Hey guys,
I just installed my new video card, GT 710, and I noticed that I lost around 100 MB of RAM. Why's is that? Can I somehow get them back? When I was using the integrated graphics I had 3.24 GB available and now I have 3.12 GB. That's not a small amount for me, I would really like to get them back! Here's a screenshot of what it says:
(Btw, there's nothing in the BIOS settings that can fix this, I checked)
There are certain limitations with a 32 bit system when it comes to addressing memory. There is a maximum amount of memory your computer can "see" at any one time and your video card's memory is "mapped" into this space and shares it with the system RAM.
When you set up your new combination did you disable the on-board integrated graphics? If not It's possible that some memory is still being assigned to it.
Yeah, right after I installed the card I went to the BIOS and changed Primary Video Adapter to PCI-E.
What if I change to 64-bit? My CPU is capable of doing it, though I know it's not recommended for under 4 GB of RAM. Will it be a problem? Will it be able to address more RAM? Probably a stupid question but I'm just curious.
Yes with 64bit you will gain the advantage of more addressable memory and you should be able to take advantage of all your RAM. It should work OK, if you only had 2GB of RAM it would be a problem.
Okay, just one more question.
If I do that, will I have to activate Windows 10 again? I upgraded from Vista to 10 and I don't have a key, it's digitally linked to my Microsoft account.
The only way to convert is to do a clean installation and you specify that you want it to be 64bit. The activation will be automatic from your digital rights.
Unfortunately there is no way to upgrade from 32bit to 64 bit so you have to wipe everything and start again with the clean install.
Press the Windows key and R together, type dxdiag, press Enter. Look at the System tab to get your installed RAM then look at the Display tab to see what the total video memory is. Windows always takes some of the physical RAM for video, e.g. my Desktop has 8192MB RAM and is showing display memory at 5049MB even though the PCIe card, nVidia GeForce GT710, has only 2GB memory on it.
Note: I have a Notebook with 4GB RAM and running 32-bit Windows, doesn't show all 4GB, only about 3.4GB, but it doesn't hinder performance.
I don't think I'm gonna install 64-bit. It uses more memory thus my PC is gonna become a little bit slower, right? If so, I'm gonna stick with the 32-bit version. I want my PC to be as fast as possible.
Also, without 64-bit, there is no way I can restore the RAM I lost?
This HP page doesn't mention 64-bit at all, strange, thought it would have if the CPU and motherboard support it and shows a limited distribution:
HP Pavilion Slimline s5130at Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP(R) Customer Support
Product release information
Product number VG221AA
Release date 11-Aug-2009
Country/region sold in
- Austria
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