Available Graphics Memory showing 3838MB - Can it be reduced?

[Nelly]

Just wondering, in games the Total Available Memory shows as 3838MB, my graphics card has 2048MB available anyway so is their anyway I can drop the shared system memory to 0? or is it neccesary?

 

[Rroff]

Not neccesary.

 

[Nelly]

Not neccesary.

How can I drop the shared system memory, any ideas?

 

[Broken Hope]

WDDM drivers support virtual memory for video RAM, it's normal, I don't think there is a way to lower the shared RAM.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/graphicsmemory.mspx

 

[Nelly]

WDDM drivers support virtual memory for video RAM, it's normal, I don't think there is a way to lower the shared RAM.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/graphicsmemory.mspx

Thanks for the info.

Great so even more of a waste buying Graphics cards above 1GB then?

 

[Reality|Bites]

Not really, it will use the faster onboard memory before it uses the system memory/swap file.

 

[reflux]

Thanks for the info.

Great so even more of a waste buying Graphics cards above 1GB then?

Buying a single-GPU card with over 1gb is a bit of a waste unless you're running at 2560x1600 yes.

 

[Nelly]

Buying a single-GPU card with over 1gb is a bit of a waste unless you're running at 2560x1600 yes.

Ahh got a reason for that, I run 3 EverQuests at once on one PC, I used to run out of memory for my X1900XTX 512MB & 8800GTX 768MB then the screen polygons etc would start turning white due to loss of memory.

I got a good deal on the 2048MB as opposed to the 1024MB card anyway, cost me £16 extra.

 

[Nelly]

So basically the shared system memory isnt dedicated video memory is it? it's just as it's disposle if it was required, thanks okay then I just thought it was totally committed to graphics memory.

 

[reflux]

Ah ha, I see

 

[Rroff]

Yeah its not committed memory - its how much the GPU can take if it needs when it runs out of VRAM.

 

[Nelly]

Cool thanks for the info people, I've just read a document on the Microsoft page, cheers to "Broken Hope" for the original link.

Shared system memory is a portion of the system memory that can be used by the graphics subsystem when needed.

For discrete graphics adapters, this type of memory is often referred to as “non-local video memory”—that is, far from the GPU.

The shared memory is available to other subsystems or non-graphics applications when it is not being used by the graphics subsystem.

Thus, it is never guaranteed to be available for graphics because it could already be in use.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/c/5/9c5b2167-8017-4bae-9fde-d599bac8184a/GraphicsMemory.doc