I recently upgraded from a TERIBLE 7900gt (1 card) to an 8600GT x 2 SLI setup.

The 7900 had serious overheating issues, and I love my new cards, but unfortunately now, windows says I have 1.12 gigs of ram, when the bios states 2 gigs (as it should.)

This is the only hardware change I've done, and I tried moving the ram around to different slots (thanks p5n32-sli-crapmb) and it still shows 2 gigs. Is this normal? I've never used SLI before and I'm kinda sad that with World of Warcraft running, I now have to wait for stuff to swap around when I start IE or something of that nature. Anyone have any insight? I'm at the point that a E6750 w/ new MB/Ram is looking like my only out!!!

Thanks!
-PimpSmurf

Putting 8600GT's in SLI was a crappy idea to begin with.

Try using CPU-Z to see what it says about your RAM.

Take one 8600 GT out and see whether your system goes back to 2gb ram. If not something may have been damaged in the installation.

yup its amazing what a little bit of marketing will convince people to part with their $$ for. One good card is always better than 2 average ones.

wow, this is the second time in a few weeks soeone has told/done something like this, a aquaintance was trying to tell me that his 7800gtx was worse than his 8600M, i swear, sorry mate, but that lag you are seeing in wow is'nt from the lack fo ram but probably from the inferir cards, the ram just highlights it, stick you old 7900gt back in and makesure you ahve airflow and clean fan and the fan works...

I don't know how people who do their own builds can just plunk down the cash without doing a bit of research first. I can understand someone reading a few threads and reviews while still deciding to purchase hardware at a less than optimal price-performance point if they are a fanboy or stupid rich, but just leaping into SLI with 8600's is a different level of mind boggling.

but 2z bet3r th@n 1, l0l11!!!

I hope you mean 8800GT x 2. Otherwise it's not really an upgrade.

[to get us out of the flame war.]so i belive you problome is with 1, broken hardware or 2. virtual memory. see windows can onhly recognize so mush system memory whats your os? beacsue no matter how much other may tell you a single 8600 is better than a single 7900 it had been proven time and time again, and dual 8600 in sli is a bad dea beacuse the preformace is not worth the cost you would have been better off with a single 8800gt. hope this helps.

CpuZ sees both of the ram chips (identical)

1) My 7900gt CO is from eVga and they discontinued it because the ram was crap and overheats very easily (leave WoW /AFK and come back to your screen going apeshit with graphical errors. Alt-tab, and let the board cooldown and then everything is cool.

2) I had some cash and wanted an upgrade (to be rid of my 7900 constently **** itself) and best buy had 2 8600gt (BFG Tech) so I got um.

3) going back to the 7900 isn't an option because it now has 20 .308 holes in it.

4) I'm thinking that I'm going to take one of the 8600gt cards back and get a G35 MB w/ E6750 and some ddr3 1600 (cas 7-6-6-18)

Does that sound like a good idea? I can't afford to return both of the cards and get an 8800. I'll also be selling my watercooling rig. (and shooting the Asus P5N32-SLI deluxe POS MB.)

-PimpSmurf

please dont do it serious its not worth is yet.i like the first idea not the dd3 just yet a little to soon.

Nice shooting, sir!

But if you are on tight budget, why DDR3? I think G35 doesn't support ddr3 anyway.
8600GT isn't that bad, I have one myself, but I really think you should go for something better. At least an ATI 3850

Terrible 7900?

I have a 7600gt and its awesome, I obviously can't play the latest, but HL2 is all the way maxed at 60fps, Crysis 1440x900, medium/low graphics is 20fps! It takes what I throw at it. The 7x series is to undershot.

(until Christmas rolls around I I get my 3850)

that's a weird issue. Yes, it often eats up a lot of address space under the 4Gb limit - which is a physical limit, for memory mapping and such, but it really should not do it with 2 Gb if everything is properly configured.

yea i wasent quite shure with the address sapce.

You would have been better off getting one 8800GT, i don't think it would have cost you a lot more.

Yup, turns out it wasn't the 8600s after all. I'm running on 1 8600 now (returned the other) on a E6750/P5k-E@3.5ghz and I'm getting 35+fps in Shattrath with everything cranked up. =)