32-bit XP PAE?

[thursday1036pm]

Hi,

I run 32-bit Windows XP SP3 (at work, can't easily upgrade) on a Dell Optiplex 780. Until recently I was using the Intel 4 Series Internal Chipset on the motherboard, and now have some PCI-e video card apparently with two ATI Radeon HD 3400's on it (again, this is at work, I don't get to pick what goes in there and didn't pay close enough attention).

Anyways, I noticed my total available system RAM dropped by around 512 MB when the new video card went in, so now I'm down to around 2.7 GB (even though I have 4 GB). When I pop open System Info I see 512MB + 64KB + 256MB + 64KB (four entries) being used by "ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series" (the 512 MB and 256 MB overlap) and 4MB + 256MB (two entries) being used by "Intel(R) 4 Series Internal Chipset".

Question 1: Is there anything I can do to actually use PAE and move all this video memory (at least) out of my 32-bit address space? I tried a couple boot options (/PAE and /nolowmem) but nothing made a difference. I also looked around in CCC and didn't see any options there. I also looked around in the BIOS and didn't see anything there either. I don't get why XP even calls out that it supports PAE (in System Properties). It doesn't seem to do anything...

Question 2: Since I'm not using the integrated video anymore, can I at least free up that 260 MB somehow? The Intel(R) 4 Series Internal Chipset entries appear to be "Disabled" in the device manager. Do I need to uninstall the driver too?

Question 3: Any other tips other than "Upgrade your OS"?

Thanks in advance!

 

[randomperson135]

you may have to upgrade you cards to something with a bit more memory to it. but if you do that you may have upgeade your os so you won't bottleneck your gpu's.

(sorry if this didn't help you any)

 

[thursday1036pm]

I'm guessing its not an issue of memory but an issue of address space. I think between system and graphics RAM I have 4.5 GB, but still can only use 2.7 for system because of limited address space. If anything more memory in the cards would make things worse (i.e. suck up more of my address space).

 

[randomperson135]

i don't really know cause i have no idea what im talking about

 

[math1337]

You might have to disable your IGP in the BIOS.

 

[thursday1036pm]

Yeah, unfortunately it doesn't look like I can... the options are like "AUTO" and "ONBOARD/CARD". It appears AUTO means integrated for BIOS PCIe for OS, and ONBOARD/CARD means PCIe for both. Both result in 260 MB allocated to Intel(R) 4 Series Chipset.

The options in Dell's BIOS are pretty unhelpful...

 

[4745454b]

Seeing as this is work's computer and you "don't have a choice", stop monkeying with things. If it bothers you, send it to the IT dept.

 

[thursday1036pm]

Question 2: Since I'm not using the integrated video anymore, can I at least free up that 260 MB somehow? The Intel(R) 4 Series Internal Chipset entries appear to be "Disabled" in the device manager. Do I need to uninstall the driver too?

I figured out the answer to Question 2 above, if anyone cares - updating the BIOS and leaving the video setting to "ONBOARD/CARD" gave me an extra 256 MB or so of system RAM.

Now I'm up to something just shy of 3 GB. It'd be nice if I could do something about the PCIe video RAM too. Oh well.