Max dedicated video memory declared by computer - any concern?

[larioso]

Hi again
This upgrading graphics card turned into a hazzle.

My computer specs says either 512 MB or 1024 MB dedicated video memory.
I have a 512 MB card now Geforce 210.

Windows says 4095 total graphics memory, 3583 shared video memory, 512 dedicated, 0 system video memory probably due to no onboard video.

If I get 2G dedicated card - will that you distribute these numbers differently - or give me BSOD's other other hazzles?
Is it up to drivers to manage this - or much dependent on computer bios?

Bios says 2008, computer bought 2010, and some bios update 2011 or 2012 as I recall.
Was this specs mentioned for computer just what was available at the time of manufacturing - or as important for future?

Thanks.

[Krispy Kritter]

The numbers you reference above are typically an indication that the system has a gpu on the motherboard with little or no dedicated video RAM and is sharing the system RAM. If you use a video card, then your graphics memory will be whatever amount of the RAM the card has built into the card. So a video card with 2GB of video RAM will have 2GB of graphics memory.

[larioso]

Thank you.
The card is the dedicated memory of 512 MB mentioned.

The thing that is unclear is if systemboard is in any way limited in it's design and just able to handle 1G dedicated, as I read specs in service manual and setup manual.

To be sure not to violate anything I have a card of 1G arriving in the next days.

[jagabo]

My computer specs says either 512 MB or 1024 MB dedicated video memory.

That is the size of the aperture in the CPU's 32 bit address space. It is not a limit on the amount of memory on the graphics card. The larger you make the aperture the less memory space is available to Windows (or other OS) when running in 32 bit mode.

[larioso]

My computer specs says either 512 MB or 1024 MB dedicated video memory.

That is the size of the aperture in the CPU's 32 bit address space. It is not a limit on the amount of memory on the graphics card. The larger you make the aperture the less memory space is available to Windows (or other OS) when running in 32 bit mode.

Thanks, learning new terms here.

So this is not relevant for 64-bit mode at all then, or?

My MB has max 16G of ram, and is fully equipped.
And it says 4G total video memory, and thereof 512 dedicated and the rest shared.

So is bottom line that you can use larger than 1G cards, but it will be handled in 1G chunks or something?
Or if 64-bit OS and 64-bit drivers - not relevant at all?

[Krispy Kritter]

Two things to note here:

1) The "shared" memory that you keep referring to is ONLY in regards to the motherboard gpu (if there is one). (ie: onboard graphics)

2) As noted above, if you use an addon video card, then the amount of RAM ON THE CARD, is the amount of RAM that you have available for graphics. Addon cards do not share system RAM.

[DB83]

I hope I am not having a 'senior' moment here.

BUT IIRC some mbs allow you to use both system/shared memory AND dedicated memory on the add-on card ie as dual monitors. Obviously, as stated, these can not be added together or some of the shared memory used to supplement the dedicated memory. But if the bios allows for this arrangement, the shared memory is still spoken for and is only available to the on-board gpu and not to Windows. Then to get that shared memory back for windows you would have to disable the on-board gpu/memory in the bios.

[larioso]

Two things to note here:

1) The "shared" memory that you keep referring to is ONLY in regards to the motherboard gpu (if there is one). (ie: onboard graphics)

2) As noted above, if you use an addon video card, then the amount of RAM ON THE CARD, is the amount of RAM that you have available for graphics. Addon cards do not share system RAM.

My reasoning then is:

#1. Why did they put it as general specs in service manual(see other "quadro..." thread)?
The i7 model I have, there is no onboard graphics card.
They framed it as general for both addon graphics cards and integrated graphics.

There is a big framed area in specs about integrated, and they could mention there what memory options exist.

#2. Windows is putting specs for video memory as shared and dedicated, corresponding to video card.
Total 4096 MB, 3500 MB as shared, 512MB dedicated.

And I run two monitors now, and not sure if that affect how that is used.

If it was at Control panel->change resolution>advanced link.

I will here how it looks when I get the 1G card.

So seems drivers use some mapped memory to interchange data over to graphics or something.

[larioso]

I hope I am not having a 'senior' moment here.

BUT IIRC some mbs allow you to use both system/shared memory AND dedicated memory on the add-on card ie as dual monitors. Obviously, as stated, these can not be added together or some of the shared memory used to supplement the dedicated memory. But if the bios allows for this arrangement, the shared memory is still spoken for and is only available to the on-board gpu and not to Windows. Then to get that shared memory back for windows you would have to disable the on-board gpu/memory in the bios.

I have a vague memory of that other computers I had, also had some shadow memory setting, but don't remeber if that was regarding video memory.

This MB does not have onboard graphics, and bios says only "N/A" or something to enable/disable.

I'll have a look when my new card gets installed, before activating both monitors how specs look in windows.

[jagabo]

I have a vague memory of that other computers I had, also had some shadow memory setting, but don't remeber if that was regarding video memory.

Shadow memory was when the BIOS and/or video ROMs were copied to RAM, and then that RAM was overlaid over the ROMs, for faster access. Ie, the ROMs were actually running from RAM because RAM access was faster than ROM access.

[larioso]

I have a vague memory of that other computers I had, also had some shadow memory setting, but don't remeber if that was regarding video memory.

Shadow memory was when the BIOS and/or video ROMs were copied to RAM, and then that RAM was overlaid over the ROMs, for faster access. Ie, the ROMs were actually running from RAM because RAM access was faster than ROM access.

Right, thank you.

[Krispy Kritter]

1) Likely because the motherboard supports other processors aside from just the i7. The i5's, for example, have built-in (ie: integrated) video support.

2) Personally, I've never checked. But Windows will get that information from the motherboard (for onboard gpus) or from the card itself. It also wouldn't surprise me if Windows was simply wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.


Also, Windows, by default, still sets aside "video memory" even though it will never use it. See here: https://www.nextofwindows.com/why-my-64-bit-windows-7-still-show-3gb-usable-out-of-4gb

[larioso]

1) Likely because the motherboard supports other processors aside from just the i7. The i5's, for example, have built-in (ie: integrated) video support.

2) Personally, I've never checked. But Windows will get that information from the motherboard (for onboard gpus) or from the card itself. It also wouldn't surprise me if Windows was simply wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.


Also, Windows, by default, still sets aside "video memory" even though it will never use it. See here: https://www.nextofwindows.com/why-my-64-bit-windows-7-still-show-3gb-usable-out-of-4gb

Thanks for the link.

I don't think windows do the most advanced benchmark, but still is some kind of comparison.
It did take 5-10 second each for the parts or so - so think it more than just fetching info.

I even think it stores info about computer on their servers and compared to all those that done it and being online.
It says that the rating, on my machine 7.9 max, could change since it is relative measurement of some sort.

I'll put my new numbers up here with this GT 730 upgrade next week.

Just came to think of my 2009 Asus UL30A laptop, 1.3 GHz Core2 Duo, 4G ram, windows 7 64-bit.
WEI 3.4, cpu=4.2, ram=4.8, graphics Aero=3.9, Gaming graphics=3.4, hdd=5.8 this also to 7.9 as max rating reference
Video memory is 2G total with shared, 64 MB dedicated, the rest shared.
But system says 2935 MB available in task manager - which reveals that shared is used to run software as well.

So you are probably right, that video memory specified is not reserved for one thing only - it is shared.

[larioso]

The new WEI numbers for Gigabyte GT 730 graphics card.
Rating 1.0 - 7.9

CPU 7.4
Ram 7.4
Graphics(Aero) 5.3 former Geforce 210 4.5
Game graphics 6.8 former Geforce 210 5.6
HDD 5.9

Drivers I installed from cd were v351 or so, so later drivers(is it v376) may affect some of this - don't know.