Graphics card Mem Q

[NickN]

Ahhh.. this is more like it, a nice quiet morning with no parades.    ;D

Thanks nick, it did not say anything about shared memory is properties ect.

I'm to tired to pull out card to look, I'll do it tomorrow

OK.. then grab the memory chip number and we will put it to rest without question

I am fairly sure this is the ATi HM system at work but its always best to confirm so you know what you have.

If its 512 there is no reason to go any further as it is working correctly.

If we find the card is in fact a 1GB then we need to look at your motherboard and its BIOS and see what may be wrong there.. or possibly the video card BIOS. I know the Asus HD 4670 had a video BIOS update for it but that was to address a crossfire issue using two cards and certain motherboards... since that deals with 2 cards in a system it is possible that update may also affect the memory reported/used but I saw nothing that suggested the BIOS update had anything to do with that.

I do not suggest BIOS flashes of a motherboard or a video card unless absolutely necessary so lets get a look at the memory chips first.

[machineman9]

Not sure if it is a different problem or maybe an answer to this one (figured you might like to know it though, Nick)

I am running a 512mb 8600GTS. Dxdiag registers it as having 1266mb memory.

Is there any chance that it might be counting some system memory? Task Manager says I have 2045MB memory (I do actually have 2GB in total of physical memory). 820 of it is being cached which leaves 1225MB. Roughly that anyway.


Might something like this be going on?

[NickN]

Not sure if it is a different problem or maybe an answer to this one (figured you might like to know it though, Nick)

I am running a 512mb 8600GTS. Dxdiag registers it as having 1266mb memory.

Is there any chance that it might be counting some system memory? Task Manager says I have 2045MB memory (I do actually have 2GB in total of physical memory). 820 of it is being cached which leaves 1225MB. Roughly that anyway.


Might something like this be going on?

Nvidia has been doing that .. similar system to ATi HM

But theirs is tied to the VISTA system of memory allocation so it is possible to not only see double, like with ATi HM, but more than double depending on the status of the system and physical memory installed and in use.

The reason his card is in question is because the amount is exact which is why it can be questionable. It is not uncommon as one may think to see a missboxed card or a video BIOS out of whack. If his was showing the same as yours I would then tie that to the same Vista allocation process however since it is exact there is still a chance he may have a 1GB card till it is physically confirmed.


with the Vista DX10 API you see another allocated block of memory which can increase the DXDiag reported amount further.


The reason I asked Mazza to check his properties is because they should show this which tells you the Vista sharing process is in use and how it is being used however with ATi HM this may not display as shown

[NickN]

I fogot to add.. with Vista if the motherboard is Vista ceritifed and it has a ONBOARD GPU/Memory chip that may also change how that readout is displayed even if the onboard is not in use

Vista has brought an entire new method of memory allocation to the table which is why it can be confusing at times what you see in the readouts


http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/di ... emory.mspx

http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... Memory.doc



EDIT: This is a good one

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd163269.aspx


The combination of those links should explain everything

ATI HM is a different system than Nv and it can effect how the memory is read/used in Vista


The driver in use can ALSO cause that readout to vary based on how well it was written with the WVDDM

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms796755.aspx

[Mazza]

I use XP

[Mazza]

Okay I got the numbers;

H5RS5223CFR
NOC       828A



P.S there was 4 Mem thingys

[NickN]

I use XP

Matters not in your case because the reported amount is exactly 512 greater which is what makes this a bit more difficullt to call


[quote]
Okay I got the numbers;

H5RS5223CFR
NOC       828A



P.S there was 4 Mem thingys

[Mazza]

Well I have overclocked the memory :-/

Nothing bad has happened