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Increasing VRAM

Discussion in 'Computers & Modding' started by DJS5590, Jan 24, 2009.

  1. DJS5590

    DJS5590 Member

    This is probably a stupid question but I wanted to check for sure, since I've read many pages saying different things... I just need a simple answer :-\

    Basically, I wanted to know is it possible to increase my VRAM from 64mb to 128mb without changing the hardware, and if possible, will this improve games?

    I have a HP G6000 laptop, but I can't run many games at a good framerate due to it only having 64mb of VRAM.
    DXDIAG tells me I have an NVIDIA GeForce 7000M/nForce 610M graphics card, DAC type: Intergrated RAMDAC, Memory: 793mb.
    The website tells me my card can have up to 300 odd mbs of memory.
    I also have 2gb of RAM, and it's a AMD64 Dual Core processor.
     
  2. equitypetey

    equitypetey Well-Known Member

    on laptops its hard to upgrade anything so if you have to ask the question then no its not possible to upgrade.
     
  3. DJS5590

    DJS5590 Member

    I wasn't thinking about upgrading the hardware. I thought since my card is most likely intergrated to the RAM, is it possible to transfer some RAM into the VRAM? 64mb isn't alot, so it shouldn't effect overall performance, but it would do alot to the VRAM, that is, if it is possible to do.
     
  4. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    If by vram you mean video ram, then no as a rule. If you have an integrated graphics chip that uses shared memory (such as intel graphics) then you might be able to allocate more system ram as video ram in the bios setup. It won't make much difference though because system ram is far too slow for graphics cards, so shared memory graphics perform like shit no matter how much ram is allocated for graphics.
     
  5. nomercy

    nomercy Well-Known Member

    Short answer: No, and you are already using your RAM for video operations.
    Also short answer: No, you can't play GTA4 with a GF7000M.

    The VRAM (or GDDR) is a fixed amount of memory on you video card. You can only upgrade this by changing to a video card with more GDDR memory.

    Now, the video card manufacturers have developed a way to share a part of your RAM with your video card. This is always slower than GDDR (long physical path from video card to RAM), but is still faster than getting it from your HDD all the time.

    From what I can tell your are already using your RAM, as your DXDIAG says it has 793mb available, which is more than the 64mb dedicated on your video card.

    But your video card memory is generally used to store higher resolution textures, so if you can't play a game a low resolutions, then don't bother increasing the ram. It's generally only for higher resolutions.

    If you really want more video memory, you could check if you can upgrade your graphics card (MXM slot). If not, then don't bother.