upgraded ram

action jackson

hi,

a little bit concerned !

i upgraded my 2gb ram corsair 800 mhz ddr2 build to 6gb ram, bought an extra 4 gb corsair 800 mhz ddr2, however under basic system info it says I only have 3.5 ! even weirder when i ran a detailed scan under system tools it says I have 6 again !

any advice ?

thanks

GhostInTheRuins

Are you using a 64bit OS?

TerrorFirmer

As above probably that you are using a 32-bit OS which can't use that much ram. The missing .5Gb is taken by windows/video cards/etc. For example, I have 4gb of ram on XP 32-bit, but I have dual video cards, so Windows only has 2.5Gb available to it.

action jackson

that is probably it !

so how do you tell what bits the OS has ?

although i am sure that it is 32bit. so is xp 32bit restricted to 3.5 gb ram ?

thanks !

also, i have a nvidia 8600 gt 256 on duo core 2.33, any point in adding another vid card ? or would this be a pointless exercise as now it has become clear my OS is restricted.

i am now running 155 fps on hl2, which is pretty good from what i can gather. although this came from the video stress test that comes with the game. is this 100% accurate ? or is there a better way to test Frames per second ?

my mb can go upto 8 mb ddr2 ram with dual gfx / sli. (asus p5 job)

i am in mood for serious upgrade as had current spec for about 6 months and recently played crysis and was not best pleased with output.

thanks doubly in advance !

TerrorFirmer

Yes, upgrading your card will strip a little more available memory away but that's not a reason to ditch the idea; the 8600GT is a pretty poor card for modern gaming and 8600GT Sli makes no sense when cards like the 8800GS XXX can be hard for as little as 90 euro and would absolutely make mince meat of dual 8600GT's in any game. The 8600GT is fine for older games like Half Life 2 though, which is very hardware friendly. 8600GT Sli would probably benefit you quite a bit here; but try running anything new with 8600GT SLI - Like Crysis, as you've mentioned - and it would still, at the end of the day, be a less then satisfactory experience. The 8600GT is only 256mb and 128-bit, no escaping that. Sli is only worth considering if a) You get a very cheap 8600GT or b) you have a decent and cheap single card to begin with, which sadly the 8600GT is not. You can use something like Fraps to measure FPS in-game though the Stress Test is pretty good and a valid benchmark.

yoyo

action jackson wrote: »

that is probably it !

so how do you tell what bits the OS has ?

although i am sure that it is 32bit. so is xp 32bit restricted to 3.5 gb ram ?

thanks !

also, i have a nvidia 8600 gt 256 on duo core 2.33, any point in adding another vid card ? or would this be a pointless exercise as now it has become clear my OS is restricted.

i am now running 155 fps on hl2, which is pretty good from what i can gather. although this came from the video stress test that comes with the game. is this 100% accurate ? or is there a better way to test Frames per second ?

my mb can go upto 8 mb ddr2 ram with dual gfx / sli. (asus p5 job)

i am in mood for serious upgrade as had current spec for about 6 months and recently played crysis and was not best pleased with output.

thanks doubly in advance !

Get a copy of Vista 64Bit, OEM copies can be had cheap enough, no point in having 6 gig of ram and half it going to waste, good luck

Nick