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Windows 8.1 uses only 50% of my installed 4GB memory which causes games to crash. System information state that 3.71GB are usable). The picture below is from my Task Manager showing the memory (Arbeitsspeicher in German). The graph below shows the memory usage for the last 60 seconds, and to the right you can see that roughly 50% (of 3.71GB) is used. 60 seconds before I took the screenshot, a game crashed due to memory problems.

Only 50% is used

I also noticed that memory composition (the graph below) remains fairly stable when it comes to "Free memory" (far right). Mouseover information says that free memory can be used once necessary, but it doesn't seem to happen. Memtest86+ says all memory is working fine.

System specifications:

  • 64bit architecture
  • dual boot with Ubuntu 14.04
  • pagefile.sys set to 6144MB manually (as an unsuccesful attempt to solve the problem)

This question is not related to two other questions (How to enable 4GB in my Windows 7 64 bit?) and (64-bit Windows 7 can only use 3.25GB of RAM instead of 4GB?).

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MERose
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  • I didn't down vote, but to me it seems like your game only requested 1,1 GB of ram before it "crashed due to memory problems" . Had it asked for more windows would have given it more. Sounds like a bug with the game, not a bug with windows. – Scott Chamberlain Apr 27 '15 at 20:33
  • @ScottChamberlain: It's not just with this game, also with other programs. There seems to be a cap at 50%. – MERose Apr 27 '15 at 20:36
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    If it happens with other programs I would run [memtest](http://www.memtest.org/) for a few hours. Sounds like you got defective ram. Windows 8.1 can handle [constant loads above 50%](http://i.stack.imgur.com/n2Y0r.png) without a problem. – Scott Chamberlain Apr 27 '15 at 20:37
  • It would be helpful to know the exact memory error you are getting. Because your not running out of physical memory which means your running out of virtual memory more then likely. – Ramhound Apr 27 '15 at 20:51
  • Well, this game just said: "Memory full. Restart game to prevent data loss." (Translated.) However, I was too slow. There is no error I am getting. – MERose Apr 27 '15 at 20:55

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By default 32Bit application still only use 2GB of RAM under a 64Bit Windows like they do on a 32Bit Windows. To allow 4GB of memory usage under a 64Bit Windows the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag must be set. If the developers haven't set this flag with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE linker option during compilation you can use a tool which sets the flag in the executable to allow the 32Bit program to use 4GB of RAM.

magicandre1981
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