Suggested memory requirements for Dual Monitor configs

[Guest]

I see the current System requirements (suggested specs) is a 128 Meg video
card for preminum effects. Does this also imply for use with Dual Monitors.
I'm going to make the basic assumption that 128 meg will work just fine, but
does that imply that it will be bare minimum ?

I understand the more the merrier and 512Meg would be great, but if I were
looking at rolling out 500 PCs with dual monitor support with those users
doing basic 3D\CAD work, will a 128 meg card still get the job done ? This is
of course, assuming that I want all the Vista eye candy turned on and so
forth. Or for dual monitor support, should I assume a 256 meg card is really
the minimum I should go with.

I realize I'm asking a fairly open ended question, but I haven't gotten
around to playing with Vista beta 2 yet, so I'm hoping to get some feedback
from those dual monitor users who have.

Thanks

Dale

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I have not heard of any problems using Vista to its fullest on a dual
monitor system using a 128MB video card. The amount of video ram is not as
important as the support for DirectX 9 and some other GPU capabilities. I
cannot imagine that a WDDM compliant card with 128MB would be anything but
wonderful.

 

[Fat Bastard]

As a general rule this is probably true, but the 3d effects in Vista do use
up quite a bit of video memory. If you are running multimon and are a
serious power user and always have a bunch of windows open, 128 mb may not
be quite enough believe it or not. I have seen some internal docs that talk
about memory usage with Desktop Composition turned on, and under some
circumstances it can use more memory than you think. A 256 card would
probably be a safer bet, and they can be had pretty cheap nowadays.

 

[Tom Scales]

I don't believe that. I'd like a link to a Microsoft page supporting that.

Aero's effects are pretty, but clearly not that video card intensive. 128mb
should be plenty for two full screens.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

From the GetReady/System Requirements at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx
A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

a.. 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
b.. 1 GB of system memory.
c.. A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2.
d.. 128 MB of graphics memory.
e.. 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
f.. DVD-ROM Drive3.
g.. Audio output capability.
h.. Internet access capability.

 

[Tom Scales]

I knew that part. I wanted a link to his assertion that dual monitor would
require 256MB.

I'm running dual monitor, 1280x1024 and 1920x1080p with a 128mb nVidia 6600
just fine.

Tom

 

[Guest]

--
Stephen Walter

I see the current System requirements (suggested specs) is a 128 Meg video
card for preminum effects. Does this also imply for use with Dual Monitors.
I'm going to make the basic assumption that 128 meg will work just fine, but
does that imply that it will be bare minimum ?

I understand the more the merrier and 512Meg would be great, but if I were
looking at rolling out 500 PCs with dual monitor support with those users
doing basic 3D\CAD work, will a 128 meg card still get the job done ? This is
of course, assuming that I want all the Vista eye candy turned on and so
forth. Or for dual monitor support, should I assume a 256 meg card is really
the minimum I should go with.

I realize I'm asking a fairly open ended question, but I haven't gotten
around to playing with Vista beta 2 yet, so I'm hoping to get some feedback
from those dual monitor users who have.

Thanks

Dale

Try this Web Site for the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx

 

[Jimmy Brush]

http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/archive/2006/04/02/566767.aspx

This blog goes into details about how the DWM works. This post in particular
discusses virtualization, which would be an important factor with video card
memory... basically, if you don't have a big enough video card, the system
will eat up more ram to compensate, and then switch between video and system
memory as neccisary.

So in cases where you have high resolution or multi monitors, having alot of
video memory could free up alot of system memory for you, and would probably
speed up your experience.

- JB