Do I have 4GB RAM or not?

I dont know if my computer is recognizing my new RAM modules. I had 2GB (2x1GB) and added two more 1GB sticks. All modules are identical. The main problem is that I have a lot of conflicting information. System properties says I have 4GB, but dxdiag only counts 2.814GB. I know this was a problem before vista sp1, but I thought it had been fixed.

Every systems monitor tool that I have is displaying that I am using almost exactly the same percentage of resources as before the upgrade. So either my system is using twice the resources, the monitoring tools can't handle 4GB, or my computer isn't taking advantage of the new RAM. Two more pieces of info: my motherboard can handle up to 8GB in theory, and I am running vista 32bit sp1. help, i'm confused! ...I do get slightly better fps in crysis, though

some blogs/forums/etc seem to indicate that the memory is still being used by other devices (PCI). So the the additional RAM is still doing some good?

some blogs/forums/etc seem to indicate that the memory is still being used by other devices (PCI). So the the additional RAM is still doing some good?

StaticFriction

No the additional RAM is useless, your 32-bit OS has a 4gb address space. Part of that space is used by your video card and other devices. That only leaves a certain amount of space for your system RAM, in your case that's about 3gb meaning the extra 1gb is useless. You'll need a 64-bit OS to utilise all of your RAM since it has a much larger address space.