P4M900-M4 memory usage questions

Just put together a system- Biostar P4M900-M4, P4 2.8Ghz, 4Gb (2x2Gb) DDR2 PC4200, using onboard Chrome9 video, Win 7 Home Premium x86.

Windows 7 shows 4Gb-2.5Gb usable.

In the Graphics-Advanced I get this:

Total Available Graphics memory - 512mb
Dedicated Video Memory - 256Mb
System Video Memory - 10mb
Shared System Memory - 252Mb


In the BIOS it shows up to 256mb for video memory, nothing there (or I could find on the web) about whether there is any dedicated video memory on the mobo.

So is there actually 512mb of video memory available?

And why only 2.5 of the 4Gb usable? I thought x86 Windows would use about 3.5Gb of 4Gb or with this board 3-3.25Gb depending on the memory being shared with the graphics. I read a post on a site saying that this VIA chipset had some memory usage quirks but it didn't elaborate.

Just curious. Going to put a PCIe vid card in it soon anyway.

Sam

 

You need to take some time out and read Mark Russinovich's blog about Windows memory.

As far as I'm aware, the Chrome graphics is one of the weakest out there, hurry up and fit the add-in card .

 

Put a 512mb 8400GS PCIe card in it today. Win 7 now reports 3.2Gb usable out of 4Gb.

Sam

 

That's good to know, this thread has been very helpful as you know i have the same board; Just to be sure i have it right; You have 4GB ram installed and when you installed a video card you were able to use 3.2 GB memory instead of 2.5 or what not?? That's not too bad at all.

 

Yes when using the onboard video, Windows 7 showed 2.5 of the 4Gb as usable. Now with the PCIe card installed it shows 3.2Gb usable of the 4Gb.

Though it does show that I have something like 1384mb of available video memory. I turned off shared video memory in the BIOS, made sure the PCIe is the graphics initialized first, etc. Must be something with the VIA chipset on the motherboard.

The P4M900-M4 isn't a bad little board (once you get one working anyway). It's in our spare bedroom/wife's yoga&art room. I put a wireless N PCI card and an older Compro TV tuner card in it. She can watch streaming yoga videos from Netflix fine, watch TV if she wants and the grandkids can use it when they come over.

A local computer shop was selling the P4M900-M4 recently. When I stopped in to get the video & wireless N cards I noticed they don't carry them anymore. Guy told me they had too many come back as not working-wouldn't boot up. Pointed him to the Biostar Taiwan site and the very short approved CPU list.

Sam

 

Yeah it seems a lot of the ppl who buy this board weren't as lucky as us to have someone tell us about the short approved CPU list, Although i heard the older the board gets the more problems you have with it, such as ports going out and the board not working any more at all after 1 - 2 years.

 

I have the 6.2 version of the board. I know on older versions (5, 6-6.1) I read complaints of the CPU fan being on high all the time. Mine seems to vary speed with load/temp. Since I put the video card in it's not as noisy.

I have always had a link to Biostar's Taiwan (my last 3 home-builts are Biostar board based) site because it seemed BIOS updates were always on that one (vrs the US site) and the download speed from the US site is pitiful.

I've always had good luck with them. Our living room HTPC is a 6 year old K8NHA Grand nForce 3 chipset Biostar. Other than having to put in a gigabit PCI nic (Win 7 drivers don't support the board's onboard Gb nic) it still runs great. Got a GeForce 7600GT 512mb AGP video card in it, 640Gb SATA HD, SATA DVD/RW, works fine for streaming video and stuff I've downloaded to the computer.

Always had a problem with Microsoft thinking we should all dump our old hardware to upgrade to a new OS.

Sam

 

Mine is the newest ver on newegg, so I should be safe. Ive never had any luck with the US biostar site even loading, lol. Maybe these ppl reporting the boards going bad and ports going out are just idiots who know barley anything about computers. Wouldn't the CPU fan being on High be a good thing? Mine seems kinda high but my CPU temps are GREAT (22c) Unless it's misreading.