Memory remapping?

S

Surtsey

New Member
I have an HTPC with 6GB RAM running 32-bit Windows. It contains an i5 CPU with integrated graphics. I am aware that the operating system can only directly address 4GB ram.
My question is this: why can't the 'shared' memory used by the GPU be remapped to the 'spare' 2GB RAM not utilised by the operating system?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Because the operating system still controls the shared memory used by the gpu. If the OS can only address 4gb total, how is it gonna access the other 2?

Ways to fix this

1. Get a cheap dedicated video card, GT710 perhaps.
2. Upgrade/fresh install to 64bit windows so that the system can use the full 6gb of ram. I'm assuming windows 10? The same activation key should work on the 64 bit version.
 
S

Surtsey

New Member
johnb35 said:
Because the operating system still controls the shared memory used by the gpu. If the OS can only address 4gb total, how is it gonna access the other 2?

Ways to fix this

1. Get a cheap dedicated video card, GT710 perhaps.
2. Upgrade/fresh install to 64bit windows so that the system can use the full 6gb of ram. I'm assuming windows 10? The same activation key should work on the 64 bit version.
Click to expand...

I thought about that. Why can't the OS use the same 'aperture' it uses to address a discreet video card.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Is your desktop running a 64bit OS? If you go into system information and look next to processor info, does it say Phyisical Address Extension?
 
S

Surtsey

New Member
beers said:
I mean if you can fit 4 gallons of water in a 1 gallon bucket, more power to you.
Click to expand...
Seriously? Are you that arrogant that you believe if YOU don't know how to do it - it can't be done?
Son, understand how 16-bit processors addressed the memory above 1024k (himem.sys). Or the expanded memory specification which remaps reserved addresses between 640 and 1024k,
There's no shame in saying, "I don't know." But doubling down . . . you're embarrassing yourself.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
It's simply a binary value problem, much like you can't surpass ~4.3 billion IPv4 addresses due to 32 bit addressing.

Report back when you solve your problem that doesn't involve installing a 64 bit environment.
 
S

Surtsey

New Member
Cromewell said:
It doesn't matter. Regardless of PAE, Windows is limited by design. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/memory/memory-limits-for-windows-releases
Click to expand...
From your link: "X86 client versions with PAE enabled do have a usable 37-bit (128 GB) physical address space. The limit that these versions impose is the highest permitted physical RAM address, not the size of the IO space. That means PAE-aware drivers can actually use physical space above 4 GB if they want. For example, drivers could map the "lost" memory regions located above 4 GB and expose this memory as a RAM disk."
 
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