Memory Distribution

[DirtRider]

I have just installed my new Sapphire HD 5770 1 Gig card. Now I am ruining Win7 Pro 32 bit and have 4 Gig on board memory. Now with the new card I would in affect have a total of 5 Gig. So as we know 32 bit only looks at 4 Gig so when playing games how is the memory now distributed or what effect does the additional 1 Gig on the ATI card have?

 

[ryo]

32bit is only read max 4GB of the memory. and you have VGA card 1Gb. what game that's u mean??

you can open the task manager when you run a game. and that's will show you how much memory used.

 

[DirtRider]

What I am saying is how does the extra 1 Gig get used above the on board 4 Gig

 

[ryo]

if you want you can change to the 64bit.

 

[stormy13]

Now with the new card I would in affect have a total of 5 Gig.

Actually no you don't. You still only have 4 GB of ram and now have a video card with 1 GB of ram on it, the two do not get added together.

So as we know 32 bit only looks at 4 Gig so when playing games how is the memory now distributed or what effect does the additional 1 Gig on the ATI card have?

With being on 32 bit Windows it means you now have less than 3 GB of ram available due to addressing limitations; 1 GB for the video card and whatever is required by the rest of the hardware. Pretty sure there is something in the tutorials about this but not finding it at the moment so,

Coding Horror: Dude, Where's My 4 Gigabytes of RAM?

 

[DirtRider]

So then what is the point of getting a Video card with memory on it

 

[severedsolo]

So then what is the point of getting a Video card with memory on it

To stop it from stealing your RAM? Think about it, If the graphics card doesn't have to ask Windows for RAM but uses its own, then your memory and your OS isn' being bogged down by it.

For example: I have 3GB of Ram. I used to have an integrated Graphics card with 256MB dedictaed memory. As it was integrated, the graphics card was actually "stealing" 256MB from my Ram so I actually had 2.75GB Ram.

Now I have a Graphics card with 512MB but it is its own memory, so I have double the video memory, but I also have all my 3GB available. Graphics cards always need memory after all, but at least this memory now isn't being stolen away from my "proper" ram, freeing the memory for other stuff I need.

Least thats how I see it from my laymans point of view. (I know very little about graphics cards if I'm honest)

To answer your original question: the 1GB Graphics Memory will just be used for Graphics nothing else

 

[stormy13]

YouGamers - Articles - Video RAM - how much do you really need?

 

[DirtRider]

So then what is the point of getting a Video card with memory on it

To stop it from stealing your RAM? Think about it, If the graphics card doesn't have to ask Windows for RAM but uses its own, then your memory and your OS isn' being bogged down by it.

So then Windows will still use the full 4 Gig and the card will take from it's 1 Gig first if I understand correctly. So in affect even on a 32 bit you will have 5 Gig actually being used

 

[fseal]

No, Windows can only use up to 3 gig in your case because the 1 gig on your video card is "stomping" on the upper one gig of your 4 gig of system ram which is essentially disabled.

If you install the 64 bit version of windows then you will be able to use all 4 gig of system ram and the video ram will be mapped way up high out of the way.

 

[DirtRider]

So this is what I thought the first time so I could have just as well purchased a card with no memory at all as it come down to the same thing having 4 Gig on board already :huh:

 

[stormy13]

No, Windows can only use up to 3 gig in your case because the 1 gig on your video card is "stomping" on the upper one gig of your 4 gig of system ram which is essentially disabled.

If you install the 64 bit version of windows then you will be able to use all 4 gig of system ram and the video ram will be mapped way up high out of the way.

And no matter how you slice it the two do not get added together.

Graphics processing unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Video memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VRAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Video memory mysteries (dated, but every little bit helps)

 

[Win7User512]

I agree with Stormy13. They don't get added together. Video card memory is not system memory.

 

[DirtRider]

No, Windows can only use up to 3 gig in your case because the 1 gig on your video card is "stomping" on the upper one gig of your 4 gig of system ram which is essentially disabled.

If you install the 64 bit version of windows then you will be able to use all 4 gig of system ram and the video ram will be mapped way up high out of the way.

And no matter how you slice it the two do not get added together.

Graphics processing unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Video memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VRAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Video memory mysteries (dated, but every little bit helps)

So basically then I do have a total of 5 Gig working at one time but not as one so to speak. In other words if my system (Win7) is using the full 4 Gigs the game will still have the 1 Gig on the video card to use. Then it is better to have a Video card with 1 Gig on it

 

[fseal]

No.

In your setup, windows will have 3 gig or less to use and the video card 1 gig. You can look it up right now. How much ram usable does your windows machine report? Right click the task bar, then Start Task Manager, then click the performance tab then click the "Resource Monitor" button. On the Resource Monitor, click the "Memory" tab and look at the colored graph. It will show you your total system ram and it will also show some amount of it labelled "Hardware reserved" that part of your system ram can never be used for anything. If you use W7 x64 then there will be very little Hardware Reserved area any more and pretty much your full 4 gig of ram can be used by windows. (My hardware reserved is currently 5 MB, so small the grey part isn't even visible on the graph)

Also, you can.t buy a video card with no ram because all add-in cards use their own ram for speed reasons. Frequently built-in motherboard video chips use system ram instead of their own ram but that's not the case here at all.

 

[DirtRider]

Ok I did a capture with BFBC2 running and without it running

 

[Win7User512]

Ok I did a capture with BFBC2 running and without it running

Regardless of what you have running, you only have 3326GB at your disposal. The remaining (770MB) is system-reserved.

Your video card is using its own 1GB of memory, not shown in that pic.

 

[fseal]

Ok, that's pretty typical there. Windows gets slightly over 3 gig to use for itself. It looks like your video card is making 512 meg available at once for addressing externally and the rest of that 720 is other pieces of hardware in your computer each needing some amount of addressable ram space.

Though your video card is 1024 meg, the driver is only making 512 available for direct addressing then using the other 512 used internally (or switching it back and forth as needed) so that it is not taking up a full 1 meg of your main ram. Some cards DO that and reduce your usable memory to like 2.7 gig

So anyway, you have a decent mix of ram use there for the 32 bit version of windows. I wouldn;t worry about anything at this point (Though W7x64 will get you that extra 700 meg back!)

 

[DirtRider]

I was not really worried about it as everything runs great, it was just something that crossed my mind when I asked in another thread what is better 64 or 32. I suppose if I wanted to go to 64 now it would be a whole new W7 OS as I believe you cannot upgrade from 32 to 64

 

[Win7User512]

I was not really worried about it as everything runs great, it was just something that crossed my mind when I asked in another thread what is better 64 or 32. I suppose if I wanted to go to 64 now it would be a whole new W7 OS as I believe you cannot upgrade from 32 to 64

Correct, to go x64 requires a fresh install of the OS.