Video Card requirements question

[Guest]

I have a 64 mb video card (shared), and the vista website, under te Vista
Premium requirements, it says it needs 128mb, then there's a footnote: If the
GPU uses shared memory, then no additional graphics memory is required beyond
the 1 GB system memory requirement; If the GPU uses dedicated memory then
128MB is required....

does this mean that my video card is going to be FIne for aero? If so, would
you recomend that I get more RAM (I have no way to upgrade the video card)
for it to share to the video?

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Nope, it ain't gonna be fine. You need at least 128mb of memory for the
video card. Yours supports only 64mb of memory, and there appears to be
nothing you are going to be able to do to fix it.

Adding more system memory won't make the card use mroe than 64mb.


"(e-mail address removed)"

 

[Guest]

sorry to question your answer, but I'm just wonderign what that footnote
menas then? Is it big mistake?

 

[Roy Coorne]

sorry to question your answer, but I'm just wonderign what that footnote
menas then? Is it big mistake?

Why don't you try it out by means of Vista RC1 (or RC2 b 5744 if you
downloaded it in time) on a pc with your video card?

 

[Guest]

I don;t have the time or resources to test it on a computer. I was just
wondering what the footnote was. Its an official note made by microsoft, so I
was wondering what it meant because it sounds like sometihng importnat to me.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

The biggest problem is that you're taking one requirement, quoting it out of
context, and expecting it to work.

In context, the comment refers to the newer family of integrated graphic
chips that can dynamically allocate memory, support the newest version of
DirectX, and in all other respects meet the minimum requirements for Aero.
Your older display chip does not meet any of the other requirements listed,
so it cannot run Aero no matter what that one section you quoted says.

"(e-mail address removed)"

 

[Robert Moir]

I don;t have the time or resources to test it on a computer.

And yet you expect people here to have the time and resources to help you?

I was
just wondering what the footnote was. Its an official note made by
microsoft, so I was wondering what it meant because it sounds like
sometihng importnat to me.

There are tools you can get from Microsoft and ATI (and probably lots of
other places too) that will examine your system and tell you if your system
is Vista ready or not, and what areas might need some attention to make the
best of it. Why not simply use one of those.

In fact, as you're a busy person, I'll even give you the exact URL for one
of those tests to try and make it easy for you.

http://ati.amd.com/technology/windowsvista/AreYouVistaReady.html

 

[betanews.microsoft.com]

With the rc1 build I was able to use aero on a 64mb x300. Since then I have
been using a new core 2 duo machine with a 256 mb graphics card, so I can
not make a comment about new requirements.

Also note that the aero requirements change depending on the monitor setup.
If I had two monitors at 1920x1200 (which I did) the computer would revert
to aero basic. Under lower resolutions the computer would be fine with
aero. I was using drivers 6+ months older than the current ones, and that
2x1920x1200 is an insideous quantity of screen real-estate to drive with any
graphics card.

Ben
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