It is possible for me to max out this 15.2 GiB of free memory when I had a weird widget that had memory issues, but the reserved bits are inaccessible, as after the 15.2 GiB runs out, CRASH!
Comment on How is RAM size measured? Why doesn't it match the marketed size?
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
I do Computer Science, so I know these things!
Essentially, nearly all computers are based on binary (base 2), which is why you see a lot of powers of two when talking about processors, memory, and that sort. However, our standard SI units use base 10. 1000 grams is a kilogram, 1000 metres is a kilometre, etc. So when creating a standard unit for memory, kilobytes, megabytes, etc. base 10 was used. KB, MB, GB, TB, etc. are all SI units. However, the IEC standard was later created that utilised base 2 instead. So KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB, etc. are all IEC units where 1024 bytes is equal to one kibibyte, “bi” for binary!
But as you said, this is probably not the issue. RAM usually uses IEC units, while storage advertises SI units. Some of your memory might be reserved for system level stuff and/or the iGPU. My laptop (running EndeavourOS, so the units properly show up as IEC units unlike on Windows), for instance, shows up as 15.2 GiB of total memory, presumably because some of it is reserved for the iGPU and other bits.
sbeak@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
solomonschuler@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I would have assumed that much like memory on heap there’s some memory that’s inaccessible by the OS (and hence resource monitor) so when it fetches the size of the memory, it only fetches the amount pre-allocated to the OS.
Hupf@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Some BIOSes have a setting for how much shared graphics memory is allocated, with such helpful values as Auto, Gaming and Performance.