Intel GMA 950

[Guest]

I have a laptop with vista ultimate on it, with intel gma 950, and 512 ram.
Before installing vista, Intel GMA 950 has an approximately of 224 mb, as
reported by windows xp. After installing vista, it said that Intel GMA 950
has only 64 MB. Is it a OS limitation due to the low amt. of RAM or is it in
the driver or hardware?

 

[Guest]

Hi pupitar12:
I am only guessing, but I think Vista is probably assigning only 64 MBs
for graphics so that it will have enough left for operating system use. I
believe the minimum amount of RAM for Vista is 512 MB. If the graphics card
utilized 1/2 of your RAM, the O.S. probably wouldn't function well, if at
all. I would suggest you increase the RAM to 1024 MBs and then the graphics
will be able to utilize what it needs and leave you with sufficient memory
for the O.S. and programs in use. I believe my desktop originally using the
Intel GM950 chipset and 1 GB of RAM rated as 3.9 in Vista & ran ok. I must
admit it runs much better now with a $100 Nvidia 7600GT graphics card and 2
GBs of memory though. Memory prices are very attractive right now, but are
expected to begin to go back up this fall according to a lot of online
computer sites.

xiowan..........in tucson

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:36:00 -0700, pupitar12

I have a laptop with vista ultimate on it, with intel gma 950, and 512 ram.
Before installing vista, Intel GMA 950 has an approximately of 224 mb, as
reported by windows xp. After installing vista, it said that Intel GMA 950
has only 64 MB. Is it a OS limitation due to the low amt. of RAM or is it in
the driver or hardware?

Like most integrated graphics, GMA950 shares the same physical RAM
between system and display. What is allocated to display can be used
only by display; what is allocated to system can be used by both
(display can use AGP to access and use it).

Unless you are playing graphics-intensive games, mapping 256M or 512M
system RAM to graphics chipset is crazy. Every "flat" screen
resolution can fit this image into 32M RAM, and the rest is used for
acceleration workspace and/or holding textures for 3D acceleration.

XP will run in 256M fairly well, but Vista will not; Vista really
needs as much of that 512M, and some would argue that 1G would be a
better "minimum" requirement.

If you allocate 256M to GMA950, you may find game graphics slightly
faster; I doubt if you'd see any difference in the OS (Aero aside, or
perhaps even included). OTOH, you'd be forcing the OS to swap to HD a
lot more, and that won't just be a matter of slower frame rates in
games, but stopped gameplay and media playback and waiting periods of
seconds before things start to happen again. That's PAIN.

So if Vista kicked graphics into a 64M corner of the map, good for it!

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The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope

 

[JW]

With Vista and 945 graphics I allocated 128MB to graphics in the BIOS and
could run Vista but not Aero with 512MB of RAM once I increased my RAM I
could run Aero.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

With Vista and 945 graphics I allocated 128MB to graphics in the BIOS and
could run Vista but not Aero with 512MB of RAM once I increased my RAM I
could run Aero.

Ahhh.... that explains where some of the "Vista can't run in 512M RAM"
stories are coming from - thanks!

I've had a couple of folks who have chosen to specify 512M RAM for new
Vista PCs with integrated Intel graphics; the logic is usually "let's
put the funds we have now into beefing up the HD, we can add 512M or
1G RAM later, when it's cheaper" (and already, 1G is on its way down
to 6-month-old 512M RAM prices).

Then again, these PCs are using Vista Home Basic rather than anything
with Aero on it. The advantages of Premium made even less sense to
these buyers (and to me, for that matter) than the additional RAM -
and like the RAM, it can be losslessly upgraded, thanks to MS's new
approach to "buying upwards" from a given OS price/features point.

On that - I wonder if there's a path from Starter to Home Basic?

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