gfx vram and 32 bit os

[walk on]

Ive been running into memory limitations with some software I use (work related) and heard that some system memory is taken up by the amount of vram you have.

i.e 1gb of vram has 1gb of system ram reserved.. if so then how much memory do I have available (free, available memory) if I use vista 32 bit, and a 1.5 gb 580 gtx? (I have 4gb ram).

 

[walk on]

In theory you would only see 2.5gb of system ram as the 4gb limit of Windows 32bit includes all system memory.

thats just what I was thinking, thats not much if you take into consideration background tasks and windows running! Thanks for clearing this up.