4 gig mem

[ppberns]

Hi,

I have sen some post regarding this but none seem to help here with me so I wanted to ask again. I have just upgraded to 4 gig mem from 2 gig and this is what I am seeing for total mem in my system.

uname -a
Linux starstuff 2.6.24-23-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 27 18:13:46 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3700 1522 2178 0 177 822
-/+ buffers/cache: 522 3178
Swap: 5718 0 5718

dmesg | head -25
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuset
[ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu
[ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.24-23-generic (buildd@crested) (gcc version 4.2.4 (Ubuntu 4.2.4-1ubuntu3)) #1 SMP Thu Nov 27 18:13:46 UTC 2008 (Ubuntu 2.6.24-23.46-generic)
[ 0.000000] Command line: root=UUID=68d50d50-22c4-482a-85f6-efd2a358ab8c ro quiet
[ 0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000000e4000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000affb0000 (usable)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000affb0000 - 00000000affbe000 (ACPI data)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000affbe000 - 00000000affe0000 (ACPI NVS)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000affe0000 - 00000000affee000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000afff0000 - 00000000b0000000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fef00000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 00000000fff00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 0000000140000000 (usable)
[ 0.000000] Entering add_active_range(0, 0, 159) 0 entries of 3200 used
[ 0.000000] Entering add_active_range(0, 256, 720816) 1 entries of 3200 used
[ 0.000000] Entering add_active_range(0, 1048576, 1310720) 2 entries of 3200 used
[ 0.000000] end_pfn_map = 1310720
[ 0.000000] DMI present.
[ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDP signature @ 0xFFFF8100000FB770 checksum 0
[ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 000FB770, 0014 (r0 ACPIAM)
[ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDT AFFB0000, 0038 (r1 A_M_I_ OEMRSDT 10000829 MSFT 97)

and I thought I would just throw this one in.........

cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 3789316 kB
MemFree: 2236376 kB
Buffers: 181920 kB
Cached: 842608 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 682132 kB
Inactive: 679004 kB
SwapTotal: 5855684 kB
SwapFree: 5855684 kB
Dirty: 100 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 336624 kB
Mapped: 130020 kB
Slab: 123212 kB
SReclaimable: 101488 kB
SUnreclaim: 21724 kB
PageTables: 13408 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 7750340 kB
Committed_AS: 868808 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed: 58776 kB
VmallocChunk: 34359677435 kB

So as you can see from all the above I am just seeing about 3.7 gig out of the 4 gig. In my bios which I just updated to 0604 for an ASUS m2n-mx se plus mother board I have "memory hole remapping" enabled also "channel & bank interleaving" enabled and it shows all 4 gig available. Now I am using onboard graphics but only 256K for that so I should still be seeing more available for the system.
Everything is working I am just wondering why I do not see to whole amount available to the system.
System is an AMD 64 x2 5200 on an ASUS m2m-mx se plus mobo with 2 corsair 2gig ddr2 dimms on Kubuntu hardy 8.04 with all current updates applied.

Thanks

[dibl]

Re: 4 gig mem

Your BIOS is definitely not making all the memory available, for some reason. Try turning off that memory hole remapping switch and see what happens. If that doesn't help, then it must be that the onboard graphics chip is reserving part of the main memory.

As consolation, I have been running with 4G on my main system for two years, with a Core 2 Extreme CPU, and I've never seen it maxed out, to the point where it needs to use swap, even when I was converting audio files. So, you should enjoy great performance even if it only uses 3.7G.

[ppberns]

Re: 4 gig mem

Hi Dibl...
I am not complaining was just curious. I am definately happy with what I have available and no regrets in upgrading. It's not a big deal just sometimes I like finding out why things are the way they are..........

[casperh]

Re: 4 gig mem

3.7 is because your graphic card is using 0.3 of them.

[Qqmike]

Re: 4 gig mem

Yes. Like that.
For example,
"What happens is that some of the addressable memory (regardless of how much you have physically installed) is reserved for use by page files or by some of the devices that you are using, such as a graphics card, PCI card, integrated network connections, etc., so it's unavailable for use as normal main memory.
The amount of memory needed for these devices is calculated by your system at startup; if you haven't maxed out the memory in your system, it's invisible to you, and all your physical memory (the RAM that's installed) is available for use. However if you've maxed out the DRAM in your system, this amount will be deducted from your physical memory, so you can't use 100% of your DRAM."

Typical FAQ:
http://www.crucial.com/kb/answer.aspx?qid=4251

[casperh]

Re: 4 gig mem

For instance my 64-bit installation only shows 3.9. My graphic card "only" takes 0.1 because it has 256 MB

[Qqmike]

Re: 4 gig mem

...yes,
and 64-bit Windows sees all 4 Gigs.
& Etcetera.

=> ppberns, as dibl indicated, not to worry. It's all baked into the game. Plenty of space @4 gigs minus discounts.

[Qqmike]

Re: 4 gig mem

What a coincidence this evening.
here's another one for you to look at, (I just paid a visit there) just to reinforce a degree of comfort:
http://forums.hardwareguys.com/ikonb...6911;&#top

[pansz]

Re: 4 gig mem

For instance my 64-bit installation only shows 3.9. My graphic card "only" takes 0.1 because it has 256 MB

Why do you think 256MB is 0.1GB?

256MB is 0.256GB and roughly it should be labelled as 0.3G.

So I think it is quite normal you seeing 3.7G.

[ppberns]

Re: 4 gig mem

Thanks to all who replied. I am happy with what I have just needed to understand it a little better.

[casperh]

Re: 4 gig mem

For instance my 64-bit installation only shows 3.9. My graphic card "only" takes 0.1 because it has 256 MB

Why do you think 256MB is 0.1GB?

256MB is 0.256GB and roughly it should be labelled as 0.3G.

So I think it is quite normal you seeing 3.7G.

Obviously I don't hehe, but it's because it's not a shared graphics card.