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I have Windows 7 on a gaming PC. I have an Asus Rampage Formula 3 motherboard with 24 GB of RAM. When I go to system properties, it shows that I have 24 GB of RAM, but it says in parenthesis that only 16 GB are available to use. How do I get it to be able to use all 24 GB if needed?
Brandon
Posted 2012-03-27T12:05:15.237
Reputation: 249
68
It sounds like you are running Home Premium, which has a limit of 16 GB. You will need to upgrade to Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate to get access to the remaining 8 GB.
Melikoth
Posted 2012-03-27T12:05:15.237
Reputation: 1 604
20Your welcome. Don't forget to click the little check mark to select it as the accept answer :) – Melikoth – 2012-03-27T14:37:26.377
15Ugly artificial limitation! – UncleZeiv – 2012-03-27T17:49:03.307
1If there wasn't a limitation, there often wouldn't be a reason to move to Server. – EKW – 2012-03-27T20:00:34.033
5@Melikoth And he forgets! – Ismael – 2012-03-27T20:47:51.697
13Out of sheer curiosity. Why on earth do you need 24 Gigs of RAM on an entertainment PC? A server I could see, especially a Host for Virtual machines, or for SQL or something, but just a regular PC? You can't POSSIBLY use anywhere near 16GB let alone 24. Can you? – Paperlantern – 2012-03-27T13:01:15.777
2@Paperlantern: Who says you need it? RAM is cheap so you may as well fill all the slots. You can use it to cache 1080p movies in RAM. – Zan Lynx – 2012-03-27T15:55:18.320
@ZanLynx: But then you are at least using it (sort of, even a full dual layer movie would be what? 8GB? Throw in 2 or 3 in use at most from OS and other programs and you are barely using half of 24GB). This is what I was referring to, personally I couldn't come up with a use for that much memory outside of running a few VMs (which I do regularly, I butt up against the 8GB I have all the time), but for JUST a gaming PC... 24GB seems a little overkill. I agree it is cheap so why not, but even if its $10, why spend it if its just going to sit empty for the life of the PC? – Paperlantern – 2012-03-27T16:01:37.640
3Drive caching. The system automatically uses RAM as a drive cache when it's not being used by applications. 20GB of caching is pretty damn nice when you're looking at installed game footprints of 10-15GB. The game will not need to wait for drive access more than once for any particular file. – Myrddin Emrys – 2012-03-27T17:29:09.973
@Paperlantern Even if I didn't run VMs, when I bought my RAM it was as expensive to get 8GB of RAM than it was to get 16. I remember 24 wasn't that much more expensive either. – gparent – 2012-03-27T17:43:19.803
Just thought that if I was going to spend good money on building a PC might as well future-proof it as much as possible. – Brandon – 2012-03-27T18:27:58.003
@ZanLynx: Makes sense. Thanks guys. I guess I'm a little old school and just don't GAME as much as I used to. Games have grown considerably in recent years. The absolute BIGGEST one i play now is about 3 - 4GB, and the other couple are between 100MB and 500MB. – Paperlantern – 2012-03-27T19:37:03.597
@Paperlantern I suspect my usage patterns will probably exceed 16GB peak usage within a year or two exclusive of caching. Two heavily used browsers at ~2GB each normally, 3GB shortly prior to needing restarted. ~2GB for distributed computing applications (8x 250MB). 1-2GB for the OS and other misc apps. Then add a modern game, and I'm occasionally pushing the 12GB I currently have installed. I'm considering putting the 3x2GB dimms I removed last summer (when I installed the 3x4GB modules) back in now to cover worst case loads and to increase the amount available for caching. – Dan is Fiddling by Firelight – 2012-03-28T12:54:04.747