Vista And My Graphics Card (asus X1600 Pro)

[Uncle_Ho]

Hello all,

Since i installed vista, i realized that the graphic card is taking 256 mb of system memory. I dont know why its doing this (see attachments) the card comes with 258 mb of card memory.

I only have 1 gig of ram so 256mb is 25% !!

How can i disable this sharing of system memory ? Any idea guys ?

Also, 4.3 for the vista score, is it good enough ? What is the highest score vista will give ?

Cheers all ..

p.s. my vista is worry-free so far .. my mainboard (Asus P5W-DH DELUXE) is perfect with vista..

[cdnvic]

That's shared memory that your video card was probably always accessing, instead if disabling it why not get a usb stick or sd memory card and run it in ready-boost mode? That would solve your memory problems without compromising your already tight memory allotment.

[Uncle_Ho]

thanx for the reply ,

i have a usb stick with 128mb space , will it do ? if not how much do i need ? How do i go about running it in ready boost mode ! never heard of it until now !!

Anyway , why is my card taking in memory from the system when its already 256 ?

thanx cdnvic

That's shared memory that your video card was probably always accessing, instead if disabling it why not get a usb stick or sd memory card and run it in ready-boost mode? That would solve your memory problems without compromising your already tight memory allotment.

[solo siam]

err no it wouldnt, Ram is Ram, Storage space is Storage space - USB sticks are MUCH slower than RAM, it just wouldn;t work.

[endure]

"Readyboost" USB sticks act as hard disk cache.

[solo siam]

exactly, so I'm unsure how they would boost your ram.

Short answer is buy a graphics card, will free up your 256mb AND give your graphics capabilities a boost.

[britmaveric]

Add more Ram

[cdnvic]

err no it wouldnt, Ram is Ram, Storage space is Storage space - USB sticks are MUCH slower than RAM, it just wouldn;t work.

Ready boost is NOT storage space its a write through cache that works much like the motherboard RAM though not quite as fast. It requires 2.5MB/sec for 4K random access reads and 1.5MB/sec for 512K writes, but when you plug in the dongle or card Vista will ask you what you want to use it for, and do a diagnostic to make sure it is fast enough to do the job.

You could spend a couple hundred dollars on more RAM, but if you want a fast, cheap boost in performance readyboost gives you alot more boost for very little money.

Edited February 12, 2007 by cdnvic

[endure]

I think the Asus X1600 is a graphics card. I've just had a look at my laptop which has a Mobility Radeon X700 discrete graphics system with 128MB of memory. Vista seems to be using the 128MB on the video card and also using 256MB system memory as well like Uncle_Ho. This didn't happen under XP (I don't think). Worth a bit of investigation.

[cdnvic]

If you want to disable the memory sharing, go into your bios and "disable Onboard/Intergrated Video/VGA", or something similar depending on your BIOS. I wouldn't recommend it though as 128mb isn't alot for running Vista on.

edit: I see you have a 256mb card, that should be enough then, though you may miss that video ram if running aeroglass.

Edited February 12, 2007 by cdnvic

[endure]

It appears to be more accurate reporting of what's always gone on in that the graphics system sometimes uses system memory to move video around. Full explanation at Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/displ...hicsmemory.mspx

[nikster]

err no it wouldnt, Ram is Ram, Storage space is Storage space - USB sticks are MUCH slower than RAM, it just wouldn;t work.

Ready boost is NOT storage space its a write through cache that works much like the motherboard RAM though not quite as fast. It requires 2.5MB/sec for 4K random access reads and 1.5MB/sec for 512K writes, but when you plug in the dongle or card Vista will ask you what you want to use it for, and do a diagnostic to make sure it is fast enough to do the job.

You could spend a couple hundred dollars on more RAM, but if you want a fast, cheap boost in performance readyboost gives you alot more boost for very little money.

The only question is, does it really improve performance? From reports I have seen, only marginally.

I was interested in this feature and plopped a 1GB 150X SD card in my machine. Unfortunately, for some reason, it doesn't go over 8MB/second and is too slow for ReadyBoost - ReadyBoost needs 15MB/s or 20 (which is the theoretical speed for 150X but I assume there is something funky about the SD card reader - it's not made for speed...).

BTW you need minimum 256M on your USB stick to use it.

For the record, after this failed experiment and other annoyances I am now back on XP

[nikster]

Add more Ram

Seconded. Another GB of RAM will give you much better performance overall. 3GB is supposedly noticeably faster on Vista which means Vista can use all the RAM you can throw at it.

Edited February 13, 2007 by nikster

[solo siam]

USB 2.0 is MUCH slower than Ram, I can't imagine this USB Stick idea making any difference, memory is dirt cheap nowadays why bother with it.

[Guest Reimar]

The X1600 Card in an Acer 5593 has 128 MB Video Memory and will use up to 384 MB of system Memory if need by applications. There's not any way to disable the memory sharing even not in the Bios!

I want to change to Vista sometimes the next days and will see what Vista will use on the X1600 from system memory?!

As I read some time ago, the ATI PCI-X Cards and Nvidia as well using sysmtem memory is needed and this up to 4 times of the physical memory of the card!

[cdnvic]

USB 2.0 is MUCH slower than Ram, I can't imagine this USB Stick idea making any difference, memory is dirt cheap nowadays why bother with it.

Look in the MSDN documentation, it's all there. And with a 1gb USB stick running about 1/8 the cost of RAM, it's a quick fix for someone on a budget. So long as the read/write speeds are within spec it actually does make a fair difference when running things like photoshop, or doing video edits.

[aznyron]

USB 2.0 is MUCH slower than Ram, I can't imagine this USB Stick idea making any difference, memory is dirt cheap nowadays why bother with it.

Look in the MSDN documentation, it's all there. And with a 1gb USB stick running about 1/8 the cost of RAM, it's a quick fix for someone on a budget. So long as the read/write speeds are within spec it actually does make a fair difference when running things like photoshop, or doing video edits.

cdnvic knows his computers I would not dare to challenge him but I will make a suggestion have you tried to update your drivers on your video card I did vista analizer and it shows my video card passes but will sufer from pixels was recomende to upgrade it to radeon 1300 I am running asus 64 bit with amd 64 bit cpu so now i am waiting for my vista software to come in the mail then I will install it and have a better Idea but I will upgrade my video card I am running 1 1/2 gig of memory thank you all for informative post Ronnie