How much RAM?  [Solved]

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Pibo87
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2025 3:24 am

How much RAM?

#1 Post by Pibo87 »

Hello there!
I recently installed 2 4GB RAM modules in my laptop in place of the single 4GB module the machine came with. In my system information it say that I have 3 GiB of RAM and 6.7 GiB available to Linux. I'm not sure what this means and why it's so low, especially where the 3GiB come from.
Can anybody enlighten me on this?

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-33-amd64 [6.1.133-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-33-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto Jan 12  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 355 G2 Notebook PC v: 0992100000400010000634101
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 22C1 v: KBC Version 86.09 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: Insyde v: F.11 date: 06/02/2015
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.6 Wh (72.0%) condition: 28.6/28.6 Wh (100.0%) volts: 14.7 min: 14.8
    model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD A8-6410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Puma level: v2
    built: 2014-15 process: GF 28nm family: 0x16 (22) model-id: 0x30 (48) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x7030104
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB
    L2: 2 MiB desc: 1x2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1088 high: 1174 min/max: 1000/2000 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 998 2: 1034 3: 1148 4: 1174 bogomips: 15970
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT disabled
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; STIBP: disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not
    affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Mullins [Radeon R4/R5 Graphics] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon v: kernel
    alternate: amdgpu arch: GCN-2 code: Sea Islands process: GF/TSMC 16-28nm built: 2013-17 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:9851 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Realtek HP Truevision HD laptop camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.4:4
    chip-ID: 0bda:5775 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 362x204mm (14.25x8.03") s-diag: 416mm (16.36")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: eDP model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x15ab built: 2013 res: 1366x768 hz: 60
    dpi: 101 gamma: 1.2 size: 344x193mm (13.54x7.6") diag: 394mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1366x768 min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: KABINI ( LLVM 15.0.6 DRM 2.50 6.1.0-33-amd64)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-33-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 6 speed: 64 GT/s port: 3000
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: rtl8723be v: kernel modules: wl pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 2000
    bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:b723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 2-1.1:3
    chip-ID: 0bda:b001 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
    sub-v: 9f73 hci-v: 4.0 rev: e2f
  Info: acl-mtu: 820:8 sco-mtu: 255:16 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio,
    telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 94.37 GiB (20.3%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT500BX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 072 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 186.2 GiB size: 182.22 GiB (97.86%) used: 35.61 GiB (19.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 279.31 GiB size: 273.86 GiB (98.05%) used: 58.76 GiB (21.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 57.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2372 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2363 libs: 1262 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 9
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirror.easyname.ch/mxlinux-packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 237 Uptime: 33m wakeups: 2 Memory: 6.73 GiB used: 2.36 GiB (35.0%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

User avatar
CharlesV
Global Moderator
Posts: 7780
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 5:11 pm

Re: How much RAM?

#2 Post by CharlesV »

Pibo87 wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 3:27 pm Hello there!
I recently installed 2 4GB RAM modules in my laptop in place of the single 4GB module the machine came with. In my system information it say that I have 3 GiB of RAM and 6.7 GiB available to Linux. I'm not sure what this means and why it's so low, especially where the 3GiB come from.
Can anybody enlighten me on this?
Welcome in!

Your QSI is showing: Memory: 6.73 GiB used: 2.36 GiB (35.0%)

So.. 6.7gb of ram and you are using 2.36gb currently

Most likely, your video is taking up 1 gb of the ram.
*QSI = Quick System Info from menu (Copy for Forum)
*MXPI = MX Package Installer
*Please check the solved checkbox on the post that solved it.
*Linux -This is the way!

User avatar
Pibo87
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2025 3:24 am

Re: How much RAM?

#3 Post by Pibo87 »

My iGPU should take 512MB, so those are not counted towards the RAM I have at my disposal, I suppose. I still don't get why Hardinfo2 tells me I have 3GiB of RAM thought.

User avatar
Freja
Developer
Posts: 773
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:15 pm

Re: How much RAM?

#4 Post by Freja »

I saw HP 355 G2 motherboard picture, In my view This machine built-in onboard memory.

Code: Select all

Memory: 6.73 GiB used: 2.36 GiB (35.0%)
probably 2~4 GB onboard, fellow memory looks not recognized I think. Only one added memory recognized now.
Fellow one memory may have bad contact.
(This view remains speculative.)
In the world filled desire,
I seek only essence, serve for MX.
I just needing only ideal in the art at all.
I want to protect place of rest called MX LINUX. :coffee:
Sony VAIO Pro 11inch Silver (FHD) extrox (MX23)

User avatar
j2mcgreg
Global Moderator
Posts: 7057
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:04 pm

Re: How much RAM?  [Solved]

#5 Post by j2mcgreg »

Linux measures memory in GiB rather than GB while computer and part suppliers measure only in GB. For the same component GiB will show a smaller number than GB. Confused? This article will explain why:
https://massive.io/file-transfer/gb-vs- ... ifference/
HP 15; ryzen 3 5300U APU; 500 Gb SSD; 8GB ram
HP 17; ryzen 3 3200; 500 GB SSD; 12 GB ram
Idea Center 3; 12 gen i5; 256 GB ssd;

In Linux, newer isn't always better. The best solution is the one that works.

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