T61: 1006 MB RAM with Vista 32?

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IJALB · #1 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:13 am

I have a T61 (with NVIDA Quadro NVS 140M) with 1 GB RAM.
In Windows Vista (32 Bit) it shows under "Systemsteuerung" / "System und Wartung" / "System" (Engl.: "Control Panel" / "System and Maintenance" / "System") only 1006 MB RAM! Why?
1 GB [correct it would be 1 GiB] = 1024 MB. Where are the missing 18 MB?
In the Task Manager a total physically memory of 1005 MB is shown.

For me this is a little bit strange!

Who is it on your machines?

I guess the NVS 140M can also take memory from the RAM (shared memory) but I don't think it's necessary to do this: I'm running vista without Aero Glass and the 1006/1005 MB are immediately after booting Vista.

IJALB · #2 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:52 am

Additional information: In the BIOS I see "Installed memory 1024 MB".

Crunch · #3 Post by **Crunch** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:01 pm

English: Just checked. It says 2046MB on mine, although you'd expect to see 2048MB. It doesn't matter. Your system is running fine.

German: Wie findest Du denn den Bildschirm? Ich hoere die T61's sind nicht so toll.

IJALB · #4 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:55 pm

Crunch wrote:English: Just checked. It says 2046MB on mine, although you'd expect to see 2048MB.

You just don't have 2 MB but on mine 18 or 19 MB are "missing".

Crunch wrote:German: Wie findest Du denn den Bildschirm? Ich hoere die T61's sind nicht so toll.

It's off-topic but I hope this isn't a problem here (I'm quite new in this forum) and let's try to answer in English so that everybody can read it:
Well, the best thing is that it's a non-glossy display.
It's quiet bright enough but it could also be a little bit brighter.
The colors are a little bit dull (German: "flau").
The resolution of 1440x900 is IMHO the maximum which is useful on 14.1 "; everything in not very big but it's still OK. Maybe the resolution of 1280x800 would be better.
It's much brighter on the bottom: It's like you can see the light of the lamp (back light). You can see this especially on black background.
I'm not sure who the manufacturer of the display is: In the Device-Manager I just see the Hardware-ID "LEN4033".
I didn't make any calibration.
Pictures (digital photos) look quiet different than on my very old Philips 107B CRT.
At all: I guess there are better displays on notebooks.

Crunch · #5 Post by **Crunch** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:31 pm

IJALB wrote:You just don't have 2 MB but on mine 18 or 19 MB are "missing".

They're not really "missing". Umm...someone back me up on this? The System properties sometimes display the CPU speed incorrectly as well. I mean, is there anything that's not working on your machine?

XIII · #6 Post by **XIII** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:01 pm

Nah, the laptop and the OS are perfectly fine. The missing RAM is due to NVIDIA TurboMemory on the NVS 140M, which takes some main RAM for the video card.

IJALB · #7 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:11 pm

Crunch wrote:They're not really "missing". Umm...someone back me up on this? The System properties sometimes display the CPU speed incorrectly as well. I mean, is there anything that's not working on your machine?

Missing or not: Does nobody wonder about this? Or are there also machines with "correct" values?
On my T61 the CPU speed is always (when I look to it, but maybe it's just because my T61 is plugged-on and actually not running on battery) displayed as 2 GHz ("T7300 @ 2.00GHz" in Device-Manager). Is this the actual CPU clock or is this the maximum clock? Where can I see the actual clock?
But basically my system is running (more or less without problems).

#8 Post by **ryengineer** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:41 pm

Part of your memory is shared with your graphics card. This is normal.

To see the figures under Windows Vista:

Right Click on your desktop > Personalize > Display Settings > Advanced Settings.

Download Everest, it will tell you things more in detail.

#9 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:11 pm

My R61 has the same 140M video chipset and when needed it borrows system memory for video use. It is kind of a hybrid of discrete and integrated graphics. Mine has 64mb of discrete graphics memory and can use up to another 64mb of system memory when needed.

Crunch · #10 Post by **Crunch** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:27 pm

In my case, it's the video card. 256MB dedicated, but it helps itself to a lot at times, which is fine with me.

Here, download the tool from this site: belarc.com

It will tell you every last detail of your system. It will even "unhide" product keys for many applications, including Vista.

IJALB · #11 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:54 pm

ryengineer wrote:Right Click on your desktop > Personalize > Display Settings > Advanced Settings.

Total: 375 MB
Dedicated: 128 MB
System-Video: 0 MB
Shared: 247 MB

I know that the NVV 140 can also use the RAM but actually no RAM is shared.
And so it's still a little bit strange for me.
Even if I'm not sure if it's a general bug in Vista or it depends on the T61.

IJALB · #12 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:59 pm

Crunch wrote:belarc.com

"free personal use only"

#13 Post by **ryengineer** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:05 pm

IJALB wrote: Total: 375 MB
Dedicated: 128 MB
System-Video: 0 MB
Shared: 247 MB

I know that the NVV 140 can also use the RAM but actually no RAM is shared.......snip

Your gpu has total memory of 128MB and rest all borrowed by the RAM.

I suggest you look into the following threads:

How much memory have my new T61?.

Quadro NVS 140M with 512 MB?.

IJALB · #14 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:35 pm

ryengineer wrote:
IJALB wrote: Total: 375 MB
Dedicated: 128 MB
System-Video: 0 MB
Shared: 247 MB

I know that the NVV 140 can also use the RAM but actually no RAM is shared.......snip
Your gpu has total memory of 128MB and rest all borrowed by the RAM.

I suggest you look into the following threads:

How much memory have my new T61?.

Quadro NVS 140M with 512 MB?.

Sorry but also these two threads do not satisfy me: Yes, the NVS 140M can also use shared memory - if needed.
In my case there is no shared memory needed (and no shared memory occupied at the moment: "System-Video: 0 MB") but there are still 18 MB "missing".
I guess the reason will be with the graphic card but at the moment it's not very clear to me. Sorry.

1024 - 0 = 1006? [+ 18]

#15 Post by **ryengineer** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:40 pm

You'll only have System-Video when you've an integrated graphics card. I suggest you do a search on "Shared Memory Architecture".

IJALB · #16 Post by **IJALB** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:53 pm

ryengineer wrote:You'll only have System-Video when you've an integrated graphics card. I suggest you do a search on "Shared Memory Architecture".

Sorry but I don't find any useful answers here in the forum and also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_Memory_Architecture don't answers my question.

Maybe the 18 MiB are allocated by the NVS 140M but I don't know why. Why should the graphic card allocate shared memory if it has nearly free 128 MiB dedicated memory? For me this makes no sense!
And I guess there should be a way to avoid the usage of shared memory.
[On every cheap PC-mainboard with shared graphic I can decide who much RAM sohuld be used for shared graphic in the BIOS.]

#17 Post by **ryengineer** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:47 pm

IJALB wrote:snip....Why should the graphic card allocate shared memory if it has nearly free 128 MiB dedicated memory? For me this makes no sense!.....snip

You might consider asking GPU manufactures, computer architects, scientists, mathematicians, engineers and mainly people from Silicon Valley who have designed and implemented this concept, last but not the least, entrepreneurs too.

A relatively easy answer in my viewpoint would be to run your machine faster so that it can provide you with top-notch performance even under graphical intensive conditions:

NVIDIA TurboCache Technology.

I suggest you look into following, especially white papers and technical docs:

NVIDIA Quadro NVS Notebook Solutions.

nVidia: White papers.

Since the chipset NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M is based on GeForce 8400M G:

GeForce 8400M G.

barrywohl · #18 Post by **barrywohl** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:23 am

GREAT answer, ryeengineer..... Thank you.

ryengineer wrote:
A relatively easy answer in my viewpoint would be to run your machine faster so that it can provide you with top-notch performance even under graphical intensive conditions:

NVIDIA TurboCache Technology.

I suggest you look into following, especially white papers and technical docs:

NVIDIA Quadro NVS Notebook Solutions.

nVidia: White papers.

Since the chipset NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M is based on GeForce 8400M G:

GeForce 8400M G.

T61: 1006 MB RAM with Vista 32?

T61: 1006 MB RAM with Vista 32?

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