Community Newsletter: Q&A: PC video memory confusion: Dedicated, shared, discrete, oh my!

All this business about 512 MB is CRAZY!

In reply to: Few selected answers to get your started by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

I see almost NO new desktop systems and very few laptop systems for sale with less than 2 GB of RAM these days, and RAM is so RIDICULOUSLY inexepnsive right now, someone would have to be OFF HIS ROCKER to buy a system with less than 2 GB of RAM -- especially if it's a system running Vista Home Premium (which almost ALL new systems for home use have).

As for dedicated vs. integrated video, for the usually MINOR price difference, I also think you'd have to be pretty tight for finances to go with integrated video, for MOST of the reasons stated above. Any system worth considering COMES with some sort of video card, ALTHOUGH many of them may not come with the card you'd prefer.

Here's an example. I'm using a Dell XPS 410 I bought in mid-November 2006 (waited a bit longer than I'd planned so I'd get a free upgrade to Vista, which was a real hassle getting to run right for a LONG time). It has a Core-2-duo processor running at 2.4 Ghz (which was the fastest you could get without spending an extra $400 at the time, i.e. "the sweet spot") and came with 2 GB of of 667 Mhz RAM, a dual-tuner TV card (which works with BOTH tuners only when it FEELS like it), gigabit ethernet and the standard 56K modem that basically just wastes a PCI slot... plus an nVidia 7300Le video card, which was THE "low-end video card" in both Dell AND HP systems at the time...

The card I WANTED was the 7600 (which was the TOP-END card offered in the HP systems), but Dell didn't offer that card as an upgrade and I didn't like the card they DID offer, so I got my system with the 7300 and bought the most "souped-up" version of the 7600 I could find when I caught it on sale at Circuit City (7600 GT KO... it had 256 MB of RAM built in -- I THINK the 7300 ALSO had 256 MB of RAM, but it was slower in other ways -- video cards have OTHER stats to look at, as well, such as how fast their PROCESSORS run, as they have THEIR OWN, built-in processors AND "shader clocks," and some of that stuff I don't really understand, either, I just know faster is better)...

Anyway, here's the really interesting part... I installed this 256 MB card, and then the nVidia control panel, then later when I checked it and looked at all the stats, I noticed my TOTAL video memory was 768 MB... In other words, although I had a DEDICATED CARD, it was enabling an EXTRA 512 MB of my 2 GB of System RAM when it needed it...

Now HERE'S where it gets REALLY interesting... A few months later, when RAM got REALLY cheap (at least I thought so... it's DIRT CHEAP by comparison NOW to what it was a year ago when I thought it was REALLY cheap) I bought another 2 GB and maxed my system out to 4 GB. What I didn't know at the time was that since I'm using a 32-bit version of Vista, it can NEVER "address" the entire 4 GB of RAM, so the system won't even RECOGNIZE the whole 4 GB, even though I can run startup utilities that show it's all there... HOWEVER, my Video card NOTICED... Just recently, I ran the nVidia Control Panel again, just to snoop around, and Lo and Behold, my Total Video Memory is NOW 1,534 MB, with a total of 1,278 MB "Shared System Memory."

Soooo, long story short, even if you DO get a really good system with a really good video card, there's a chance the card MIGHT "borrow" some of your system memory for video memory use, BUT you'll still have plenty to spare for the system, as even with 1,278 MB used for video, I still have basically 3.75 GB of RAM left for my SYSTEM, and before, even with 512 MB shared with the video, I still had 1.5 GB left for the system.

Even if you have to cut somewhere else, get a system with at least 2 GB of RAM, and a video card with at least 256 MB of RAM -- preferably something at least 8600 level, or higher (or ATI equivalent), so you can use the newer graphics features. You can get one of these cards, right now, after rebate for about $70 online, and MANY new computers come with one of them installed.

Good luck!
Jeff