown]

That person has 64-bit already though.. Im on 32 bit and I tried going into advanced options and max memory is already unchecked and ive tried checking it and rebooting and still same so I unchecked it again

Some Bios have a setting that needs to be looked at for memory allowcation.
You will never get the full 4gb because of a laptop on board video card.

 

[Hoody123]

That person has 64-bit already though.. Im on 32 bit and I tried going into advanced options and max memory is already unchecked and ive tried checking it and rebooting and still same so I unchecked it again

Some Bios have a setting that needs to be looked at for memory allowcation.
You will never get the full 4gb because of a laptop on board video card.

But wouldn't installing 64-bit allow me 4gb? or am I getting it all wrong ?

 

[DocBrown]

That person has 64-bit already though.. Im on 32 bit and I tried going into advanced options and max memory is already unchecked and ive tried checking it and rebooting and still same so I unchecked it again

Some Bios have a setting that needs to be looked at for memory allowcation.
You will never get the full 4gb because of a laptop on board video card.

But wouldn't installing 64-bit allow me 4gb? or am I getting it all wrong ?

32bit allows 4gb & 64bit allows :

While the maximum RAM limit for 32-bit Windows 7 editions is 4GB, when it comes to the 64-bit editions, the amount of memory that the OS can address depends on which edition you are running.
Here are the upper RAM limits for the different editions of Windows 7:

• Starter: 8GB
• Home Basic: 8GB
• Home Premium: 16GB
• Professional: 192GB
• Enterprise: 192GB
• Ultimate: 192GB

 

[Krispy1]

maximum ram that can be used for 32 bit is 3.25gb

the other amount is being used for video memory this is why 2.93 is showing usable

 

[Wishmaster]

Actually its addressing space.

32bit allows 4Gb of address space.

So, in a nut shell (assuming 4Gb are installed) its 4GB minus Video memory = approx amount of RAM useable by the OS.


To hopefully better explain:
Lets assume you have a dedicated graphics card that has 512MB RAM.

With a 32bit system, you have 4Gb of address space.
This means that you have 4GB of space to map everything to. (RAM, Video cards etc).

So, 4GB RAM + 512MB Graphics Card= 4.5 GB total adress space.
The system doesnt not have the room to address it all.
So it will address all periphials first, in this case a 512MB GPU, then assign what space is left to map physical RAM, leaving you a useable 3.5GB approx out of 4GB installed.

With a 64bit OS, that address space is significantly more as DocBrown has shown above.

So the system is able to address the 4GB of physical RAM installed, as well as your dedicated graphics card on board RAM (in this case 512MB) leaving you 4GB of useable system memory out 4GB installed.
And a total of approx. 4.5GB of address space assigned.


However, as DocBrown also pointed out, you will still have less 4GB of useable RAM however with a 64bit OS.

The reason is, onboard video does not have its own RAM.
So it must borrow memory form somewhere. So it does so from the installed system RAM at whatever value it is set at in the bios.

In your case, it is not an issue of needing more addressing space to assign everything.
The integrated GPU itself must borrow its RAM from the system itself.
Even with a 64bit OS, you will still have less RAm useable than is installed in the system.

With a integrated GPU, how a 64bit system can help is amount of RAm it can adress.
So if you were to put 8Gb into a 32bit OS, youd have the useable RAM you do now.
If under 64 bit, it would raise, minus the set value your integrated GPU uses (if set to 512MB it would show 7.5GB useable out of 8GB)

 

[Krispy1]

no wishmaster you are incorrect

the maximum 32 bits could possibly use including the total addressable memory is 4gb, so if u had a 512mb portion going to video the most ram thats possible is 3.5gb not 4.5gb. and in pretty much every case the most ram 32bit windows will ever recognize is 3.25gb

 

[Petey7]

Kirspy I have seen with my own eyes 32-bit windows address 3.5GB. 3.25 is an average.

 

[stormy13]

But wouldn't installing 64-bit allow me 4gb?

In most cases, yes. In the case of your laptop, from what I can find about its specs,

UKT Support - Advent Roma 3001 Laptop

it only supports up to 4 GB of ram. That in and of itself isn't the problem as far as 64 bit and 4 GB of ram. The problem comes up if the 4 GB max is a chipset limit as well, which when that occurs causes this to happen,

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 installed

Note 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.

Unless there is an option in the bios for memory remapping (required to push the virtual addressing space above the 4 GB limit), even with 64 bit Windows you will still see similar for available memory.

 

[Jacee]

This is what my Win7 Ultimate 32bit is showing

 

[Wishmaster]

no wishmaster you are incorrect

the maximum 32 bits could possibly use including the total addressable memory is 4gb, so if u had a 512mb portion going to video the most ram thats possible is 3.5gb not 4.5gb. and in pretty much every case the most ram 32bit windows will ever recognize is 3.25gb

I think you misunderstand.

In order for the system to show complete use of 4GB of installed physical RAM, + a 512 graphics card for example:

It must address them, for a total of 4.5GB of space.
4GB physical RAM + 512 for the video card= 4.5GB
(or whatever size the video card has)
Of course, there may also be other things that need to be addresed.

32bit can only address (by default settings) 4GB of space.
Physical RAM gets addressed last. Under 32bit, Amount of RAM available will be 4GB minus everything else that gets addressed first.


64bit is capable of addressing all of this, and still have full use of installed RAM.

Granted, there are ways to increase a 32bit systems addressing space, but thats a different subject entirely.

But, if the system must borrow video RAM from the systems physical system memory, (integrated graphics) it will always show less than installed,
as addressing space can not solve that. Even under 64bit.

Or perhaps I am completely misunderstanding it all..

 

[Jacee]

Hoody123Should I or Shouldn't I?
I just got a new Advent Roma 3001 a budget laptop.
It has 4GB ram, with Windows 7 32-bit with an integrated intel mobile 4 series.

As you can see Im only getting 2.93gb of my 4gb ram usable

What is RAM? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary

 

[Krispy1]

no wishmaster you are incorrect

the maximum 32 bits could possibly use including the total addressable memory is 4gb, so if u had a 512mb portion going to video the most ram thats possible is 3.5gb not 4.5gb. and in pretty much every case the most ram 32bit windows will ever recognize is 3.25gb

I think you misunderstand.

In order for the system to show complete use of 4GB of installed physical RAM, + a 512 graphics card for example:

It must address them, for a total of 4.5GB of space.
4GB physical RAM + 512 for the video card= 4.5GB
(or whatever size the video card has)
Of course, there may also be other things that need to be addresed.

32bit can only address (by default settings) 4GB of space.
Physical RAM gets addressed last. Under 32bit, Amount of RAM available will be 4GB minus everything else that gets addressed first.


64bit is capable of addressing all of this, and still have full use of installed RAM.

Granted, there are ways to increase a 32bit systems addressing space, but thats a different subject entirely.

But, if the system must borrow video RAM from the systems physical system memory, (integrated graphics) it will always show less than installed,
as addressing space can not solve that. Even under 64bit.

Or perhaps I am completely misunderstanding it all..

you are still incorrect.

the total addressable ram for 32bit is 4gb this includes peripherals like the video memory.

u can read this for some more info 3 GB barrier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have the DVD and enough HD space to install a Dual Boot to test 64 bit?

 

[DirtRider]

Hoody I suppose the question to ask here is this. Are you actually needing to have more RAM avalable for what you are doing. You can check this by right clicking on your task bar and opening task manager. Now click on performance and then recourse monitor. This will give you a detailed look at what you are using your RAM on. So will the pain of having to do a fresh install 64 bit to gain a small amount of memory be worth it to you