Invisible memory reported to be too large

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ZSasha
Level 2
Level 2
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:16 am

Invisible memory reported to be too large

Post by ZSasha »

Hello,

just installed FancyCache on my laptop - Win7 x32 with 4 Gig RAM.
Windows itself tells me that ~3.5G RAM available (which makes sense) but then when I activated Invisible Memory it, in turns, told me that I had 1020M or Invisible memory ready to be used.
So my question - if I have 4G of RAM in total and Windows takes 3.5 of them and present to a user, how Invisible memory could be 1G when it should be at most 0.5G (Because 4 - 3.5 = 0.5) ??

Is it some kind of error in program or what?
I currently allocated 1000M for L2 caching but worried it may cause some problem if those two memories got overlapped or something like that.

Thank you.
Incriminated
Level 6
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Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 3:03 pm

Re: Invisible memory reported to be too large

Post by Incriminated »

Win7 32bit is able to address full 4GB when physically available, but it reserves some space for BIOS devices and as the largest part GPU-memory address-space.
Considering it is a laptop - wether it is using VGA with shared or dedicated memory - It actually addresses your VGA RAM and that means that this space is reserved and not usable originally by a 32bit-OS. But when your processor and OS support PAE you can use that invisible memory... BUT NOT SHARED VRAM - which look like the same in WIndows!

Windows shows "physical available" at first and "non-reserved/free/usable addressable" in exclamation marks behind.
I guess it shows you that you have 3,5GB available and 2,5GB usable... right?
It does not show you that you have 4,0GB available and 3,5GB usable like you say... right?
Or is it 3,75GB available and 3GB usable....

This information is very important!!


Have you simply read the manual of what you are doing there???
Look, here:

Unified Invisible Memory Management Interface
http://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/know ... rface.html

1. Hint:
With the help of these two options, UIMMI is able to reserve the front-end or back-end address space, or both. Usually the reserved space is for on-board video adapters, which may also use Invisible Memory as their shared video memory, in order to prevent possible conflicts.
2. Hint:
Tip: How do I know which end of Invisible Memory is used by on-board video adapter?
Well, because there are lots of motherboard manufactures and models, we cannot classify and list all motherboards. However you may know it by yourselves with the following practice.
1. First, reserve either end of Invisible Memory as much as VGA shared memory.
2. Then try to fill the remaining Invisible Memory with any data.
3. If you find that the display of screen becomes messed, it means the remaining Invisible Memory overlaps with VGA shared memory. Try to reserve the other end of Invisible Memory and repeat step 2.

In that situation or when your motherboard addresses 512MB shared (+512MB address space) to primary VGA and have a second GPU with 512MB dedicated ram, you have ONLY 1024MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 3584MB (4096MB - 512MB shared video-ram) comparted to only 2560MB before will be available.

In other situation or when your motherboard addresses 256MB shared (+256MB address space) to primary VGA and have a second GPU with 512MB dedicated ram, you have ONLY 768MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 3840MB (4096MB - 256MB shared video-ram) comparted to only 3072MB before will be available.

In other situation or when your motherboard addresses 512MB shared (+512MB address space) to primary VGA and have no second GPU, you have ONLY 512 MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 3584MB (4096MB - 512MB shared video-ram) comparted to only 3072MB before will be available.

In other situation or when your motherboard addresses 256MB shared (+256MB address space) to primary VGA and have no second GPU, you have ONLY 256 MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 3840MB (4096MB - 256MB shared video-ram) comparted to only 3584MB before will be available.


In all cases of shared VRAM from system-ram: You should first find out whats the primary VGA ram-shared area and exlamate this space from UIMMI via settings.
This is really important because FC/PC has no idea to determine what address-space is PHYSICALLY reserved for vram.


In other situation or when you have no shared system-ram to primary VGA and have GPU with 1024MB dedicated stand-alone-ram, you have ONLY 1024 MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 4096MB comparted to only 3072MB before will be available.

In other situation or when you have no shared system-ram to primary VGA and have GPU with 512MB dedicated stand-alone-ram, you have ONLY 512 MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 4096MB comparted to only 3584MB before will be available.

In other situation or when you have no shared system-ram to primary VGA and have GPU with 256MB dedicated stand-alone-ram, you have ONLY 256 MB PHYSICAL FREE INVISIBLE MEMORY. This will end up in FC/PC activating 100% of your free ram by moving the address space into virtual area that is not physically mapped or in numbers a total of 4096MB comparted to only 3840MB before will be available.


Maybe you got both primary and secondary VGA or only one shared or dedicated, sounds like one of them, but your description doesn't clearly state... not even whats the laptop-model, so I tried to answer for all cases, hope you see through. All questions are rhetorical.

To make it easier to understand:
1. FC/PC can only activate "virtual" reserved address space like devices-address space, that windows isnt itself able to virtually abstract at higher spaces, so it uses the physical space.
2. FC/PC can NOT activate "physical" reserved address space like shared VRAM... it is simply not physically free, so beware.

Hope it helped.
Last edited by Incriminated on Tue Jul 23, 2013 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dustyny
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Joined: Sun Sep 02, 2012 12:54 am

Re: Invisible memory reported to be too large

Post by dustyny »

It's not that cut and dry.. It's not necessarily the videocard reserving the memory (most don't these days, unless it's very old) other hardware can reserve memory as well..


Check the system configuration settings

This problem may occur because the Maximum memory option is selected incorrectly. To fix this, follow these steps:
Click Start Start button, type msconfig in the Search programs and files box, and then click msconfig in the Programs list.
In the System Configuration window, click Advanced options on the Boot tab.
Click to clear the Maximum memory check box, and then click OK.
Restart the computer.
Update the system BIOS

The problem may occur because the system BIOS is outdated. If you have an older computer, the system may be unable to access all the installed RAM. In this case, you have to update the system BIOS to the latest version.

To update the BIOS on your computer, visit the Web site of your computer manufacturer to download the BIOS update. Or, contact your computer manufacturer for help.
Check BIOS settings

The problem may occur because some BIOS settings are incorrect.
Enable the memory remapping feature

Check the BIOS settings to see whether the memory remapping feature is enabled. Memory remapping gives Windows access to more memory. You can enable the memory remapping feature in the BIOS by booting to the system setup. See the User's Guide for your computer for instructions on how to boot to system setup on your computer. The name for the memory remapping feature may be different for different hardware vendors. This can be listed as memory remapping, memory extension, or something similar. Be aware that your computer may not support the memory remapping feature.
Change the AGP video aperture size in the BIOS settings

Check the BIOS settings to see how much memory that you have allocated to AGP video aperture. This is the memory that the system is sharing with the video card that is used for texture mapping and rendering. This memory would not be used by the system, because it is locked by the video card. You can adjust the AGP video aperture size in the BIOS. Standard settings are "32MB,""64MB,""128MB,"and "Auto." After you change this setting in the BIOS, restart your computer, and then check the usable memory. You can test each setting to see which offers the best results.
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