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fifthmanstandin

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 11, 2009
69
0
I have an early 08 Mac Pro running boot camp with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I've been running some games lately and noticed a big lag from time to time and the fan on my graphics card sounding like a jet. I checked control panel-> system and found that it's only recognizing 2 gigs of ram. I've gone some googling but haven't found any conclusive help in remedying the problem.

Any ideas?
 

416049

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2010
1,844
2
are you sure its 64bit windows 7? cuz it seems like its 32bit as it one only takes 2-2.5 gb ram
 

416049

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2010
1,844
2
100% sure. Control Panel-> System -> scroll down to "System Type" and it lists "64 bit"

Does it recognize the ram when you are in Mac Os X? maybe you should just take the sticks out and put them back in and seem if it solves the problem?
 

gpzjock

macrumors 6502a
May 4, 2009
798
33
I have the same problem in Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit version. 16 GB RAM, 2 GB usable by Windoze.
I assumed it was the 32 bit version not being able to see matched pairs beyond the first 2 and that 64 bit would see more, but then I realised that I have 8 matched pairs of 2 GB sticks. So is it only seeing 1 2 GB stick or half of 2 matched pairs? Snow Leopard sees all 16 GB.
Does Win 7 have issues with ECC server grade DDR2 RAM I wonder? Is the motherboard architecture the problem? :confused:

It's not much of a problem for me, I only use Windows to flash GFX cards for OS X.

This could be of help: http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/27350-windows-7-64-bit-only-shows-2-gb-ram.html Looks like M$ being gash again is the actual answer. :D
 
Last edited:

416049

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2010
1,844
2
I have the same problem in Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit version.
I assumed it was the 32 bit version not being able to see matched pairs beyond the first 2 and that 64 bit would see more, but then I realised that I have 8 matched pairs of 2 GB sticks. So is it only seeing 1 2 GB stick or half of 2 matched pairs? Snow Leopard sees all 16 GB.
Does Win 7 have issues with ECC server grade DDR2 RAM I wonder? Is the motherboard architecture the problem? :confused:

It's not much of a problem for me, I only use Windows to flash GFX cards for OS X. :D

Look at this article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

If you have 32bit it can max recognize 4gb and unless you get 64bit which should theoratically recognize 192Gb of ram:D
 

fifthmanstandin

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 11, 2009
69
0
Yeah it OS X it reads it just fine, it's stock 4 gigs that came with the system, not anything I've added to it.
 

Cindori

macrumors 68040
Jan 17, 2008
3,527
378
Sweden
I have the same problem in Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit version.
I assumed it was the 32 bit version not being able to see matched pairs beyond the first 2 and that 64 bit would see more, but then I realised that I have 8 matched pairs of 2 GB sticks. So is it only seeing 1 2 GB stick or half of 2 matched pairs? Snow Leopard sees all 16 GB.

32 bit windows can only adress 4gb ram. Graphics ram is included in that.
So with a 1gb ram GPU, you can adress 3gb computer ram.

It does not matter what sticks you have or in what order.
 

gpzjock

macrumors 6502a
May 4, 2009
798
33
I know 32 bit = less than 4 GB but 2 GB is just taking the piss, as usual for M$ I guess....
2 of my matched pairs = 4 GB so that would fit nicely to the 32 bit limit.
Will hunt about in the Control Panel to see if I can switch it about.
 

fifthmanstandin

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 11, 2009
69
0
So...to recap. Running Windows 7 Ultimate....2 gigs of ram are shown. 4 gigs are installed....any ideas?
 

Vylen

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2010
1,026
0
Sydney, Australia
I know 32 bit = less than 4 GB but 2 GB is just taking the piss, as usual for M$ I guess....
2 of my matched pairs = 4 GB so that would fit nicely to the 32 bit limit.
Will hunt about in the Control Panel to see if I can switch it about.

It's a bit more sillier than that.

Windows 32-bit for however long, despite having a limit of 4GB, also steals away some of the RAM for the operating system itself, so it always has some ready. It's based on some arbitrary calculation that Microsoft decided upon. Consequently, because it's been stolen by the OS, I don't think it shows up as "Usable RAM". I can't remember, but you might be ablw to change the amount of RAM it steals? I dealt with this a few years ago and it was annoying, heh.
 

Infrared

macrumors 68000
Mar 28, 2007
1,714
64
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

64-bit Windows 7 is present
if and only if this folder exists:

C:\Program Files(x86)

I have run x64 Windows 7 Pro
on a 2008 Mac Pro with 4 1GB sticks
of Apple RAM installed and all 4 were
recognized. I suggest posting the
results of running dxdiag.

Good luck.
 

noogin

macrumors newbie
Apr 8, 2011
25
0
Just had this problem while installing bootcamp/w7. My W7 info said '8gb RAM, only 2.17gb available.' I swore that I had 64-bit W7 but I just did a fresh reinstall with a verified x64 disc and it fixed the problem. Most likely you installed the 32-bit version.
 

DustinT

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2011
1,556
0
MS Patched Windows 7 to show the full installed ram on 32b installs to reduce the number of users complaining that the hardware wasn't recognizing all their ram. So now it would should an 'installed' amount and a separate 'available' amount. I suspect thats what happened here.
 
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