Re: Poor Performance With 4GB Memory

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:25:52 -0600, Deet <deetritus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:42:16 -0800, "Victek" <Victek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

I recently added 2GB of memory to my P4P800 for a total of 4GB, and
immediately began experiencing visible performance problems most
noticeably in games. After much troubleshooting, I discovered that
setting Maximum Memory in System Configuration (msconfig.exe) to 3300MB
(I didn't test every 1MB below the limit, by the way), down from the
limit of 3328 (using 1 or 2MB less than this still resulted in
performance problems...) restored performance to pre-4GB levels. I'm
aware of x86 architecture not being able to utilize 4GB of memory, so
this isn't about that. Additional oddities include PCI Latency Timer (of
all things...) effecting performance and lower memory timings being more
stable than high... What's going on here? Is there any way to avoid
adding a memory limit?

Windows Vista with SP1 (32-bit)
Asus P4P800 with BIOS 1021.006
Pentium 4 3.0E at 3.75 (250FSB)
Corsair PC3200 4GB (4x1)
GeForce 7800 GS at 520/725
Audigy 2


--
You could:
Confirm that the motherboard detects all 4 gigs in the BIOS.
Turn off silent & quick boot options in the BIOS so memory will be tested
during boot up.
Check the Asus website for a BIOS update.
Run the Vista "Windows Experience Index" with 2 gigs, then 4 gigs installed
to see if the OS confirms the problem.
Make sure virtual memory (paging file) is still set to the recommended
amount (it increases when you add ram)

All very odd tests when one has yet to determine if the memory is any
good or if the mobo would accept it all. You DID notice that the OP's
problems began after installing more memory, right????

The obvious move, since problems began after the installation of new
RAM sticks, would be to run Vista's Memory Diagnostic tool.

Type "memory" without the quotes in the Start Menu search box and tell
it to run the test on a restart.

If the OP is overclocking, I would also try setting memory/cpu BIOS
settings to the default.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Continuous beeping and Machine_check_exception STOP:A 0X000000
    ... all the ram is used. ... You would think revision F1 BIOS would be good enough, ... like that, it should work, but it might not have as high a memory ... These are the settings typically used for a system like that. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: 4GBs of RAM Miscount
    ... If you look in the BIOS at boot time, ... Why can't I see all of the 4GB of RAM in my machine? ... have you ever applied the switch to a SBS 2003 box? ... it increases the 'pointers' for memory handling to allow 32b systems ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Extra RAM Installation Blues Vol 2
    ... >> & most of the Memory Manufacturers, ... >> Slot, along with various esoteric Info, such as the RAM Timings etc. ... > and even gives the manufacturer. ... along with the BIOS & Chipset etc. ...
    (uk.people.silversurfers)
  • BIOS sees 4GB of RAM, not sure about the OS
    ... I found some information on the net about getting the BIOS to ... I upgraded my computer to 4GB of RAM. ... I enabled "Memory Remapping Feature" in the BIOS, ... I want to say that the kernel I'm using has bigsmp support. ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Windows XP Professional 32-bit on a 64-bit machine?
    ... > If you have 2 memory modules installed, try pulling one out and installing. ... > In the bios, try reloading setup / bios defaults and ensure that the memory ... the Xeons have their own heatsinks with fans, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)