Vista - Graphics card 1GB but vista says 4GB

why does vista say i have 4GB of video ram, when my card is only 1GB? is it using part of my 8GB of ram for video?

any ideas?

if vista is using system memory why?

see pic below.

Don't worry about it. You aren't losing any RAM, when you need it, it will be available.

It is the same for everyone.



(If a mod wants to jump in and fix my oversized image, please do. I don't know how to.)

was not worried about it at all, my system runs fine was, i am wondering why vista does that when i have a dedicated video card and it is not the onboard card.

With an onboard card it would actually dedicate (IIRC) the memory to it permanently, meaning that it would be completely inaccessible to your system, however Vista just allocates a 'buffer' of sorts.

I am not completely certain on the exact workings of it but I do know that you are no worse off in regards to usable system memory.

(Sorry if I seemed blunt (in either post), I am short on words to explain it.)

Yeah, its just vista tellin' you how much your card can access of system memory, if the card's video memory is full.

The AGP aperture size in some BIOS had full control over that aspect if you were to use an AGP card.

Now its just for compatibility reasons with PCI-E and the OS

thanks guys. was just wondering. since i have the onboard card disabled in the bios.

MDA got your pm but it disappered from my pms, anyways have not looked at it under anything else as does not get used that much, the home premium is the laptop, and xp x64 is about to get deleted as i have got everything to run on vista x64, and 7 is in vmware.

i think i found it,

How'd a get that page is all i was wondering?

It showed the experience index ratings by the ACTUAL name of the hardware (not, like disk data rate, aero performance, 3d gaming, that stuff.)

And, since your looking at hardware, i'd thought i'd mention if anyone has 8 gb (like mwah), put your paging file to the lowest (16mb) so you save hdd space because vista uses like 4 gigs total of my 8 MAX... Your memory is part of that paging file in the task manager, so if its 4 gigs of real ram, then the page file is 4 gigs of virtual ram (hdd space).

in the WEI under hard disk transfer rate there should be a link that says "VIEW AND PRINT DETAILS" click on that.

wow i was wondering, why does a intel duo core running at 2.66ghz is almost the same as a 3.06X3 cores??
they are so close, 5.7 and 5.8, i mean the amd card is faster, on paper...