Allocated video memory?

[dk_]

Can I increase the BIOS setting for the "onboard" video memory?

Currently the BIOS shows 8 MB allocated to video, in my HP Celeron D 340
machine. The machine has only onboad video.

The specs from HP's site read...

"Video graphics:

Integrated with up to 64 MB allocated video memory"

If I change the memory setting in the BIOS, will it change the
performance, and if so, how much should I increase the memory setting in
the BIOS.

The machine has 1 gig RAM. (The motherboard is an MSI MS-6577).

Thanks.

-Dennis

 

[Rob Stow]

Can I increase the BIOS setting for the "onboard" video memory?

Currently the BIOS shows 8 MB allocated to video, in my HP Celeron D 340
machine. The machine has only onboad video.

The specs from HP's site read...

"Video graphics:

Integrated with up to 64 MB allocated video memory"

If I change the memory setting in the BIOS, will it change the
performance, and if so, how much should I increase the memory setting in
the BIOS.

The machine has 1 gig RAM. (The motherboard is an MSI MS-6577).

Thanks.

-Dennis

With 1 GB of RAM, chances are overwhelming that you will NOT miss
a piddling amount like 64 MB should you choose to allocate that
much to video.

As to whether or not allocating additional RAM to your video card
will do anything for your video performance, that depends
entirely on what you use your computer for.

Personally, since you have 1 GB of RAM to play with I would just
say that this is not worth spending any time dithering over:
just up your video RAM to 64 MB and be done with it. If you
only had 256 MB of RAM, this might be something worth thinking
about, but not when you've got 1 GB.

 

[dk_]

With 1 GB of RAM, chances are overwhelming that you will NOT miss
a piddling amount like 64 MB should you choose to allocate that
much to video.

As to whether or not allocating additional RAM to your video card
will do anything for your video performance, that depends
entirely on what you use your computer for.

Personally, since you have 1 GB of RAM to play with I would just
say that this is not worth spending any time dithering over:
just up your video RAM to 64 MB and be done with it. If you
only had 256 MB of RAM, this might be something worth thinking
about, but not when you've got 1 GB.

I certainly will change the setting to 64 MB. I guess no harm there.

I wonder why it was only set to 8 MB. The computer came with 512 MB RAM.

I also wonder if the onboard video processor would just grab RAM
automatically even if the BIOS setting was not changed above 8 MB. ...I
have no idea of how onboard video is supposed to work.

Thanks.

-Dennis

 

[Rob Stow]

I certainly will change the setting to 64 MB. I guess no harm there.

I wonder why it was only set to 8 MB. The computer came with 512 MB RAM.

It was probably just the BIOS default and no one thought to
change it when the system was built.

By contrast, every system built around an nForce or nForce2
motherboard with IGP had a BIOS default of 32 MB.

 

[George Macdonald]

I certainly will change the setting to 64 MB. I guess no harm there.

I wonder why it was only set to 8 MB. The computer came with 512 MB RAM.

I also wonder if the onboard video processor would just grab RAM
automatically even if the BIOS setting was not changed above 8 MB. ...I
have no idea of how onboard video is supposed to work.

It's possible that the OS, Win??, video driver can reallocate video memory.
Certainly 8MB is not enough video memory to run 1280x1024 at even 16-bit
color.

 

[daytripper]

It's possible that the OS, Win??, video driver can reallocate video memory.
Certainly 8MB is not enough video memory to run 1280x1024 at even 16-bit
color.

Amazingly enough, it's plenty for 24 bit color

1280 * 1024 * 24/8 = 3932160 bytes

 

[Rob Stow]

It's possible that the OS, Win??, video driver can reallocate video memory.
Certainly 8MB is not enough video memory to run 1280x1024 at even 16-bit
color.

Sure it is. I remember doing 1280x1024x24bpp once upon a time
with a 4 MB Matrox Millenium.

 

[Rthoreau]

LOL, but these are the days of 512 mb graphics cards! My only
suggestion would be what does the graphics card manufacture suggest?

For example my Evga 6600 gt suggest to set the perfered bios memory
settings to 4mb for the aperature size. This is found on pg 13 of
their quick start guide under bios settings.

Yes this is a 128mb graphics card, it works fine as is but I know my
aperature size is maxed out maybe I will change it to factory
recommended 4 mb.

In a way it makes some sense, but I am not that knowledgeable to know
the whole reason.

Rthoreau

 

[Rthoreau]

My bad, I forgot we were talking about onboard graphics, but it does
raise the question of why one manufacture suggests 4 mb aperature size.

I guess the real question is just how does the aperature size work in
modern bios'es? Is it a buffer, or does it allocate it to memory, where
exactly does it store it?

Rthoreau

 

[Ar Q]

Sure it is. I remember doing 1280x1024x24bpp once upon a time
with a 4 MB Matrox Millenium.

Everyone forgot that is for 2D graphics with only one buffer. For 3D graphic
accelerator card, you need two full buffers and one half size Z buffer. I
forgot the format but I think the factor is either 2.5 or 5 times of 2D
graphics needs.

 

[Tony Hill]

Can I increase the BIOS setting for the "onboard" video memory?

Currently the BIOS shows 8 MB allocated to video, in my HP Celeron D 340
machine. The machine has only onboad video.

The specs from HP's site read...

"Video graphics:

Integrated with up to 64 MB allocated video memory"

If I change the memory setting in the BIOS, will it change the
performance, and if so, how much should I increase the memory setting in
the BIOS.

The machine has 1 gig RAM. (The motherboard is an MSI MS-6577).

This system uses an Intel i845 chipset of some variation or another.
Intel's i8xx series graphics chips dynamically adjust the amount of
memory they use from 8MB up to 64MB. Typically there is no setting
anywhere than you can use to adjust this and really there is no need.
The only requirement is that it will ALWAYS take the base 8MB,
completely hiding that from the OS.

 

[Nate Edel]

It's possible that the OS, Win??, video driver can reallocate video memory.
Certainly 8MB is not enough video memory to run 1280x1024 at even 16-bit
color.

Depends on what you're doing with it. It is more than adequate for 2D
1280x1024 at even 24/32 bit color. It's enough for 1600x1200x32 if the
particular video chip handles packing in the bit planes halfway efficiently.

 

[Nate Edel]

Everyone forgot that is for 2D graphics with only one buffer. For 3D graphic
accelerator card, you need two full buffers and one half size Z buffer. I
forgot the format but I think the factor is either 2.5 or 5 times of 2D
graphics needs.

Not to mention tons and tons of texture memory, even if AGP lets you offload
that in theory.

 

[Rthoreau]

Ok seems like the 4 mb suggestion by EVGA is wrong. I switched to it in
my bios, and at certain points of the game it would blue screen.

I even decided to do the bf2 trick which amounted to increasing your
aperature size to a greater amount, some people claimed worked but I
had some stability problems.

After searching Adrian's Rojak forums it did not state the exact nature
of what was available, unless someone has his book which might describe
it in more detail. Tweaktown had a little write up on it, but it was
old, and did not cover current generations of cards.

Ok found this in google's cache which seems to clear up a few things.

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_02c.htm

to sumarize it for all the folks who might be keeping track.

"So, it's recommended that you set the AGP Aperture Size as 64MB or at
most, 128MB."

Like the above link states it does not have much effect on performance,
so for right now I am sticking to 128mb even though 64 mb would be
fine.

Rthoreau

 

[George Macdonald]

My bad, I forgot we were talking about onboard graphics, but it does
raise the question of why one manufacture suggests 4 mb aperature size.

I guess the real question is just how does the aperature size work in
modern bios'es? Is it a buffer, or does it allocate it to memory, where
exactly does it store it?

Setting aperture size in BIOS Setup does not allocate or reserve the stated
memory amount, so does not subtract from available physical memory - it
sets up the chipset registers for the GART (Graphics Array Relocation
Table) virtual to physical page mappings. The intended use of GART was for
the DIME mode of AGP, which allows main memory to augment on-card memory
for textures, something which is little used AFAIK, though I'm no expert in
game technology. AIUI, GART is not necessary for regular DMA transfers of
video data from/to main memory.

 

[George Macdonald]

Sure it is. I remember doing 1280x1024x24bpp once upon a time
with a 4 MB Matrox Millenium.

Hum, I should have done the arithmetic of course. I just recently had
this experience with a LCD monitor and thought the (old) video card had 8MB
memory but I guess it may have had as little as 2MB.

 

[dawg]

Check the specs of the motherboard. In the manual it should say how much
ram/shared memory the onboard video can use.