Vista - installed physical memory vs total physical memory

Can anyone tell me if this looks normal for Windows Vista 64? I have 8 gigs of installed memory but only 4 gigs of total memory. I checked Bios and I do not see an option to change my RAM. This is what I found in MSCONFIG:

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 6.47 GB
Total Virtual Memory 16.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 14.4 GB

system properties:
Processor: Intel(R) CORE(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9650 @ 3.00 GHz 3.00 GHz

Rating: 5.9
Memory (RAM): 8.00GB
System Type: 64-bit Operating System

I am using 64 bit vista ultimate

Thanks

well do you have a seperate video card or is it on board? if it is on board it will use some of your ram for video. some for sound.

but it still looks a little low to me.

Thanks for the reply.

I am using a ge force 9800 gx2. I am concerned because my installed memory is lower than total memory. It seems Windows is seeing the memory, but for some reason only using 4 of the 8 gigs. I am not sure why available is showing 6 gigs if total memory only equals 4.

not sure will see what i can find.

I've got 8gig at home and msconfig.exe does the same to me. Even when I run the 64bit version.

Best advice: Ignore it, and instead pay attention to what you see reported in the Task Manager. Msconfig.exe is probably making some sort of legacy API call for the "Total Memory" field, which will never report more than 4gig.

The "Available Memory" field in msconfig.exe is nothing more than the amount of unused memory. The same thing you'd see in the "free" field of the Task Manager.

Itwally, Thanks a lot.

That makes sense, I was hoping it was something that simple. My task manager looks just like yours so it should be OK.


Fadedrs,

Thanks for looking into this for me as well. If you run in to anything that could shed anymore light on this please let me know.

Itwally,

I just got home and am looking at my Performance. I don't have much running but I show I have only 31 MB free and 7116 cached. I see you have over 4000 free. Do I need to do any tweeking to get my system in line? I am very new to troubleshooting and don't know much about different memory types. This is what mine looks like now:

Total 8189
Cached 7093
Free 20

cpu usage is at 0% Memory usage is at 1.50 gb

Vista includes the Superfetch service, which works as an aggressive caching system. The memory used by the superfetch goes under the heading of "cached". So, a heavy cache is a good thing. It means that your system memory is being put to use, even when you're idle.

Ok thanks very much

jspencer, you worry too much. Everything on your system looks quite normal - it actually looks superb.