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Artmuzz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 17, 2008
377
20
I have Windows 7 64bit installed on my MacBook Pro (the model with the 512mb GeForce 9600M GT) but when I go to settings it says the following on the RAM..

installed memory RAM: 4.00 GB (3.72 GB usable)

Why is it stating that I have 4.00 GB ram yet 3.72 GB usable? I thought 64bit OS supported 4GB and over.

Please advise

Art
 
It uses the 9600GT but the 256MB for the 9400M is taken no matter what video card you're using. This is for both Windows and OSX if you add the numbers up.
 
It uses the 9600GT but the 256MB for the 9400M is taken no matter what video card you're using. This is for both Windows and OSX if you add the numbers up.

Hmm, that sucks that 256MB is still taking off the RAM even when using the 9600MGT card considering the reason I spent alot of hard earned cash on my MacBook Pro was because of performance and portability. I am also shocked and disappointed to find this is the same on Mac OSX:eek:

Is there not any way to permanently disable the 9400M card so I can get the full 4GB on RAM?


Art
 
Hmm, that sucks that 256MB is still taking off the RAM even when using the 9600MGT card considering the reason I spent alot of hard earned cash on my MacBook Pro was because of performance and portability. I am also shocked and disappointed to find this is the same on Mac OSX:eek:

Is there not any way to permanently disable the 9400M card so I can get the full 4GB on RAM?


Art

We're talking about turbocache, right?

http://howtotroubleshoot.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-disable-turbocache.html
 

I don't think so. As I understood Turbocache it was additional RAM available to a discrete video card kind of adding some Cheaper VRAM.

This is the RAM set aside for the integrated GPU 9400M, even though it is not available in Windows. I don't even think you can set how much RAM is allocated to it, can you? It's basically a hardware thing due to the inclusion of the 9400.

Personally, what I get in battery life from the 9400 under OS X more than offsets giving it some RAM as maflynn says I didn't buy it as a desktop replacement or gaming rig.

B
 

Thanks for the link.

No, I was unhappy about the 9400M using 256MB of the MacBook Pro's 4GB memory ram even when using the 9600M GT card instead. I thought that the reason for two graphics cards in my MacBook Pro was that if I was wanting better performance I would switch to the 9600M GT but it looks like even though I do this that the 9400M is still using 256MB from my MacBook Pro's 4GB memory:( I was wanting to know if it was possible to remove the 9400M card or disable it so I can get the full 4GB memory back.

Art
 
Hmm, that sucks that 256MB is still taking off the RAM even when using the 9600MGT card considering the reason I spent alot of hard earned cash on my MacBook Pro was because of performance and portability. I am also shocked and disappointed to find this is the same on Mac OSX:eek:

Is there not any way to permanently disable the 9400M card so I can get the full 4GB on RAM?


Art

you can completely disable the 9400M but kiss good bye to the system also because the 9400M is integrated into the north and southbridge of the motherboard. The ram usage is not turbo cache, it's actually just a marker. When you're using the 9400M, it uses that piece of ram, however, when you're using the 9600GT, the ram is not being used but is taken by the 9400M. Basically it is a marker saying this section of the 256MB out of whatever is mine and no one else can take it. Doesn't matter if its being used or not.

This is actually true for both Macs and PCs using a integrated and dedicated option. However, in PCs, some models release the ram but requires a reboot.

Furthermore, 256MB ram makes no difference whatsoever performance wise, even under windows. Under the 9600GT, you're using the faster PCI-E 2.0 Bus with 128-bit and GDDR3 ram. With the 9400M, you're using a slower 64-bit PCI bus with DDR3 ram (which is actually faster than GDDR3 btw)
 
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