[GLLUG] General Question

[J Neveau]

This is always a great question.  There seems to be a lot of confusion
about total memory usage in Windows, Linux, etc.

Additionally, the factor of 32bit and 64bit OS comes into play.  I've seen
people bragging about their 64bit processors, while
running a 32bit operating system.  It's like giving a man in a row boat two
oars for paddling and only one oar lock for the boat.

This is my understanding; someone correct me if there's an error.

Any 32-bit operating system can only address 2^32 bits of RAM, which is
4GB. Since PCI devices are memory mapped, any RAM that they use needs to be
part of the address space that the OS references. If you use 4GB of RAM,
this will mean that the memory from your PCI devices will therefore
"overlay" a portion of your RAM and cause less RAM to be visible to your
OS.

For example, if you have two 512MB video cards in SLI mode, you will only
be able to see a total of 3GB of ram.

JN



On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 1:21 PM, Richard Houser <rick at divinesymphony.net>wrote:

> The manufacturer specs often lie, too.  I am running 8gb in a laptop
> listed at 4 max.  Search around on the net to see if someone tried
> already.  The size of each chip, not just dimm size matters, too.
> On Sep 6, 2012 12:44 PM, "Patrick Goupell" <patrick at upmerchants.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 09/06/2012 12:12 PM, Charles Ulrich wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Troy,
>>>
>>> Ubuntu will be able to use any amount of RAM that machine's motherboard
>>> will recognize. However, if the laptop's manual says that it only accepts
>>> up to 1GB of RAM, then 1GB of RAM is the hard limit no matter which
>>> operating system you install.
>>>
>>> You can also try a more lightweight distribution (such as Xubuntu) to
>>> make things feel a little speedier.
>>>
>>
>> If you currently have a 1 gb memory module installed and there is an open
>> memory slot, then you should be able to install a 1 gb memory module into
>> it.  Ubuntu would then be able to use it.
>>
>> You can do a search on your particular hp laptop make and model for its
>> "specifications".  That should tell you the maximum memory allowed per slot
>> and thusly the max for the computer.
>>
>> Patrick
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