Graphics Memory Reduced

Hello all, I'm new here and I have already used these forums as reference to help solve previous issues dealing with windows 7. I finally decided to join, and I like it already.


Now, on topic. I have a nVidia GeForce Go 6150 for my HP Pavilion dv9417cl (DV9000) and after upgrading my windows version from windows xp, to windows 7, I noticed a greatly reduced available video memory. In windows XP I would see 512MB video available. In windows 7 I see 399mb available video memory.

This is what it says when I right-click the background, screen size, advanced settings:

Total available graphics memory: 399MB

Dedicated Video Memory: 128MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 271MB


Is there a way you can adjust the shared system memory? Because my BIOS only shows the available system memory buffer size which is 128mb

The seller of this laptop was very reputable, and insisted it was capable up to 559MB shared video. It originally came with vista, but I am not a vista fan. So it was removed and replaced with WinXP 32-bit. That is where I found my adapter setting in WinXP said it had 512MB Available Video Memory.

HP Does not support drivers for this video card unless it is Windows Vista. Which is not happening.

Is it possible that I can only achieve the 559MB Total Available Video Memory with Vista ?? Is the different drivers for other OS's universal and unable to provide me with that memory?

Thank you all in advance for your input.

As I understand it your video memory is actual your Ram. So in this case shared.

As you where on XP your OS would give it as much as you specify in the OS.

IE: 1024mb ram, XP would use a estimated 350mb and leaving you the rest for GFX.

There for Windows 7 would like more RAM too run and will only give your GFX card what it has left.

There maybe a item in the bios that you can change but i suggest that you get yourself some more RAM RAM RAM. And install the badboy.

I hope this helps.

Roger

So basically I cant get it back. Darn, I really wanted to keep windows 7 too.....

Windows 7 and XP use and report memory usage differently. Let's try and break it down a bit,

Dedicated Video Memory: 128MB

This is what it says and the amount that the onboard video (or a video card) has.

System Video Memory: 0 MB

This is what is shared from the system ram. In your case it is zero as the onboard has its own. In some cases there is or should be a setting in the bios that you can allocate some of the system ram as extra video memory. For onboard video that doesn't have dedicated video ram, this value is usually a fixed amount, and in the case of the newer Intel onboard graphics it is dynamic (meaning there is no option to increase the shared ram, but it will increase as usage and total system ram increase).

Shared System Memory: 271MB

Really wish Microsoft had named this one differently as it has lead to all kinds of confusion. For the most part the name has nothing to do with what it actually is. what it is is virtualized video memory,

Windows Display Driver Model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

sort of like a pagefile for the video card. It is based on the actual amount of video ram and the total of system ram. It is allocated to the video card but it is only actually used if it is needed if the video card's own ram runs out.

Im back on XP and it says im running 512mb - I will soon partition the drive for both OS's, I just like how windows 7 looks.

Yeah, but it would be great to disable this shared memory for video cards... :/ From the BIOS you can almost always reduce it or increase it for the onboard, but not for the GPU :S..

negrostmthws said:

Yeah, but it would be great to disable this shared memory for video cards..

The thing you are missing is that nothing is taken away from the system ram in regards to the shared memory. It is only allocated for that purpose and only used if you manage to fill whatever memory is on the video card.

You issue with shared system memory and TurboCache is a totally different issue, and sorry but have no advice on how to disable that.