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    T500 8GB DDR3.....7.9GB Usable O_o?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by ctbear, Feb 12, 2011.

  1. ctbear

    ctbear Notebook Evangelist

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    Just upgraded my T500 from 2GB of ram to 8GB of ram. It's like night and day in terms of multitasking performance.

    I also took the liberty to disable the Paging File...no more annoying and slow hard drive thrashing or noise!! :D

    System Info. (When you right click my computer -> properties) shows:

    Installed memory (RAM): 8:00 GB (7.90 GB Usable)

    Why 7.9GB Usable? What does that mean and where's my .1GB :mad:
    I'm on Win 7 Ultimate 64bit...
    As far as I can see...it only says that under System info....dxdiag shows 8GB (8192MB) and for some reason also shows:

    Paging File: 2323MB used, 5763MB available :)confused: thought i disabled paging file)

    CPU-Z shows (8088MB) of DDR3 Ram
     
    ctbear, Feb 12, 2011
    #1
  2. MAA83

    MAA83 Notebook Evangelist

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    MAA83, Feb 12, 2011
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  3. ctbear

    ctbear Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm aware that this problem exists for 32bit windows...but I was quite sure 64bit windows doesn't have this problem at all.

    ^How much usable memory does it show for your T400 with 8GB of RAM?
     
    ctbear, Feb 12, 2011
    #3
  4. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Switchable graphics. My T400 (Win 7 Pro 64bit) shows 3.9 usable out of 4GB
     
    miner, Feb 12, 2011
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  5. MAA83

    MAA83 Notebook Evangelist

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    Same, 8.00GB, 7.9GB Usable.
     
    MAA83, Feb 13, 2011
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  6. zhaos

    zhaos Notebook Consultant

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    It's your graphics card using some of the memory.
     
    zhaos, Feb 13, 2011
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  7. TheGreat

    TheGreat Notebook Consultant

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    True.
    Since you are using a 4500MHD you will get 7.90 usable.
    If you are using 5700MHD you will only get 7.80 usable.
     
    TheGreat, Feb 13, 2011
    #7
  8. lenardg

    lenardg Notebook Evangelist NBR Reviewer

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    Integrated graphics cards, like the Intel HD graphics do not have their own video memory, unlike dedicated graphics cards. So some system memory is reserved, that is then used by the graphics card.

    When using switchable graphics, both cards are "enabled" (although one would work at a time). The ATI card in the T500 has its own dedicated video memory, however, the Intel card does not. Thus the reduction. But in this case, your system actually uses all of the memory.

    In contrast, the issue you mention with 32 bit systems is when memory address space is reserved for the video card. So in that case the actually physical memory is not used by the system, because some of the addresses are used to access device (graphics card) memory.
     
    lenardg, Feb 13, 2011
    #8
  9. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Does the loss of that 100MB really make that much of a difference? Besides, no need to worry - it's being used for something necessary.
     
    sgogeta4, Feb 14, 2011
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  10. jedisolo

    jedisolo Notebook Deity

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    If you were to go into the Bios and turn off Switchable graphics and just leave it on Discrete you would get the full 8 GB of memory.
     
    jedisolo, Feb 14, 2011
    #10