RAM right or wrong?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dave @ stejonda
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dave @ stejonda

I've always understood that hard disc sizes get exaggerated by sellers
dividing by 1000 instead of 1024. I also understand about usable disc
space being less than quoted sizes due to sectorisation.

But I've never come across this before...

My new Dell laptop was sold as having 1024MB RAM. Both Vista and the
BIOS report the amount of RAM as 894MB. Dell CS have used both the
reasons in the first paragraph as reasons for the discrepancy. The other
suggested reason is that some of the RAM is shared with the video card -
but why as the Radeon Xpress 1150 has 256MB of its own?

Can someone explain please?
 
dave @ stejonda said:
I've always understood that hard disc sizes get exaggerated by
sellers dividing by 1000 instead of 1024. I also understand about
usable disc space being less than quoted sizes due to sectorisation.

But I've never come across this before...

My new Dell laptop was sold as having 1024MB RAM. Both Vista and the
BIOS report the amount of RAM as 894MB. Dell CS have used both the
reasons in the first paragraph as reasons for the discrepancy. The
other suggested reason is that some of the RAM is shared with the
video card - but why as the Radeon Xpress 1150 has 256MB of its own?

Can someone explain please?
Click to expand...

The Radeon Xpress has Hyper Memory, which means some of it is
dedicated, but the balance is stolen from main memory.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_14603_14612^14615,00.html
 
I've always understood that hard disc sizes get exaggerated by sellers
dividing by 1000 instead of 1024. I also understand about usable disc
space being less than quoted sizes due to sectorisation.

But I've never come across this before...

My new Dell laptop was sold as having 1024MB RAM. Both Vista and the
BIOS report the amount of RAM as 894MB. Dell CS have used both the
reasons in the first paragraph as reasons for the discrepancy. The other
suggested reason is that some of the RAM is shared with the video card -
but why as the Radeon Xpress 1150 has 256MB of its own?

Can someone explain please?
Click to expand...

It does not have 256MB of it's own, it is integrated video
using system memory, so the amount allocated (might be
settable in the bios) is subtracted from the total system
memory.
 
The Radeon Xpress 1150 is a $10 video chip soldered onto the motherboard
that uses 256 MB of the system's RAM (NOT its own).
 
DaveW said:
The Radeon Xpress 1150 is a $10 video chip soldered onto the
motherboard that uses 256 MB of the system's RAM (NOT its own).
Click to expand...

It's only using 130MB of system RAM atm.

IIRC, with Vista I can increase system RAM using a USB flash drive.
 
It's only using 130MB of system RAM atm.

IIRC, with Vista I can increase system RAM using a USB flash drive.
Click to expand...


You're far better off just upgrading the main system memory
if you feel you need more. However, on the typical notebook
with integrated video, the hard drive is the largest
bottleneck to common tasks.
 
Vista can't use a USB drive for system memory, but it can use it for the page file. This feature might be overrated considering the mediocre speed of most flash drives.
 
Mike Walsh said:
Vista can't use a USB drive for system memory, but it can use it for
the page file. This feature might be overrated considering the mediocre
speed of most flash drives.
Click to expand...
thanks, Vista seems only to use a USB stick if its speed is good enough
 
kony said:
You're far better off just upgrading the main system memory
if you feel you need more. However, on the typical notebook
with integrated video, the hard drive is the largest
bottleneck to common tasks.
Click to expand...

but at little cash for a usb stick it's at much lower cost though I
accept I have to watch its speed
 
but at little cash for a usb stick it's at much lower cost though I
accept I have to watch its speed
Click to expand...

A little wasted cash. It is always better to have enough
main memory to avoid paging, and to avoid using USB when
there is another interface 100X faster. If it is an issue
of money the answer is easy - save a buck and improve
performance at the same time by simply avoiding Vista.
 
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