video card details

[Jay]

After a bit of searching I've found out what video card my notebook is
using.
Looking online for Vista supported games I see recommendations for NVIDIA
this and GeForce that.
Mine is listed as Mobile Intel 965 Express or GMA X3100
I'm not sure which to quote - graphics cards not being my thing.

Total available graphics memory - 358MB
System - 128MB
Shared - 230MB

Does this mean that 230MB of my RAM is going toward the video card?
Would this type be an onboard chip as opposed to a card?
How does this sort of thing stack up? In recommended specs I only see things
like NVIDIA 9600 (or something?)

Jay

 

[Jay]

After a bit of searching I've found out what video card my notebook is
using.
Looking online for Vista supported games I see recommendations for NVIDIA
this and GeForce that.
Mine is listed as Mobile Intel 965 Express or GMA X3100
I'm not sure which to quote - graphics cards not being my thing.

Total available graphics memory - 358MB
System - 128MB
Shared - 230MB

Does this mean that 230MB of my RAM is going toward the video card?
Would this type be an onboard chip as opposed to a card?
How does this sort of thing stack up? In recommended specs I only see
things like NVIDIA 9600 (or something?)

Jay

Google was my friend
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/19/intel_or_nvidia/

Not 100% sure what I'm reading.

 

[Lang Murphy]

After a bit of searching I've found out what video card my notebook is
using.
Looking online for Vista supported games I see recommendations for NVIDIA
this and GeForce that.
Mine is listed as Mobile Intel 965 Express or GMA X3100
I'm not sure which to quote - graphics cards not being my thing.

Total available graphics memory - 358MB
System - 128MB
Shared - 230MB

Does this mean that 230MB of my RAM is going toward the video card?
Would this type be an onboard chip as opposed to a card?
How does this sort of thing stack up? In recommended specs I only see
things like NVIDIA 9600 (or something?)

Jay

Jay,

You might get more responses in vista.games...

Yes, 230MB of your RAM is allocated to the video card. Yes, it's an onboard
chipset. How it stacks up is kind of moot because you can't change it, as
opposed to most desktop PC's. The only recommedation I have is to check with
the game's web site, most have support forums in which you could ask if your
vid card will run that game acceptably.

Good luck.

Lang

 

[Jay]

Jay,

You might get more responses in vista.games...

Yes, 230MB of your RAM is allocated to the video card. Yes, it's an
onboard chipset. How it stacks up is kind of moot because you can't change
it, as opposed to most desktop PC's. The only recommedation I have is to
check with the game's web site, most have support forums in which you
could ask if your vid card will run that game acceptably.

Thanks Lang,
I didn't have any particular games in mind I just saw a games site offering
games for vista and they all spoke of NVIDIA (not an nvidia site) I just
wondered if the onboard intel thingies were no no when it came to gaming or
levelish or superior.
Just a general thought as opposed to does this game support etc

When you say I can't change it do you mean I can't give some of the that RAM
back to the OS if need be?

Jay

 

[Lang Murphy]

Thanks Lang,
I didn't have any particular games in mind I just saw a games site
offering games for vista and they all spoke of NVIDIA (not an nvidia site)
I just wondered if the onboard intel thingies were no no when it came to
gaming or levelish or superior.
Just a general thought as opposed to does this game support etc

When you say I can't change it do you mean I can't give some of the that
RAM back to the OS if need be?

Jay

Jay,

No, didn't mean that you couldn't change the allocation of RAM... meant you
can't change the video subsystem. If you want to de-allocate video RAM you'd
do that in the BIOS settings. When your seat boots, there should be hotkeys
listed to go into system setup or BIOS settings or whatever. On Dells, for
example, it's F2. Then look for video settings and see if there's a setting
to change how much RAM is allocated to video.

Lang

 

[Jay]

No, didn't mean that you couldn't change the allocation of RAM... meant
you can't change the video subsystem. If you want to de-allocate video RAM
you'd do that in the BIOS settings. When your seat boots, there should be
hotkeys listed to go into system setup or BIOS settings or whatever. On
Dells, for example, it's F2. Then look for video settings and see if
there's a setting to change how much RAM is allocated to video.

Lang

Thanks, my experience with onboard video is that you can reallocate it so I
was surprised to (mis)read that I couldn't change it.
I've got 2GB or RAM so should be fine - although some here would have me
believe that in time I won't be able to play freecell with less than a
terabyte

Jay

 

[Lang Murphy]

Thanks, my experience with onboard video is that you can reallocate it so
I was surprised to (mis)read that I couldn't change it.
I've got 2GB or RAM so should be fine - although some here would have me
believe that in time I won't be able to play freecell with less than a
terabyte

Jay

As you say, you should be fine with that amount of system RAM allocated to
video RAM. Depending on what you're doing with video, you might be able to
re-allocate some of that RAM back to system use if you ever find your disk
drives starting to thrash because the page file kicks in...

Lang