RAM Property

[Karl Neumann]

I bought a Great Quality RX-7333 laptop with 256MB of RAM. The computer
Property tab displays only 224 MB. The vendor says this is normal because
the laptop comes with "shared video"; therefore the 32MB difference between
the nominal and display amounts. Is that correct?

To compare, for two years I've also owned an hp Pavilion desktop PC with
768MB of RAM. In this case the Property tab displays 760MB, only an 8MB
difference to the nominal value.

I don't know what "shared video" means and want to make sure there's nothing
wrong with the RAM in the laptop just purchased and that the vendor isn't
giving me a wrong explanation.

An expert's opinion will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Alias]

Your vendor is telling the truth.

Alias


:I bought a Great Quality RX-7333 laptop with 256MB of RAM. The computer
: Property tab displays only 224 MB. The vendor says this is normal because
: the laptop comes with "shared video"; therefore the 32MB difference
between
: the nominal and display amounts. Is that correct?
:
: To compare, for two years I've also owned an hp Pavilion desktop PC with
: 768MB of RAM. In this case the Property tab displays 760MB, only an 8MB
: difference to the nominal value.
:
: I don't know what "shared video" means and want to make sure there's
nothing
: wrong with the RAM in the laptop just purchased and that the vendor isn't
: giving me a wrong explanation.
:
: An expert's opinion will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
:
:

 

[Kenny]

Your video card is part of the motherboard, does not have it's own memory
like a separate card would, so uses part of your installed RAM. The
explanation you got was correct.

 

[Jim Macklin]

It is perfectly normal. Older computers had only 1 or 2 MB
of memory for graphics [really old computers had KB of
memory]. About 8-10 years ago, 8 MB was considered a good
amount of RAM for video and was often dedicated on-board.
If the mobo had an AGP slot, it could borrow more RAM from
the main system RAM. Later, assigning more RAM availability
to graphics became necessary as games needed more power.
The term "shared" means that your computer has one RAM
memory system and part is shared as needed between
data/application and graphics processing.
If your laptop has an available slot for more RAM, you can
increase the amount available. Often laptops have only two
slots and sometimes only one is available for user upgrade.
If your laptop has two 128 MB sticks, you might have to have
a service center swap out both sticks and install 256 MB
sticks. Most laptops cannot upgrade the graphics, although
Alienware does allow users to install and upgrade with the
latest and greatest gamers graphics cards.

If you want to see the details about your computers, get
EVEREST free from www.lavalys.com and it will report on
details about your computer and the installed
hardware/software.


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


|I bought a Great Quality RX-7333 laptop with 256MB of RAM.
The computer
| Property tab displays only 224 MB. The vendor says this is
normal because
| the laptop comes with "shared video"; therefore the 32MB
difference between
| the nominal and display amounts. Is that correct?
|
| To compare, for two years I've also owned an hp Pavilion
desktop PC with
| 768MB of RAM. In this case the Property tab displays
760MB, only an 8MB
| difference to the nominal value.
|
| I don't know what "shared video" means and want to make
sure there's nothing
| wrong with the RAM in the laptop just purchased and that
the vendor isn't
| giving me a wrong explanation.
|
| An expert's opinion will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in
advance.
|
|

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I bought a Great Quality RX-7333 laptop with 256MB of RAM. The
computer
Property tab displays only 224 MB. The vendor says this is
normal
because the laptop comes with "shared video"; therefore the
32MB
difference between the nominal and display amounts. Is that
correct?

I don't know that particular laptop, and can't say for sure that
he's telling the truth, but what he says is entirely reasonable,
and there's no reason to suspect that he's lying. There's nothing
to worry about.

To compare, for two years I've also owned an hp Pavilion
desktop PC
with 768MB of RAM. In this case the Property tab displays
760MB, only
an 8MB difference to the nominal value.

And other machines will have no difference, or 16MB, or...

I don't know what "shared video" means and want to make sure
there's
nothing wrong with the RAM in the laptop just purchased and
that the
vendor isn't giving me a wrong explanation.

Again, there's no reason to suspect a problem. Some systems come
with a separate video card that has it's own video memory (in
varying amounts, such as 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, etc.) on it; others
will have the equivalent of a video card built into the
motherboard. If you have one of the latter type, it doesn't have
its own memory but takes some of the system memory (again, the
amount varies from system to system) for that purpose.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I bought a Great Quality RX-7333 laptop with 256MB of RAM. The computer
Property tab displays only 224 MB. The vendor says this is normal because
the laptop comes with "shared video"; therefore the 32MB difference between
the nominal and display amounts. Is that correct?

Yes. It is common on laptops (and some cheaper desktops) to have the
video handled by a chip on the motherboard, rather than by a separate
video card with its own RAM. Part of the RAM (and 32 MB is typical) is
then isolated by the hardware for use of video, and is not available to
Windows