Vista reports more video RAM than i have

[Guest]

Hey,

I have a NVIDIA 6800 GS with 256 MB memory. A dxdiag reports that i have 744
video memory, why is this?

Also when i go into system information on the NVIDIA control panel it tell
me that i have 256 MB dedicated and 495 MB shared, i was just wondering where
has this shared video RAM come from? (my motherboard has no on board graphics
chip).

Thanks in advance

 

[Guest]

Bios Nova,

Your video card and your computer are made to share system RAM, but only
when you need to do so. For instance, if you are running an application
(such as a graphics intensive game) that requires more memory than that which
is available on your video card, the system kicks in to allow it to use
general computer RAM. However, when your graphics usage has no need for
system RAM, it's available for other uses. It's a very good technology.

 

[Guest]

Ah ok then, thanks for clearing this up for me

 

[Guest]

it's not cleared up! Vista has a MAJOR problem with memory allocation and for
some reason stuff's system ram onto video cards just for the hell of it and
leaves very little to do anything except maybe reply to these post's before
running out of ram... I have 4gig 667mhz DDR2 and vista shoves 1.2gig of that
on my 320mb DDR3 ready nVIDIA 8800 GTS from startup, which result's in having
less than 40mb's free ram to do anything with so your old tale's of system
ram helping out aging video cards is a thing of the past (however helpful it
may have been) and does not apply in this case.

 

[JW]

Your 4GB Vista is reserving address space for 1.2GB of controllers that
require address space for use with their Onboard memory of controllers and
possibly more to improve data transfers and therefore may not support more
than 2.8GB of real memory for use by Vista and its applications. See the
following:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us