What's eating my RAM?
 

Hello - my Dell Dimension system is spec'd at 512MB DDR RAM - fine for most games; however, I've noticed on testing that it only shows 384MB. Anyone any clues as to how to claw back the missing RAM, as I think it is affecting some graphics?

Does it have a total of 512Mb but specification say uses 128Mb SHARED memory for graphics display?

Which model of Dell Dimension is it?

Wot ZH said. Sounds like shared memory. Luckily, extra memory is almost free. If the chipset is 845G you may be able to claw back 64MB. If it's 915G, you're pretty much stuck.

Hi ZH, it's a Dimension 8200

Try reducing the 'AGP Aperture Size' to 64Mb, and see what memory is reported back.

This memory is allocated but only used if the video memory is running low, which can happen with some modern games.

Many thanks ZH; how do I do this? I'm right at the limit of my PC knowledge here!

27mm, have a look Here, it should help you.

Hi ZH, top gen, many thanx, will try this tonite.

If you'rer playing games then you might well need the 128meg aperture. I'd just bang some more RAM in, its piss cheap nowadays.

Either that or buy a dedicated graphics card if you have a spare slot, you should be able to get a good 128meg card for £25 / $50.