6.x from i386 to amd64

[Chuck Swiger]

Greg Black wrote:
[ ... ]
> Dunno about PAE on i386 (and don't much care).  As it happens,
> my amd64 box is hardly higher end, but it has slots for 4GB and
> its doco claims that it can run with 4GB.  However, to my great
> displeasure, I discovered after setting it up that both its BIOS
> and any OS I install see weird and obviously wrong amounts of
> memory if I install 4GB.  The exact bad size varies, depending
> on various BIOS options, but ranges from 3.3GB up to 5.3GB (with
> various intermediate values, none of which is the correct 4GB).
> Updating the BIOS made no difference.

It's common for BIOSes to move the RAM occupying the same address space as the 
PCI range reserved for hardware above 4 GB; depending on the size of your AGP 
aperature (if present).

-- 
-Chuck