# System RAM vs. shared video memory



## Claus (Apr 6, 2011)

I've got a machine running FreeBSD 8.2 amd64 with the following configuration:
M/B: Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor
RAM: 4x 4GB DDR3-1333

512 MB of RAM (by default)  are dedicated as shared video memory.
FreeBSD drops to kernel panic after using almost whole amount of RAM. 
I am confused of such strings in dmesg:


```
Apr  6 01:21:29 note kernel: real memory  = 17179869184 (16384 MB)
Apr  6 01:21:29 note kernel: avail memory = 16426295296 (15665 MB)
```

Actually, OS should see only 16384-512=15872 MB of system RAM. Looks like FreeBSD uses shared memory as regular address space and fails as this space is overwritten by graphics adapter.

Any thoughts?


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## jb_fvwm2 (Apr 7, 2011)

Upon panics (during port builds) with a onboard video (amd also, quad-core ) and FreeBSD 9, I installed a pci-e graphics card and they more or less disappeared.  Sorry cannot be of more help.


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