4 GB ram showing 5.1 in Windowz Exp Index

I just got a new Dell Studio 1555, with 4 GB ram and a 64 bit Vista....when I did the Windows Experience Index on Vista i received a 5.1 rating for the Memory...as far as i know shudnt I be getting a rating of 5.8 or 5.9 for this setup?...
I ran the test several times after restarting as well...
Wat cud be the problem?...and does it really matter wht the index shows?

 

No, it doesn't really matter what the Windows Index shows. Besides, 5+ is still good, since the top is 5.9

If you really want to check, download a real memory or system benchmark program and compare that with similar computers to see if there is a problem or not.

 

I know its a decent score...but everyone who i've known/heard having 4GB ram on a 64 bit OS has the score at 5.8 or 5.9...thts why i am wondering whether theres a prob..

I just chked my System Information...it says
Installed Physical Memory- 4 GB
Total Physical Memory- 3.99GB
Available Physical Memory- 2.79GB

y is the Available memory shown as so low?

 

......because it's being used.

4gb ram does not equal highest score. You also have to take into account the speed of the RAM. You can check this with a simple and free program called CPU-Z. It will tell you how fast your RAM is running. DDR2-667 speed RAM is not going to get as high of a score as DDR3-1333 speed memory. The latter has a higher bandwidth... generally runs faster.

It won't make a huge difference in your daily computing tasks though. But if you are really curious, download CPU-Z and check.

 

Probably because it has subtracted the maximum memory that your video card can use, assuming it is an IGP or hybrid. Run "dxdiag" and check out the Display tab to learn how much memory your GPU may be borrowing.

 

Running 64-bit Vista and a few programs will easily take up over a gig as well, don't forget.

 

The amount of memory isn't the only factor in a score for Vista. Vista calculates "memory calculations per seconds", not "memory amount". You could have 16GB of your memory (in theory, i know it won't fit, but just watch the example), but if the speed is DDR2-667, that means that it can only handle that speed. The only way to up the score would be to replace what you have with an equal amount of DDR2-800 if your motherboard can handle it. Faster RAM, in spite of potentially higher latencies, will make your memory score go up with greater significance than simply dumping in all the memory you can humanly dump in. (Although dumping in 8GB of good RAM will make vista a very happy camper too.)

 

And in fact, the amount of memory doesn't even affect the score, unless it falls under 1.5 gb. Otherwise it's just a memory speed test.

So... don't pay too much attention to the memory score.

 

As it was already said, WEI calculates the memory score based on memory speed/timing. The other factor that will change the memory score is if the system is running single channel or dual channel.