Usable memory same after RAM upgrade

Dru2 · Jan 2, 2023

ShamrockRig said:
It isn't in the bios try this
Step 1. Press Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box, and then type msconfig in it and hit Enter.
....

Yeah, I posted that in post #10

mhmtemnacr · Jan 6, 2023

Alright i returned the defective RAM and replaced with a new one, now it seems to work well. Thanks everyone who helped.

Fabler2 · Jan 6, 2023

glasskuter · Jan 6, 2023

Ok, Hardware Guys. Clear me up on something as I don't claim to know a whole heck of a lot about hardware. This is a hypothetical question for knowledge only since I use dedicated graphics.

I have always thought that one of the benefits of using a dedicated GPU was that it freed up all the system ram graphics used for other functions(let's use a 8 gb GPU and 16 gb system ram as an example). I just assumed that the 8 GB of ram onboard the GPU was the max amount of ram that could be used for graphics processing leaving 16 gb available for other use. I thought that if one's graphics needs maxed out the GPU ram, that was it. He would get a bsod or freeze, etc. Are you saying, depending on graphics load, Windows will first use the 8 gb on the GPU and if load requires more, it will then use whatever amount of system ram is reserved? If that be true, my above assumption has been out of whack for years. I have actually had a case of two where a system was maxed out on ram so I incorrectly told a user installing a dedicated GPU would make all his system ram available for other Windows use. How does the amount of reserved ram get calculated when a dedicated GPU is installed. Is this reserved amount strictly set by bios or is it set by Windows? Inquiring minds want to know.

More and more, I'm learning it's never good to assume.

Bree · Jan 6, 2023

glasskuter said:
How does the amount of reserved ram get calculated when a dedicated GPU is installed. Is this reserved amount strictly set by bios or is it set by Windows? Inquiring minds want to know.

Both the OP and I have an AMD APU with integrated Radeon Graphics. This does not have its own VRAM so uses part of the installed system RAM, 2.1GB is hardware reserved for our APU to use. Some more sophisticate BIOS's than ours allow you to configure the amount of RAM allocated to the APU.

AMD said:
Unlike discrete graphics which have dedicated video memory on the card, systems with integrated graphics are based on Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) technology, which means a portion of the system memory is shared with the integrated graphics controller.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-280

Intel integrated graphics works quite differently. Here's a comparison:

Dru2 · Jan 6, 2023

mhmtemnacr said:
Alright i returned the defective RAM and replaced with a new one, now it seems to work well. Thanks everyone who helped.

View attachment 49261

Can you show us your memory usage tab from Task Manager so we may see what the Hardware reserved is?

Thanks.

BTW, this is mine from my Lenovo laptop, no dedicated GPU, and again, no Hardware Reserved (only 160 meg)...

Task Manager Memory tab...

ShamrockRig · Jan 6, 2023

glasskuter said:
Ok, Hardware Guys. Clear me up on something as I don't claim to know a whole heck of a lot about hardware. This is a hypothetical question for knowledge only since I use dedicated graphics.

I have always thought that one of the benefits of using a dedicated GPU was that it freed up all the system ram graphics used for other functions(let's use a 8 gb GPU and 16 gb system ram as an example). I just assumed that the 8 GB of ram onboard the GPU was the max amount of ram that could be used for graphics processing leaving 16 gb available for other use. I thought that if one's graphics needs maxed out the GPU ram, that was it. He would get a bsod or freeze, etc. Are you saying, depending on graphics load, Windows will first use the 8 gb on the GPU and if load requires more, it will then use whatever amount of system ram is reserved? If that be true, my above assumption has been out of whack for years. I have actually had a case of two where a system was maxed out on ram so I incorrectly told a user installing a dedicated GPU would make all his system ram available for other Windows use. How does the amount of reserved ram get calculated when a dedicated GPU is installed. Is this reserved amount strictly set by bios or is it set by Windows? Inquiring minds want to know.

More and more, I'm learning it's never good to assume.

So i dont know about apu's or any shared ones, But from my experience, I have an 8gb GDDR6 card, Now lets say im using 7gb of it, Im just using the 7gb on the card and nothing from my normal ddr4 system ram, Now if my gpu was showing using 8gb of ram on the card but i notice my system usage ram has jumped from the 12gb all in when playing example game A to lets say 14gb(And its nothing else in background being used i've checked) it generally means(without being too technical anyway) that im using around gig or two system memory to back up the gpu, It isn't ideal though as ddr4 is naturally much slower than gddr6 so it does cause a bottleneck speed wise, but it will pull from it if you allow it too(I think its default to but i could be wrong).

this is just from my experience being an avid gamer that tends to eek most out of what he has, especially with it now struggling in its advancing years so none of this is fact, If anyone else knows for sure it'd be cool to know factually but im pretty confident im there abouts

ShamrockRig · Jan 6, 2023

Fabler2 · Jan 7, 2023

@glasskuter Both my APU's systems are like @Bree 's, 2gig hardware reserved.
To muddy the waters a bit I have an old HP gaming laptop that has Intel HD graphics 530 and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 950M. The 950M has to output via the Intel 530. The Intel 530 is allowed up to half the system memory (8gig) and the dedicated 950 has 4 gig VRAM. It's an old setup, though, so I'm sure today's configurations are much better. These are all laptops so I should think it's different on desktops that have proper setups.

Dru2 · Jan 7, 2023

Fabler2 said:
@glasskuter Both my APU's systems are like @Bree 's, 2gig hardware reserved.

View attachment 49334

View attachment 49335

I'm sorry but perhaps I'm not understanding the above statement, but I'm not seeing a 2gig hardware reserved. Looking at your "Memory" via Task Manager it only shows 180 meg, not 2gig. Additionally, you have 15.8gig of 16gig of your RAM available to the OS.

Apologies if I've misunderstood.

BTW, showing/posting the "Generic PNP Monitor" screen has nothing to do with the BIOS allocating memory to Hardware Reserved. It's good for showing how much RAM is dedicated and available to the GPU, but it doesn't address Hardware Reserved.

Fabler2 · Jan 7, 2023

Dru2 said:
I'm sorry but perhaps I'm not understanding the above statement, but I'm not seeing a 2gig hardware reserved. Looking at your "Memory" via Task Manager it only shows 180 meg, not 2gig. Additionally, you have 15.8gig of 16gig of your RAM available to the OS.

Apologies if I've misunderstood.

BTW, showing/posting the "Generic PNP Monitor" screen has nothing to do with the BIOS allocating memory to Hardware Reserved. It's good for showing how much RAM is dedicated and available to the GPU, but it doesn't address Hardware Reserved.

You've misunderstood. I was just confirming that the APU's settings of my other laptops were the same as @Bree 's first, then went on about my old HP gaming laptop to compare and posted images of it of how different a set-up it is.
First image just shows that half the system memory could be used by the 530, that's all.