Adjusting Shared Video Memory

[TW]Fox · 8 Sep 2007 at 13:07

Hi all,

I've just bought a Dell Lattitude D620 with a Core2Duo T7600 and 2Gb of DDR2. Unfortunately, it also has an Intel GMA945 integrated graphics card, but this isn't the end of the world as its more for Uni work.

I wouldnt mind the odd bash at Eve Online using it, though, and my previous laptop which I had on placement - A Dell D520 with a T5200 CPU and, presumably, the same integrated graphics card - handled it fine.

I note though that it only has 8mb of memory allocated to it. Can I adjust the amount of memory thats allocated to the video card? I couldn't see an option to do this in the BIOS.

Thanks!

sidethink · 8 Sep 2007 at 14:08

I'm not that familiar with the laptop but I would have thought those types of options were more likely to be found in the Intel control panels inside Windows. You can normally change the amount but in my experience they usually come setup to consume the maximum possible.

mattyrigby00 · 8 Sep 2007 at 14:15

if its not in the bios probably impossible

split · 8 Sep 2007 at 14:18

I thought I'd do the above on a machine I repaired / upgraded for someone.
Intel onboard graphics, and no options anywhere to change it.

[TW]Fox · 8 Sep 2007 at 14:30

Oh well. It's nice anyway

At least now I've got my own Windows installation on there from fresh, not a Dellified one. But of course now I'm wondering if maybe I've missed power management software or similar.

manic_man · 8 Sep 2007 at 16:04

My guess would be it uses the Intel auto expanding memory configuration. It allocates 8mb when nothing is demanding any more of the framebuffer and then allocates as much as is needed upto a preset maximum (something like 384mb iirc) when the 8mb is used up

Its one of the better shared memory systems out there.

It MIGHT not be the case but id be suprised if it wasnt.

ghgh · 8 Sep 2007 at 16:25

on my dell insirion 1501 turion laptop theres a setting in the control pannel settings for the graphics card to expand the shared memory (goes upto 256mb on mine) but default is 128MB .