Share Ram to Video

[Nemesis]

I wanted to know if it was possible to share my ram with my video card?

[rcrevolution]

yes, when u start your pc go into BIOS and then look for Graphics Apertexture(sp?) Cache, and select how much memory you want to share, I think the max you can share is half of your total Ram.

[Nemesis]

I went into the BIOS and I think found what I was looking for and did what you asked but it does not seem to work. I have American Trends BIOS 2000 and a ATI 8MB video card.

[rcrevolution]

lol, 8mb

anyways is it a onboard video card or like a pci one? if its onboard I think the method I said is just for added on PCI/AGP cards.

[Catweazle]

OK, misleading information given here.

If you have onboard video, then you should be able to change the amount of shared RAM used by the video function as described.

If you have an add-in display card, then the system RAM CANNOT be shared! In fact, if you have an add-in card then the Shared RAM function should be disabled, or set to the lowest amount possible if there is no option to disable it.

[Coconut Monkey]

If you have an add-in display card, then the system RAM CANNOT be shared! In fact, if you have an add-in card then the Shared RAM function should be disabled, or set to the lowest amount possible if there is no option to disable it.

You can specify the AGP Aperture size though, which is the amount of system RAM that can be used should the video card run out of its own memory. Should this occur though, it will result in a noticable performance drop (since video card memory is a LOT faster).

[Nemesis]

Thanks for your help!

[Catnip]

It's late, so excuse me for being inept!! I thought the apature couldn't exeed the RAM on the Video Card, or it could only be half the VC RAM. I can't remember off-hand and don't feel like looking it up to re-assure myself!!!

[Coconut Monkey]

It's late, so excuse me for being inept!! I thought the apature couldn't exeed the RAM on the Video Card, or it could only be half the VC RAM. I can't remember off-hand and don't feel like looking it up to re-assure myself!!!

The AGP aperture size should only be set to a maximum of 128Mb in most situations.

[Catweazle]

Agreed, Coconut Monkey.

AGP aperture size is an older setting which doesn't have much relevence nowadays. It's a carry-over from the time when graphics cards only had a few megabytes of video RAM on them, and needed to use system RAM to calulate textures and such. With even lesser and older video cards having 64Mb or more of Video RAM on them, the 'AGP aperture' isn't really needed.

If a game really does need to access and use system RAM (which as you say is much slower and would be detrimental on performance) then perhaps the card isn't good enough for the game being played. Any half-decent video card suited to gaming now has 128Mb or more of Video RAM on the card, and that should be plenty enough!

[MpG]

OK I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM BUT MY BIOS DOESN'T SEEM TO HAVE A SIMILAR OPTION.I HAVE A PC WITH PIII 800MhZ 192MB RAM AND i810 INTEL CHIPSET WITH 4MB OF VRAM ON BOARD AND WINDOWS XP PROF SP1.IS THERE ANY OTHER SOLUTION?EXCEPT FROM BUYING A NEW CARD BECUSE THERE IS NO AGP SLOT.THE MAIN REASON I WANT TO DO THAT IS TO MAKE DVD AND DIVX PLAYBACK SMOOTH ON FULL SCREEN MODE.THANK YOU.

[Thong_Ispector]

As a noobie you probably did not see that you were revivng a very old thread.

But to answer your question anyhow...

No you can not improve the performance of an old motherboard that only has 4megs of ram for an onboard video card. I dont remember any that limited you to 4megs but since you seem to have one....

Your best choice would be to get a PCI plug in card.

They would be very cheap as most obsolete hardware is and you could vastly improve the performance for $10 or $20

[rcrevolution]

yeah catweazle notice I said "I think", not "it is"

[MpG]

Ok I'll try to look for one.By the way my Mboard is a MSI MS-6178.Well Thong_Inspector,if you were looking for a 4mb vram mboard...this is it!!!!When I bought it I didn't know much about PC's...
Anyway thanks for your answer.Happy new year to everyone!!!! :p

[rcrevolution]

and i said that also from expirience, my old emachines would not let me increase my on board video ram size, but once I got my 9600XT it let me add more ram to the card.

[Kilimo]

I have a Toshiba Satellite 1400 series. If anyone is looking at buying one, DO NOT!

The box said 256 Mb of RAM. My computer says 240, and I have 16 Mb of video RAM.

Put two and two together... I have shared RAM.

OK, so I go to the BIOS to change it...

NOTHING THEIR! I'm not surprised, as the people at Toshiba are IDIOTS!

Anyone able to help me, or am I stuck with 16 Mb of video RAM until I get a new computer?

[frrossk]

First, you should open a new thread...
Second, your laptop was "Specifically created to meet the needs of the education sector" (manufacturer's product description), not for playing Doom 3 or something...

[truelse]

i have one question to ask.. my PC has 2 256mb RAm in total 512mb but when i try to switch my Operating system to W7 it cant Proceed cause of the minimum RAM needed is 512mb. how can i make it to be in 512mb RAM.?It can also be fix by Ram Sharing??

[Arjunsensor]

Well i have a system with a G41 motherboard, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Intel Core2duo E7500 and a HDD of 500GB . I have genuine Windows 7 installed on my system. But whenever I check for the Video memory, it stands for about 1582 MB. Is the RAM memory shared with the video? Because I think the default video memory over there is only 256 MB. Another case is that when I istalled Windows XP on my system earlier the Video memory was limited upto 256 MB only? I have an American Trends Bios. Also tell me -can such boosts occur due to the upgraded DirectX? pls help me up.. Simply Miracle

[robert molina]

i have also a problem with my netbook acer aspire one d255e only have onboard video memory of 8 mb how can i share to my ram memory whi i go to bios the video memory cant adjust any thing i can make it so that i play a movie with out buffering