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Where'd my video memory go?

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seedling:
Hi all,

I have a strange issue that was brought to my attention when installing a game on my notebook.  It said that my 256mb vidcard only had 64mb of memory!

My Dell notebook has a ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 video chipset (256mb)

Sandra reports as this:
Video Adapter
Model : ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
Chipset : ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 (0x7149)
RAMDAC : Internal DAC(400MHz)
Video BIOS : BK-ATI VER009.012.001.009.018950
VGA Compatible : No
Total Memory : 256MB (64MB Video) (182MB System)
Texture Memory : 250MB
Supports DIME Texturing : Yes
--- End quote ---

If you look at the Total Memory info, you'll see that only 64mb is video and 182mb is for 'system' (whatever that is).

I thought this may be a problem because of some sort of shared memory setup in the BIOS.  However, there is not editable BIOS setting for this.  The BIOS only reports back that, indeed, there is only 64mb of video memory.

So, what gives?  Is there a way I can unlock all of the memory for video?

If anyone can shed some light on this for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. :)

Darwin:
seedling - I *believe* that what is happening here is that you have 64MB dedicated video memory and access to a further 182MB that are shared with the system, so come out of your installed RAM...

nite_monkey:
Don't quote me on this, but what I would say is you have an integrated graphics card, or a graphics card that shares your system's memory. That is what I gathered from what you have listed there. Someone else might be able to tell you exactly what the deal is.

edit: reading this I gathered that your graphics card is indeed integrated, so it shares your system's memory, so I think that is what your problem is.

seedling:
The shared issue is what i thought of at first, but that doesn't make any sense because my 'system' memory is 1GB which is confirmed to be correct since there are 2 512mb modules installed.  If this video memory were shared (in reverse) back to the system, then I'd have more than 1GB of memory.  Also, I've never heard of video memory being shared with the system wrt 'integrated' graphics chips.  I have heard of system memory being shared to accommodate video needs.

In any case, when I bought this thing I chose the separate chip as opposed to the integrated option, so that shouldn't be the problem. (I'm hoping) Again, I believe this is confirmed by the fact that the video chip is not listed as an integrated device in the BIOS.

edit: this also confirms that the chip is not 'integrated' as an onboard device:

On-board Devices
Video Adapter : No
Keyboard : No
Floppy Disk : No
Co-Processor (FPU) : Yes
--- End quote ---

edit2: i don't want to get all hung up on symantecs either, this chip may very-well be 'integrated' or whatever, the fact remains that the memory isn't really shared. if it were, it'd show up somewhere... but it's not.

Darwin:
Sorry, seedling. I didn't explain very well (kids rushing out the door). Shared, or integrated video memory means that the video card leeches away your system memory, not adds to it. Thus, if you have 1 GB (or 1024MB) of system memory (RAM) and your video card shares 182MB with it, you'll actually only have 1024MB less 182MB = 842 MB of RAM available to your systm. The fact that your card isn't showing up as an on-board device is simply reflective of the fact that it does indeed have 64MB of its own, dedicated, memory. When it needs more grunt, it goes to your installed system RAM and takes what it needs, up to 182MB.

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