[asitagrawal]

Hi,

Could anyone help me understand what is meant by "......maximum 4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM - in the case of 4 GB, a portion of the system memory over 3 GB might not be available to the operating system" ?

This statement is mentioned under then RAM specifcations, for instance, "RAM: 2 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM (2*1024 MB - no free slots available), maximum 4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM - in the case of 4 GB, a portion of the system memory over 3 GB might not be available to the operating system"

I do not understand, whether going for RAM more than 2 GB is of any advantage or not ?

Please advice.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Asitagrawal and welcome to PCWorld. :-)




Depending on your Operating System, and other system configurations, the peak range of memory is between 3GBs and 3.5GBs of memory. Since we really do not know anything about your system, based on the information you have provided, let's use some examples:

- 32bit version of Windows XP with onboard (integrated) video card - Approximately 3GBs of memory

- 32bit version of Windows XP with PCI, PCI-Express, or AGP video card - Approximately 3.5GB - 4GBs of memory (My previous system reached 4GBs)

- 64bit version of Windows XP - 4GBs of memory

- All versions of Windows Vista - 4GBs of memory (Vista Starter Operating System maximum is only 1GB of memory)




Depending on the computer specifications, the vast majority of computer users will max out at approximately 3GBs of memory.

[VladTheImpaler1990]

".maximum 4 GB DDR2-667
SDRAM - in the case of 4 GB, a portion of the system memory over 3 GB
might not be available to the operating system" ?

It means that your mother board will only use up to 4 gigs of ram when it goes over that it will be only be able to use 4 gigs, like lets say you have 5 gigs of ram, the maximum the mother baord will use is 4 so the other gig is useless.

With the no free slots available means that you only have two slots that can fit memory on your laptop that means that if you want to upgrade then you will have to remove one of the 1 gig of memory.

More than 2 gigs it depends if you are playing games or not and if you have on board graphics, if it has onboard graphics then 2gigs is enough. Most computers these days have about 2 gigs that is recommended.

[asitagrawal]

Hi,
Thanks for a quick reply :)

The system is config is like this:

Processor: Intel® Centrino® Duo processor technology with Intel® Core^TM^2 Duo processor T8300 (2.4 GHz and 800 MHz FSB) and Intel® PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n

OS: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (English or Dutch version)

HDD: 300 GB Serial ATA 4200 rpm hard disk drive

RAM: 4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM (2*2048 MB), maximum 4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM - a portion of the system memory over 3 GB might not be available to the operating system

Screen: 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) Widescreen X-black LCD screen with double lamp technology

Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GS graphics processing unit with Total Available Graphics Memory of 1023 MB and dedicated Video Memory of 256 MB

Whats ur advice about this model ?

Please note: The processor and RAM being on the higer end..the HDD rpm is just 4200 !! .. . will this config actually be successful ? or the HDD with rpm 4200 could prove to be a bottleneck ?? High Processort, High RAM .but slow HDD... what say ?

[rgreen4]

Part of the 4GB of system memory will be made available to video, this is sometime referred to as the video hole as it is in the middle of the memory map, not the top. It goes back to the way memory was allocated when Windows went to the 32 bit mapping with the advent of the 80386 processor, which is why sometimes you see the architecture referred to a i386.

Your graphics card will access up to 1,023 MB of memory, yet has only 256MB on the chip, so the rest has to come from somewhere - the system memory. Since the system memory is 4,096 MB simply subtract the difference in the video access and onboard (767 MB) and you are left with 3,329 MB or 3.25 GB (1 GB = 1,024 MB).

[asitagrawal]

Hi..

I would like your advice on the following configuration plz:

Processor:Intel® Centrino® Duo processor technology with Intel® Core^TM^2 Duo processor T8300 (2.40 GHz and 800 MHz FSB) and Intel® PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g/n

OS: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (English or Dutch version)

HDD: 250 GB Serial ATA 5400 rpm hard disk drive

RAM. 2 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM (2*1024 MB - no free slots available), maximum 4 GB DDR2-667 SDRAM - in the case of 4GB, a portion of the system memory over 3GB might not be available to the operating system

Screen: 14.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) Widescreen X-black LCD screen

Graphics: ATI® Mobility RADEON^TM^ X2300 graphics processing unit with Total Available Graphics Memory of 831 MB



basically, I am confused to make a choice between NVIDIA and ATI .. I would be a Windows user .



Thanks :)

[mphenterprises]

asitagrawal said:

basically, I am confused to make a choice between NVIDIA and ATI .. I would be a Windows user .

So is your concern truly regarding memory or regarding the installation of a video card? If you only have 2GBs of available memory, I do not think your concerns regarding maximum memory come into play. Now, if you are considering increasing the memory, I would advise only increasing the memory to a total of 3GBs. If you max out your memory (4GBs - 2GBs per memory slot) either video card may share that memory and you will only end up with about 3.25-3.5GBs of memory.

Additionally, if your existing video card is integrated into the laptop's motherboard, you are pretty much stuck with what you have. Laptops are not as upgradeable as Desktops.

[RastaMon]

Quote

I would advise only increasing the memory to a total of 3GBs.

I'm not sure I agree. Given the small price difference (~$25) between a 3 GiB kit and a 4 GiB kit, it seems advantageous to upgrade to 4 GiB RAM to get that extra little bit of performance. It may only result in an extra .25 - .5 GiB, but that's an extra 8-17 percent increase over 3 GiB. Additionally, using matched memory capacities and speeds offers its own minor performance benefits.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Rasta. Thank you for that. You can't argue with the numbers. I was looking at his or her situation from a cost perspective. You are absolutely right on the fact that matched memory chips offer their own benefit.

[RastaMon]

Quote

Hi Rasta. Thank you for that. You can't argue with the numbers. I was looking at his or her situation from a cost perspective. You are absolutely right on the fact that matched memory chips offer their own benefit.

A few months back, I upgraded my MacBook to 3 GiB instead of 4 GiB, because 4 GiB kits were substantially more expensive. Fortunately for consumers, the price of quality RAM has been dropping rapidly. If I were upgrading from 1 GiB today, I would definitely pay the small premium for the extra 1 GiB, even though only a small portion can be recognized. In fact, I may still upgrade to 4 GiB, if for no other reason than to find out first hand exactly how it affects performance.

Here's an interesting link comparing the speeds of a MacBook with several different memory configurations, including matched and unmatched sets. It's a different setup than the OP is considering, but it should offer a general idea of the effects of more memory and matched memory.

[rgreen4]

Rastamon - I agree with you as well. I was surprised to see some laptops touting 3GB memory, knowing fullwell they only have two slots and that means the memory will be unbalanced.

I just order the second 2 GB for my machine with the E6750 knowing full well with 32 bit OS it won't recognize all of it, but someday down the road, if I upgrade the machine to 64bit OS, the memory will be there. Besides, memory always drops right after the first of the year when demand drops, and increases again in the summer when all the students want new computers.

[smax013]

mphenterprises said:

So is your concern truly regarding memory or regarding the installation of a video card? If you only have 2GBs of available memory, I do not think your concerns regarding maximum memory come into play. Now, if you are considering increasing the memory, I would advise only increasing the memory to a total of 3GBs. If you max out your memory (4GBs - 2GBs per memory slot) either video card may share that memory and you will only end up with about 3.25-3.5GBs of memory.

Additionally, if your existing video card is integrated into the laptop's motherboard, you are pretty much stuck with what you have. Laptops are not as upgradeable as Desktops.

In addition to what [~80584] pointed out, keep in mind that the one laptop was dealing with shared memory. This means that memory will be taken from system memory whether at the 4 Gb limit or NOT. Thus, if the roughly 700 Mb of memory is used as shared memory, then 3 Gb of system memory would show up as about 2.25 Gb of useable system memory if the video card was using full shared memory.