Infamous Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 I see some hackintosh-ers already use 4GB of ram on 945G boards. I've got AsRock ConRoe945G-DVI and this is from the specification: - Max. capacity: 4GB* *Due to the chipset limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® XP, Windows® XP 64-bit, Windows® Vista™ and Windows® Vista™ 64-bit. So, if I buy 4GB of memory, how much will I get with Tiger? 3,2GB? Will Leopard utilize full 4GB? AFAIK, Windows will reserve 800MB from 4GB for "itself" and the rest is usable... I'm not really sure if this is a chipset or OS limitation. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 the 3.1gig limitation is a windows issue, not hardware or anything. as for your hardware, it probably only supports 4gig, mac pros suport 16gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infamous Posted December 27, 2006 Author Share Posted December 27, 2006 (edited) Mac Pro uses different (server) chipset - so it's a bit different... But iMacs, Macbooks and Mac Minis use 945 chipset, and none of these machines support 4GB of RAM according to Apple. because of this And you can't get more than 3GB on Apple Store: I guess only 965 and 975 chipset have no trouble utilizing full 4GB (acutally, they can handle 8GB) Edited December 27, 2006 by Infamous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japhex Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 Negative, 975 chipset (asus p5w dh motherboard) will not use 4gb, just 3.2gb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asap18 Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 first of all, sg is right that this is a windows issue. second of all, those machines use SO DIMMS, which are much different in capacity than desktop DIMMS. Ask bofors, he uses 4 gig of ram in his one machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 Negative, 975 chipset (asus p5w dh motherboard) will not use 4gb, just 3.2gb. in windows or osx? the specs on the asus site shows it supports up to 8gigs of ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japhex Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 Both windows 32bits (xp and vista) and osx (10.4.8 semthex b8). Only 3.2gb available, I've tested that for a while Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infamous Posted December 27, 2006 Author Share Posted December 27, 2006 (edited) There's no difference betweeen SO DIMM and classic DIMM. The difference is only the physical size and voltage. Apple Store does not give you a possibility to upgrade to 4GB because they know 4GB won't be utilized, only 3,2 GB. Which is 945 limitation. All Macs except Mac Pro use 945 cipset. This is my theory. And here's the Intel PDF documentation about 4GB issue: http://www.polywell.com/us/support/faq/4GB_Rev1.pdf However, 965 and 975 claim to support 8GB (Intel tech. specs). Japhex, do you have any idea why it's not fully recognized in OS X? OS X should handle 16GB so it's not a software limitation. Edited December 27, 2006 by Infamous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japhex Posted December 27, 2006 Share Posted December 27, 2006 Well I always boot osx with xp bootmanager (chain0 trick) maybe that's relevant for osx not seeing the full 4gb. Unfortunately I went back to 2gb so cannot test that anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailfish Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 (edited) I have been sensitive to the 3.24 GB limitation issue ever since I paid for and installed 4 GB's. I primarily work in either XP or Vista and had over time just accepted the fact that is just the way it is. My OS's report my RAM as thus: Windows XP Professional SP2 : 3.24GB Windows Vista Business RTM(32) : 3.24GB Linux Ubuntu 6.1 : 3.24GB JaS OSx86 10.4.8 (Semthex 8) : 4.00GB (reported in "About this Mac") : 1.00GB x 4 (reported in "System Profiler") I have no supporting data for this claim, but it had been suggested that is better/faster to run 4 GB's of RAM in the Dual Channel mode than it is to run 3 GB's piece meal. Either 2 x 2 GB's or 4 x 1 GB's even if you are wasting .75 GB's. Further research reveals: To see all 4Gb of RAM, you need a machine with PAE support and the right OS (Windows Server 2003 standard edition doesn't support PAE, or WinXP64, or Vista32)....if your machine supports PAE and you have the right OS you might be able to solve this fully in theory… Actually, in theory, any 64 bit OS should give you full access to the 4GB of RAM. That is not the case obviously. The best idea is to add the /PAE switch to the boot.ini file and see what happens... Basically, those 3/4's of a Gig go in the trash because the OS does not see it (not used by OS or system AT ALL). Think of it as a 3.24 GB overwriting "loop". My machine is a stock E6600 with 4 GB's of RAM and is as quick as I could hope it to be. I run SolidWorks CAD on the Windows side along with an entire magazine layout in the Adobe Suite without any delays. In OSx we edit videos for the magazine in Final Cut and it words beautifully. The system NEVER crashes or even hesitates. I have NO idea if I am utilizing all 4 Gb's or not on the Mac side... I do know for sure that I am NOT on any of the other OS's. So this is a limitation of both the OS and ALL of the Intel chipsets. Not just the 945... add the 915, 965 and the 975 to the list as well. Edited January 12, 2007 by Sailfish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 if osx sees 4 gigs it will use 4 gigs. i guess this is proof that on a 975 chipset, the latest xnu kernel will use more than 3.2 gigs of ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japhex Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 For me that's not truth, about this mac could see 4gb but available 3.2. tryed and tested... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomtefar Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 japhex: Do you have an option to enable or disable PAE in BIOS? What if it is enabled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailfish Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 For me that's not truth, about this mac could see 4gb but available 3.2. tryed and tested... Other than my "About this Mac" and "System Profiler" how could I be sure that my setup is utilizing all 4 GB's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailfish Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 OK.. Under "Activity Monitor" OSx shows the 3.25 limitation. There is no escape. Sheezzz! How many places can there be to look? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pitr- Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 We're simply running out of addressing-space on 32-bit operatingsystems. 64bit Windows XP/2003/Vista and 64-bit Linux-installations can address alot more than 4GB. And correct me if I'm wrong but there's no 64-bit build of OS X or else it would not run on Intel processors without AMD AM64-extension support.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icydergosu Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 i got 4gb on my 975 xbx and can use all 4gb (looked it up in activity monitor and terminal with the top command), the system is working great it seems that the asus mainboard may have a problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaemonES Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 Sailfish About this Mac and System profiler shows memory info from DMI, so this info is useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sg Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 We're simply running out of addressing-space on 32-bit operatingsystems. 64bit Windows XP/2003/Vista and 64-bit Linux-installations can address alot more than 4GB. And correct me if I'm wrong but there's no 64-bit build of OS X or else it would not run on Intel processors without AMD AM64-extension support.... apple sells systems using the 975x chipset with 16gigs of ram. the kernel supports it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pitr- Posted January 14, 2007 Share Posted January 14, 2007 apple sells systems using the 975x chipset with 16gigs of ram. the kernel supports it. Obviously... if Linux does, so should BSD/Darwin/United States of Whatever... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japhex Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 So intel xbx can use 4g on osx, that's a good find, maybe xbx2 can use it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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