Question Limited Access to RAM

[enooone]

Hello,

Wondering if anyone else has a similar problem I do and a potential fix?

I have a Razer Blade Pro 4k (2017) Laptop. It has 32GB of soldered RAM on the motherboard and an 8GB Nvidia GTX 1080 Graphics Card running Windows 10 Pro.

It seems that when I push my system with many graphic and 3D modeling apps, the CPU is limited to using only 16GB of my RAM. My programs start to get laggy at that point but the second 16GB remains empty. If I keep opening huge files I slowly creep into the second 16GB, but it is as if the system is trying to keep the second 16GB of RAM as free as possible.

My Virtual Memory is set to 32GB min and 64GB max. To check if having too much Virtual Memory was the problem, I reduced it to the 16MB minimum. The RAM behavior stayed the same, quickly utilizing the first 16GB while being super hesitant to utilize the second 16GB.

It may be that my RAM is faulty, but I can't change it since it is soldered onto the mother board. To check this, does anyone recommend a good diagnostic app?

The only other thought I had is that even though I have a dedicated GPU and the Integrated GPU is disabled in the BIOS, my system still says I have 16GB of Shared GPU Memory. I'm thinking that my system is giving priority to the GPU for access to that Shared RAM trying to keep it open in case the non-existent integrated GPU wants access to it. I would love to find a way to disable the Shared GPU Memory to see if this is causing my problem, but I have not had luck finding any definitive answers on how to do that.

My Bios is using AMI Aptio V.

Any help/advise is appreciated.

 

[geofelt]

Test your ram.
Run memtest86.
It boots from a usb stick and does not use windows.
You can download the free edition here:
https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

If you can run a full pass with NO errors, your ram should be ok.

It is normal for windows to keep some ram free for unanticipated use.

I might guess that there is a way to adjust the amount of ram allocated for the discrete gpu chip.
It may be in the bios/advanced functions. Possibly it might be in the nvidia control program. 16gb seems excessive. 6gb might be right.

 

[enooone]

Thanks geofelt for the tips. I'll give memtest86 a try.

As for the BIOS settings, I was able to use AMI's AFUWINGUIx64 to rip a copy of the BIOS then open that copy with AMIBCP where I can unlock hidden features of the BIOS then use AFUWINGUIx64 again to flash the BIOS.

The problem is I don't want to risk bricking my computer unless it is clear what I should change in the BIOS. I can't seem to find any setting that relates directly to the Shared GPU Memory setting. Settings I do find are GTT Size, Aperature Size, DVMT Pre-alocated, DVMT Total Gfx Mem.... all of these are in the 8 to 256MB range and may not even have any effect because the integrated graphics card is set to disable. If anyone knows how these might relate to the shared memory, please let me know.

On other BIOS setups online there seems to be an IGD Shared Memory setting, but I have not been able to find the equivalent setting in this Aptio V BIOS yet.

Thanks again,

 

[enooone]

So I ran the memtest86 diagnostic tool and my RAM passed all the tests. So its seems in good shape.

I don't understand why my system is so hesitant to use my second set of 16GB of RAM. I'll keep searching for a solution and will post it here if I find one.

I'm open to anyone's suggestions as to why my system is behaving this way,

Thanks