I know this sounds like a odd question, like why would you enable PAE just to cap the system at 4gb 🤣. I have a funky use case and need to have both the PAE enabled but can't use more then 4gb of ram as I won't have sound. When I set the max ram in msconfig to 4gb I don't get 4gb but rather 3gb.

For some context I have 2 newer games that can run on XP but max out the 2gb per app ram limit, both games have a tool to work around that and lets them use up to 4gb but without PAE I'm stuck at 3gb, when I turn PAE on I can use the full 4gb and the games run fine but then I have no hardware sound/EAX from the ram bug found in sound blasters. I put 4 older 1gb sticks in the system and that fixed the problem but I can't find any 1gb sticks or even 2gb sticks of ddr3 that clock anywhere near the 8gb sticks I have.

Any ideas ?