Inatalled physcal memory versus total physcial memory

vista 32 bit can use up to 3.2-3.4 gb of ram.  Depending on how many resident services are running on your machine, the available ram will be different.  vista is a ram hog and will use a chunk of memory.  The 64 bit version of vista will utilize the full 4 gb of ram, but it addresses memory different.  Some people say for the average user the 32 bit version with 4 gb of ram is actually faster than the 64 bit version.  Anyway, there are tweaks available to unload some of those services you may not need.  Whenever you install things like hp printer, it will load update service, and some other services you may not want or need.  If you do not get on a network, for example, there are services running that find the network, tell it you are there,etc.  If you have all the vista visual stuff turned on then they will eat up memory.  You can google vista tweaks and there are forums that explain the services and recommendations for when they are turned on or disabled.

What is your system? Model and video.

 

Installed physical memoty iss what is installed physically.

 

Total Physical Memory is the amount accessable by the OS for your use. This is 4GB minus some amount of RAM ADDRESS SPACE (NOT RAM) the is utilized by the OS as address space for your video card and other hardware that needs some amount of RAM address space. The missing RAM is not used by anything; the address space it would use is assigned to something else. Values range from 2.7-3.6 or more, depending on your hardware. Having only 3.0 GB of address space is fairly low. There is nothing you can do about this except to upgrade to Vista 64, which is not trivial.

 

Available Physical Memory is Total Physical minus what you are using at the time. 1GB is rather low. Usual figures for Vista are about 1.1-1.6 GB use, leaving 1.4-1.9 GB free.The amount free can decrease over long usage times. Some software can hog memory and not release it when finished.

 

Go to the Task manager and look at the Process Tab to see what may be hogging memory space. You need to have the Working Set (Memory) column set, and select "Show Processes from all users"at the bottom of the page.

 

 

It looks like I have some research to do.  I guess Vista Ultimate isn't ultimate and this doesn't sound like anything that could be remedies with the inevitable Service Pack 2.  Bummer.  I hate learning about these things in my first week of owning the machine.  I spent a fair amount of time researching before pulling the trigger on this but I guess there is the inevitable gotcha.

 

Thanks though!

Ultimate doesn't mean much except for extra features. Vists is Vista.

 

You can't do anything about your video card using up a lot of address space. I think 1GB video RAM is really going overboard. Unless you have a huge monitor, you usually don't need anywhere near that amount. I don't know if there is any way to disable some of that 1GB to return some RAM address space to the OS. With only 256MB video, you will gain about 500MB.

 

I don't understand why you only have 1GB available after Vista's needs. Should be closer to 1.5GB.

Remember that in Vista, no process or program can use more than 2GB of RAM.

 

You could look into upgrading to 64-bit Vista, which will give you the whole 4GB of address space, as all the reserved address space is moved to the region above the 4GB area. This is not possible in 32-bit Vista by design. Normally, upgrading doesn't gain you much if you have a smaller video RAM, as the 64-bit OS actually consumes considerably more RAM to operate than the 32-bit version. However, in your case, you should gain some ground. Problems with 64-bit Vista is lack of drivers for much add-in hardware (printers, etc.) and many programs will not play in the 64-bit environment. You could research what you use to see if 64-bit is worthwhile.

 

 

Bump.

 

If anyone can confirm this it would be helpful.  I may swap out my memory to my son's machine.

Sorry for the delay, have been on vacation.

 

(1)  Vista 32 (any flavor) can use a maximum of 4GB RAM minus any RAM used by the OS for a variety of reasons. With normal video cards, about 3.6 GB is available in newer systems. The lost RAM Address Space is needed by the OS as RAM address space needed to handle info needed by the OS. With a 1GB video card, at least 1GB of core address space is lost to allow the CPU to access the video info. The video RAM on the video card is remapped into some of the 4GB systemaddress space.

 

(2) Yes

 

(3) Correct

 

(4) If your system says you have 3GB of Total Physical RAM, then yes, you could replace a 2GB with a 1GB and see no difference. The unavailable Total Physical Memory does nothing and can be used by nothing.

 

As before, to use all your RAM, you would need to upgrade to the 64-bit version of Vista. However 64-bit Vista uses more RAM for the basic OS, so there is usually little or no advantage in available RAM doing the upgrade. Because of your large video board, you might see more improvement. However, Dell does not supply 64-bit video drivers, so you would need to use modified desktop drivers.

 

Vista 32 bit can use only 2GB of RAM for any  process. Having use of more RAM will only make a difference when multi-tasking, where things will go faster when switching programs if there is more RAM available to hold (some of) the loaded programs.