Ryzen integrated GPUs stealing system memory Aspire A715-41G

Hi,

I recently just purchased an Aspire 7 A715-41G:

Ryzen 5 3550H

8GB DDR4

GTX1650

256GB SSD

And overall it is a lovely laptop. However, I am rather miffed to find that the integrated Vega 8 GPU for the Ryzen 5 processor has decided to claim 2GB of system memory for itself which is now listed as "hardware reserved", meaning I effectively only have 6GB of RAM. This is very annoying since I have the GTX1650 to handle any graphically intensive tasks and need that extra 2GB of RAM. Since the display is hooked up to the Vega GPU however I cannot disable it. I have tried snooping around the BIOS to see if you can change the amount of system memory allocated to it but there is no such setting.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this without spending even more money to simply double my RAM?

Thanks

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JackE

Press WIN+R. Enter 'msinfo32'. Please post screenshot of result if possible. Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Hi,

I have attached the results from the sysinfo as well as the "conflicts/sharing" page in case that helps with any info. Please let me know if you need any more device info.

Thanks

Screenshot (1).png

Screenshot (2).png

JackE

How about a screenshot of display under components? Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Here you go

Screenshot (3).png

JackE

Run msconfig. Click boot tab. Click advanced options button. What is max mem set to? Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Currently the maximum memory box is unchecked.

JackE

Yes but what is is set to? 8GB? 0GB? Something in between? Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

If the box were checked it would be 0GB. Probably should have said so in my previous post my bad.

JackE

Check the box and enter 7GB if possible. If not, choose 8GB default. You'll have to reboot for it to take effect. Then check msinfo32 components display properties to see if it reduced its RAM load. Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Hi,

If i set maxmem to 7GB and hit OK it seems to actually set it to 3GB if i then revisit the window or reboot the PC and check the RAM. When setting to 8GB it re-defaults to 0 and still shows the usual amount of available memory.

Attached is what is shown if i try to set 7GB when it "moves itself" to 3GB after I hit OK.

JackE

Uncheck msconfig maxmem at 8GB and let it default to zero after booting. Then enter the BIOS menu. Press Ctrl+S in each BIOS menu tab, especially the Main and Advanced tabs, to see if any additional hidden options are revealed. Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Having done this the only new options which appear are SATA modes and touch pad settings in the main tab, nothing under advanced. Having read around it appears that this is simply the way that AMD systems are wired and unless there is a BIOS setting to alter it, nothing can be done about it. I guess it's time to shell out another portion of cash to upgrade my RAM if it starts bottlenecking.

Thank you very much for taking the time to help.

JackE

Post a screenshot of msinfo32 again immediately after booting but before you manually start loading anything into RAM. Also are you running encryption service and background non-Microsoft antivirus software? Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Screenshot attached. I am not running any encryption service or antivirus past standard windows defender. I guess it's just a setting you either have the BIOS menu to change or not. Rather annoying considering Intel integrated GPUs have never reserved more than 512mb of system memory and shared the rest in my experience.

Screenshot (5).png

JackE

>>>I have tried snooping around the BIOS to see if you can change the amount of system memory allocated to it but there is no such setting.>>>

Snoop around the BIOS menu some more. Only this time, if you didn't before, use the Ctrl+S toggle key combo to see if any hidden video options appear in each tab. Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Ctrl+S only revealed some touchpad and SATA (not really sure why since this laptop doesn't have a SATA drive) settings in the main section, nothing new in the advanced section except for something about AMD machine virtualization.

JackE

Keep an eye on this thread too. https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/608621/ram-not-enterely-used User increased RAM to 24GB. And the system promptly took a whopping 33% hardware reserved, 8GB. This is quite excessive.

Problem not solved yet. But there are two reason to alert you to this thread. First, hold off on buying extra RAM till we can get a better handle this excessive hardware reserved issue. (2) While experimenting with msconfig to juggle hardware reserved values, my machine became completely unbootable. The hidden recovery partition was also rendered useless. As you will see, I finally had to resort to an earlier bootable USB version 1511 of Win10 and use its troubleshooting command prompt to fix the UEFI bootstrapper's trusted boot file partition. Later Win10 versions of the command prompt seemed to deny access to fixing this partition---no doubt a Microsoft enhanced security feature that also makes recovery harder when things go haywire.

Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Thanks for the info. The only other thing i can think of is that the BIOS version currently installed appears not to be the latest for my device. I am currently running the INSYDE corp v1.00 when according to the Acer support site there is a v1.01 available (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/support-product/8355?b=1). Whether or not this update included the option to set the integrated GPU's memory buffer I do not know however I have heard that updating BIOS is risky and would rather not do it. Any idea where I would be able to find a change log of what was altered in the new version?

JackE

Whatever descriptions, if any, you see in the ACER downloads is about all you get. And they are often indecipherable or truncated like that one. If it were mine and it didn't seem to have "device manager touch pad information error when hybrid shutdown or mo...", I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole due to the risk of adverse side effects or worse---a brick. But it's not mine. So you're free to try it. If it bricks or creates other issues, you can always return it to the vendor as defective for a refund or exchange if with the seller's return policy period; usually only a few weeks. Or arrange for ACER warranty service with shipping costs both ways on your tab. Jack E/NJ

PotatoMemory

Complete punt in the dark but I have my new SSD arriving tomorrow. Do you think it might be worth running a clean windows installation without any acer preinstalled stuff to see if that helps? I've been hearing that the manufacturers are the ones to set the memory allocation for integrated GPUs and maybe a clean windows installation instead of just using a recovery drive (which I was going to use to keep my settings and some files) might help?

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