5 GB out of 8 GB ram Hardware Reserved?

[andysalter]

I've just bought some new hardware to upgrade my PC including 8GB DDR3 Ram but windows is showing it as 3.11 GB Usable and 4.9 GB Hardware reserved.. That sees WAY too high if you ask me.. Whats going on?

PC Specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3 (rev 2.0)
Graphics Card: Asus nVidia Geforce GTX 650 Ti 1GB (Not TOP version)
Ram: 2 x 4gb (8 GB) 'Team' (could the generic branding be the issue?)
Windows 8 Professional x32

Screenshots;

 

[alexoiu]

Hi X32 Windows can't address more than 4GB. Try upgrading to x64.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_8

And
How graphics cards and other devices affect memory limits

Devices have to map their memory below 4 GB for compatibility with non-PAE-aware Windows releases. Therefore, if the system has 4GB of RAM, some of it is either disabled or is remapped above 4GB by the BIOS. If the memory is remapped, X64 Windows can use this memory. X86 client versions of Windows don’t support physical memory above the 4GB mark, so they can’t access these remapped regions. Any X64 Windows or X86 Server release can.

 

[AbdullahG]

You have a 32-Bit operating system. You need a 64-bit to acquire the full potential of your 8GB RAM.

 

[andysalter]

Oh I new that was the case for windows 7, would of that they would of changed that for windows 8 -_-

can I upgrade to x64 or do I have to do a clean install?

 

[alexoiu]

http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-upgrade-32bit-64bit-144649
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/10/27/windows-8-upgrade-from-32-bit-to-64-bit-system/

 

[iwalkwithedead]

Install Windows 8 Professional x64bit
IMO: It's always best to do a clean install