# Dedicating memory to video graphics



## Cruncher (May 17, 2009)

when i bought my laptop yesterday, the salesman told me that it has no dedicated video memory, but that it is possible to set aside memory for dedicated video memory through the BIOS, but did not explain how, i have 3GB RAM and would like to dedicate 512MB to video memory, any help on this?


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## jolancer (Jul 5, 2004)

any Computer with 'Onboard Video/Graphics' Usess shared system memory/Ram for GFX.

the BIOS already usess a Default amount of 'Shared Ram' for video... Its pointless to change it, because performance is not going to be gained. Shared Ram is so much slower then a Dedicated video card... its like for random example... if your racing cariage's, and One has 10 horses... and the other has 50 Cow's.... is the one with Cow's ever going to get Fast no matter how many Cows you add to it? 

anything above ~64mb or ~128mb of onboard shared Vid memory is useless depending on the system. Its more efficent to leave the system Ram for the System.


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## Cruncher (May 17, 2009)

thanks jol,

so youre saying that it would have been better to get one with an actual video card? lol
they were also $300 more though so im not sure if its worth the differance


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## jolancer (Jul 5, 2004)

Depends on the purpose... if you were shooting for High 3D graphic gaming performance.. yes, you'd have to have a GFX with its own dedicated memory.

If your just using it for average windows aplications... then no you definatly dont need Dedicated GFX mem. and without intense 3D apps would probably never see a difference.

EDIT: better put a disclaimer that: i do not and have not, and probably will not attempt to use Vista.. i dont know about windows 7 or any future OS, but i do know and have seen on other ppls comps, resources issues with Vista, that what i just mentioned maybe fauls for Vista... but on the other hand if your just an average user, and your using Vista, you probably have bigger problems then onboard Vram lol


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## Cruncher (May 17, 2009)

well its brand new, and its vista, but i have an XP Home Ed. product key from my old comp so i might do that, and im planning on getting windows 7 upgrade, we'll see


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## jolancer (Jul 5, 2004)

I have a friend who Has a Gateway Intel laptop with onboard shared GFX memory... I never checked to see what the Vram settings were set at in BIOS, but the Laptop came preInstalled with Vista. Granted it worked, but for a DualCore Laptop with 2Gbs of system ram, It definatly did not feel like a performance system.. and i dont mean graphic wise, no games or whatnot was used on that laptop, just normal aplication use.

I Reformatted it for her and installed XP, and it runs Multiple times faster. However, the laptop was a parently produced in the time period of Promoting Vista, cause there were actually Little to No XP Drivers In Gateways Downloads/Support Section for her Model of Laptop. If you eventually end up choosing that path, IF that is a problem for you aswell, use a program such as CPU-Z to get the Model #s of your Board Chipset and manufactur and you can find and download XP drivers for your components... After doing specific Part searches on Gateways website i could find most of the Hardware Driver versions For XP in a different Laptop Versions Download section. If you cant find it from the brand u can usualy get it from the Parts manufactures website though. Hopefully many ppl dont run into that prob though heh


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

What is the make and model of the Laptop? Some Laptops have discreet video memory which means that it does not share system memory. It's a seperste memory chip from the system memory.


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