NX Express and memory question

[mike0130]

I decided to upgrade my computer with memory. I have Asus P5K-E motherboard and by adding 2x1Gb I got 4Gb altogether. BIOS said that I have 4Gb of RAM and under Windows XP (Control Panel-Settings) it appeares as 3.25Gb, which is normal. Now when I install both of NX Express cards it became 2.5Gb.
Before the upgrade I had 2Gb of RAM and it was same 2Gb in Control Panel with or without NX Express cards.
So why NX Express is "eating" so much and why it do it only when it's more then 2 Gb of RAM? Is it possible to reduce the NX appetite? Is it normal? Where can I get suggestions to edit boot.ini file with additional swiches that will assign computer memory properly? Has it something to do with slots? (I use one PCI-E x1 and one PCI-E x16 ) Does it happened with all NX Express users?
Thank you
mike

[GrassValley_BH]

You'll likely find it happens with most hardware because some amount of memory address space is required for the hardware communication.

Back in the DOS days, that's the reason why there was a 640KB ceiling for "conventional" RAM, the address space between 640KB and 1024KB was used for hardware communication which was then overcome by using EMS and XMS which were page-swapping methods that "rotated" access to other parts of memory through a memory "window" or page.

Jump back to 2000's, the same thing happens in the address space below 4GB (max 32-bit addressable space). Most BIOSes and/or CPUs can do some memory remapping, but it's not always available on desktop-class boards and I'm not sure if it's a function only available to 64-bit CPUs or not (that'd make sense since they can access >4GB address space, unless the 32-bit CPUs are doing some kind of slick trickery).

My Opteron server and workstation-class machines both have 4GB of RAM and their BIOSes (different mobos) have "Memory remapping" BIOS options. Enabling the appropriate setting (Software or Hardware) is key to making the full 4GB available to the BIOS (in the memory count).

Once the full 4GB is available to the BIOS, getting more memory addressable in Windows is another story.

IMHO, it's not worth having more than 3GB in 32-bit Windows, but 3GB is an odd amount, so it ends up being 4GB if you want to "max out."

[mike0130]

Thanks Brandon.
Yes, I used memory remapping in BIOS, it says that I have 4Gb. Is says under Windows control panel 3,25Gb BEFORE I install NX Express and 2,5Gb aftre I installed two of it cards. I am using AE and learning Combustion- this was the reason to add more RAM- so now even I am not starting Edius at that time, I have to pay "memory price" for those cards just sitting in the computer?
Do you know any tricks to rearrange memory more effectively? Does it matter from memory usage perspective which exactly slots are used by NX Express?
My friend used some switches in boot.ini and he said that it make it work with his 4Gb more efficient. But for me using those switches disable the NX driver for the main card (not the Firecoder) and make my videocard work with lowest resolution and 256 colors...
The idea of my question is how to use my new memory by other software when I am not working with Edius?
Thanks a lot.
mike

[jonandmarkuk]

Would this not mean that NX would perform better as it's allocated itself that amount of memory or am I just getting confused?

I'm at the moment wondering if I should buy an extra 2Gb of memory as I know XP won't use all of it but I dual boot with 32bit Vista and rumour has it that will use upto 4Gb of memory.

It's ALL very confusing I have to say.

[Angelo]

You'll likely find it happens with most hardware because some amount of memory address space is required for the hardware communication.

Back in the DOS days, that's the reason why there was a 640KB ceiling for "conventional" RAM, the address space between 640KB and 1024KB was used for hardware communication which was then overcome by using EMS and XMS which were page-swapping methods that "rotated" access to other parts of memory through a memory "window" or page.

Jump back to 2000's, the same thing happens in the address space below 4GB (max 32-bit addressable space). Most BIOSes and/or CPUs can do some memory remapping, but it's not always available on desktop-class boards and I'm not sure if it's a function only available to 64-bit CPUs or not (that'd make sense since they can access >4GB address space, unless the 32-bit CPUs are doing some kind of slick trickery).

My Opteron server and workstation-class machines both have 4GB of RAM and their BIOSes (different mobos) have "Memory remapping" BIOS options. Enabling the appropriate setting (Software or Hardware) is key to making the full 4GB available to the BIOS (in the memory count).

Once the full 4GB is available to the BIOS, getting more memory addressable in Windows is another story.

IMHO, it's not worth having more than 3GB in 32-bit Windows, but 3GB is an odd amount, so it ends up being 4GB if you want to "max out."

Does this mean that the NX's buffer now exists above the 2GB memory area and application have more free ram? Since XP is doing this memory paging thing this there a performance hit? Is There any advantage having Edius and NX on a 32-bit XP with 4GB of ram?

Thanks....Angelo

[GrassValley_BH]

Thanks Brandon.
Yes, I used memory remapping in BIOS, it says that I have 4Gb. Is says under Windows control panel 3,25Gb BEFORE I install NX Express and 2,5Gb aftre I installed two of it cards. I am using AE and learning Combustion- this was the reason to add more RAM- so now even I am not starting Edius at that time, I have to pay "memory price" for those cards just sitting in the computer?

Anything that maps memory addresses for I/O will need some space. On the graphics hardware side, the GART does a similar thing for the texture I/O.

Do you know any tricks to rearrange memory more effectively? Does it matter from memory usage perspective which exactly slots are used by NX Express?

Unfortunately, no... It's one of those "pushing the envelope of 32-bit tech" things.
While the actual addresses might change, the range shouldn't, so the practical answer is no, it shouldnt'.

My friend used some switches in boot.ini and he said that it make it work with his 4Gb more efficient. But for me using those switches disable the NX driver for the main card (not the Firecoder) and make my videocard work with lowest resolution and 256 colors...

That makes sense because if Windows is "hogging" all the memory addresses, NX and the graphics hardware don't have any more addresses to grab.

The idea of my question is how to use my new memory by other software when I am not working with Edius?

The best advice I can give is to set up different hardware profiles in Windows, and if you need the extra RAM for running a ton of applications concurrently, boot into the NX-disabled profile.

Would this not mean that NX would perform better as it's allocated itself that amount of memory or am I just getting confused?

Either it uses the address space and works, or it doesn't use the address space and it doesn't work. It's not an optional thing.

I'm at the moment wondering if I should buy an extra 2Gb of memory as I know XP won't use all of it but I dual boot with 32bit Vista and rumour has it that will use upto 4Gb of memory.

I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe adding another 1GB would be OK (leaving 1 GB of address space free for NX and graphics hardware mapping), but adding another 2GB would likely put you in the same spot as mike0130 with some RAM simply being inaccessible by 32-bit OS.

Speaking of which, while 32-bit Vista may be able to more efficiently address the 4GB, unless they've added some kind of sneaky trick to increase the address space beyond 32-bit limits, you'd still end up in the same situation.

Being able to access and utilize more than 4GB (and as we've discussed, being able to have a "full" 4GB of usable memory) requires the combination of 64-bit processor(s) and 64-bit OS.

Does this mean that the NX's buffer now exists above the 2GB memory area and application have more free ram? Since XP is doing this memory paging thing this there a performance hit?[/quote]
AFAIK the buffer is still allocated dynamically by EDIUS when it's running, but I don't have hardware in my machine so I can't check.

Is There any advantage having Edius and NX on a 32-bit XP with 4GB of ram?

You'd get whatever amount of RAM address space that's left over - i.e. what's not being "occupied" by NX and your graphics hardware.
However, it won't get you more than 2GB of addressable RAM in EDIUS, so it only helps if you're running multiple RAM-hungry applications simultaneously.

Hope that helps to clear the mud a bit...