Why ATI drivers are so bloated?

[samir.ribic]

I have bought Toshiba Laptop Satellite L30 with 256 M RAM. 32 megabytes
are already consumed by video card without possibility to reduce this
consumption. As Toshiba laptop has no Windows XP install CD, but only
product recovery CD, I had to clean memory later. In the beginning,
commit charge was 210 M, so almost as Physical memory. Then I removed
all unnecessary services and registry entries in a folder
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. The result was
Commit Charge of 100 M. Then I uninstalled ATI drivers, replaced them
with default driver and the commit charge dropped to 60 M. I still have
1024 x 768 in 32 bit palette, only hybernate option does not work.

40 megabytes of virtual memory just for video driver? And 32 megabytes
for video memory even if just about 2 megabytes is enough for single
buffer resolution 1024x768 in 16 millions colors?

 

[USR]

No matter what you do to free up memory, it will not effect performance
much. To get good performance with Windows XP, you'll need 512MB of memory.
To get best performance, you'll need 1GB ( as tested by TH some time ago ).

 

[First of One]

With the ATi drivers loaded, if you look in Task Manager, what ATi processes
are together consuming 40 MB of RAM? If you removed everything from the
startup list, then there should be no ATi processes running at all (no
Ati2evxx.exe, cli.exe, etc.)

As for the 32 MB of shared video memory, it's probably reserved for basic
framebuffer functions. Look in BIOS to see if you can trim it down a bit
more. If not, then you are outta luck. 256 MB just isn't enough to use XP
comfortably. The L30 has very low specifications. In fact, notebooks from
five years ago had faster components. Hope you at least got it for a good
price...

 

[Geoff]

I have bought Toshiba Laptop Satellite L30 with 256 M RAM. 32 megabytes
are already consumed by video card without possibility to reduce this
consumption. As Toshiba laptop has no Windows XP install CD, but only
product recovery CD, I had to clean memory later. In the beginning,
commit charge was 210 M, so almost as Physical memory. Then I removed
all unnecessary services and registry entries in a folder
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. The result was
Commit Charge of 100 M. Then I uninstalled ATI drivers, replaced them
with default driver and the commit charge dropped to 60 M. I still have
1024 x 768 in 32 bit palette, only hybernate option does not work.

40 megabytes of virtual memory just for video driver? And 32 megabytes
for video memory even if just about 2 megabytes is enough for single
buffer resolution 1024x768 in 16 millions colors?

you want 512 meg or more really, 256 - 32 just doesn't cut it
also it was prob the catayst control center (CCC) version of the drivers
you want the Control panel (CP) version if you can find em
(ATI don't really make it anymore, you can normaly dig up the latest driver
version though)

 

[samir.ribic]

First of One je napisao:

With the ATi drivers loaded, if you look in Task Manager, what ATi processes
are together consuming 40 MB of RAM? If you removed everything from the
startup list, then there should be no ATi processes running at all (no
Ati2evxx.exe, cli.exe, etc.)

I removed them already. If I counted ATI processes in Task Manager, the
complete memory usage by ATI applications would be even 100 megabytes.
The 40 MB of RAM was gained in Device Manager by uninstalling base
video driver. (it consists of about 20 DLLs).

As for the 32 MB of shared video memory, it's probably reserved for basic
framebuffer functions. Look in BIOS to see if you can trim it down a bit
more. If not, then you are outta luck.

In BIOS it can not be trimmed. Maybe there is some third party
application, but chances to find it are very low.

256 MB just isn't enough to use XP comfortably. The L30 has very low specifications. In fact, notebooks from five years ago had faster components. Hope you at least got it for a good
price...

It was about 600 euros. Good price for brand new laptop with licensed
Windows.
Maybe with some additional tweaks, I could reduce OS memory consumption
to the Windows 2000 level.

 

[samir.ribic]

Geoff je napisao:

you want 512 meg or more really, 256 - 32 just doesn't cut it
also it was prob the catayst control center (CCC) version of the drivers
you want the Control panel (CP) version if you can find em
(ATI don't really make it anymore, you can normaly dig up the latest driver
version though)

It seems that this page gives me the answer (although related to HP,
but still apply):

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=&product=57648&docname=bph04502

ATI drivers dynamically allocate under Windows additional 64 megabytes
of RAM, without Windows it is 32 Megabytes.