Am I missing 3MB of RAM?

[5683565]

Ok, well on my Intel iMac, I have installed 2x512MB RAM chips in there.

However programs such as MenuMeters, and the Apple Activity Monitor, show I have 1021 MB of RAM... rather than 1024 MB.

Something odd here?

I ran the hardware test and no problems came up.

 

[BakedBeans]

what does apple>about this mac say?

if its 1gb your alright

 

[mf2k]

ditto

 

[maxterpiece]

wow that's kinda funny... maybe it's trying to be like a mac mini and sharing memory with the video card?

 

[Shamus]

it wouldnt make any difference anyway...3MB is nothing. And as far as i knew, i thought that specs were always different....such as a 40GB hdd will measure 38.5 or wateva. i didnt know RAM was any different. Also, they programs you are using are mayb measuring it in true 8-bit formats? mayb that would lose 3MB?

 

[Laser47]

You ram should say 1024. To be on the safe side I would run the exteded memory test from the Apple hardware test CD. If everything comes out fine I would not worry about it. After all its just 3MB.

 

[andcraig]

I really doubt Apple uses ECC RAM.
ECC guarantees that the RAM is exactly one gig, or 512 megs, etc. It also costs twice as much, and if not that, a great deal more.
Normally you only get it if you're obsessive, and i doubt apple would bother with the extra expense.

Every once in a while you get a goofy stick thats missing a couple megs. I had a 64 meg stick about 7 years back that was only 63.
Shouldn't be a problem unless it gets worse, or its a huge amount (someone i know has a 256 thats only like...190)

 

[5683565]

Thanks to all that replied... Some pretty good thoughts coming through.

I will check at the end of the weekend what the extended memory test says as I am not at my imac at the moment.
Bear in mind that I am in New Zealand, so therefore in front of the world, so my weekend will end sooner than most people on this forum.

As many have said, it's only 3MB so I am not too worried, however it was a little puzzling is all.

 

[Mechcozmo]

it wouldnt make any difference anyway...3MB is nothing. And as far as i knew, i thought that specs were always different....such as a 40GB hdd will measure 38.5 or wateva. i didnt know RAM was any different. Also, they programs you are using are mayb measuring it in true 8-bit formats? mayb that would lose 3MB?

A Hard Drive's apparent loss of space is caused by formatting as well as the way the drive's space is represented. 40GB, but not 40,000,000,000 bytes. More like 40,960,000,000 bytes is correct. Or something like that-- 1024 is an actual Megabyte, not 1000. (Sorry... can't quite remember now...)

 

[5683565]

You are correct. Companies that make drives say that 40,000,000,000 bytes is 40GB, when it is actually not. Also, as you said, formatting takes a big chunk.

RAM however, does not have this problem.

 

[Heb1228]

Every once in a while you get a goofy stick thats missing a couple megs. I had a 64 meg stick about 7 years back that was only 63.

I've never heard of that before. Its kind of funny though. People probably thought you were nuts when you told them your computer had 63MB of RAM.