# Bios - VGA sharing memory



## Faraaz (Mar 5, 2005)

Hi friends. My onboard video card is a S3 ProSavage4. My manual says that my onboard VGA supports shared memory architecture. Does this mean that i can share my RAM with my video memory hence increasing it. My vga memory is 16Mb. So How do i increase it? I know it has something to do with bios but please help me because i dont know how to do it? Thanks

My specs:
512 Mb ram
Motherboard VIA KM133A
300W PSU
30 Gb hard disk
S3 Graphics Prosavage 8A26
AMD athlon 1.1 GHZ


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## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

You're probably thinking of AGP arpeture sharing. That allows an AGP video card to access system RAM for texture storage. The thing is, the card ONLY uses that system RAM when it needs the extra space. This can be adjusted in the BIOS, generally from 16MB to 512MB. The rule of thumb is NEVER to allocated more than 50% of your installed RAM.


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## Faraaz (Mar 5, 2005)

But what about my onboard VGA, can't I increase its memory?


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## Volt-Schwibe (Jan 12, 2003)

yes, you can.

that onboard vid card has none of it's own memory, and the 16 you see are probably missing from the 512 you have installed. right click "my computer" and click properties, you should see 496 megs physical ram installed.

keep in mind, you probably won't be able to reserve more than 32 megs based on it's age.

also, with that setup, i'd set the _apature_ to no more than 128.


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## Faraaz (Mar 5, 2005)

Thanks for your reply. Yes you are right, I see 496 mb physical ram installed. So how can I increase my VGA memory?


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## Volt-Schwibe (Jan 12, 2003)

each bios is different.

you should find a setting in the bios, under "shared ram" or something like that.

without the manual i'd have to see it to know for sure.


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