I understand the 32 bit Vista limit in addressing only 4Gb of memory space but I have a very specific question:
I have 3Gb installed on a Vista 32 bit system with a 512Mb video card, MSI X-58 board, Intel i7, 920 CPU.
System Information currently shows:
Installed Memory: 3.00Gb
Available Physical Memory: 1.73 Gb
My understanding is that the 512Mb video card occupies memory addresses between 4.0Gb and 3.5Gb and so does not subtract from the 3.0Gb of physical memory (correct my understanding if wrong)
My Question: If I install another 1Gb of RAM, will my Available Memory increase to 2.73Gb?
Thanks, Bob423
Best Answer
Your comment describes it perfectly (I've reformatted & corrected the one typo):
The "Available Physical Memory" isn't what your system is able to access, it's what's left after everything running has its memory allocated. Every running program and service eats up some memory, so this seems perfectly normal to me (especially since Vista's memory footprint is fairly large).
Your system recognizes its full 3 GB of RAM. But it has to allocate for all your running software. This value will fluctuate depending on exactly what your machine is running at any given moment, and even what those particular apps are doing.
If you add a 1GB chip, you'll probably see between 256 and 512 meg additional, depending on all of the various hardware resources in the machine, in a 32-bit environment. In a 64-bit environment, you would see the whole GB. However, this will be shown as installed and total physical memory -- not necessarily as "available" physical memory, as again, that value fluctuates depending on what your machine is doing.
In any event, you should note that under normal circumstances in a 32-bit environment, most apps will not be (individually) able to use more than 2GB at a time. However, for the vast majority of end users, this should not be an issue.