Hi there. I've seen many posts in forums complaining that windows is eating too much memory by giving it to the GPU, and though I've seen various unhelpful explanations, I think I understand now: With 1gb memory, windows tells me I have 256mb on the gpu and 256mb shared system memory too, so the 256 shared is NOT being taken away from my system memory, but is just made available to the gpu IF it needs it, yes? I'm asking because I just upgraded to 3gb memory, and now it says 256mb on the gpu and an extra 1279 shared memory! (this seems a lot to me, maybe I'm just ignorant?) I want to get a new gpu next, and my real question is, does the gpu use the shared memory as fast or efficiently as it's own? Eg: would a 1gb gpu be any better than an identical gpu that has 512mb plus 512mb shared system memory? I have an Acer SA90 with 3GHz PentiumD, 3gb memory and geforce 7600GT 256mb gpu. Thinking of getting a green 9800GT card to upgrade (only got a 250W psu). I've never had problems before, I always run games in 1280x1024 with the highest graphic settings. Started playing WoW and Perfect World recently and it seemed to me they were slowing down because of low memory making my machine use the page file constantly. Now I have 3gb memory, they run fine with my old 7600GT at the highest graphic settings, so not even sure if I need to upgrade it really? Sorry, this post got really long! Thanks if you stayed with me to the end LOL Appreciate any thoughts or advice, Thanks.
Actually, that depends on the GPU. Some GPUs rely on the system memory for their graphics framebuffer so that memory is truly "locked". These tend to be GPUs integrated into mobile or desktop motherboards. However, there are standalone graphics cards that also make use of system memory to save cost. They will have a relatively small framebuffer (e.g. 256 MB) so they will have to use system (shared) memory whenever they need more. In such cases, you are right - the shared memory isn't used unless it is required by the graphics card. Well, if you are only playing WoW and similar games presumably with the same monitor at the same resolution, then there's no reason to upgrade. However, you can consider upgrading if you intend to move up to a bigger monitor with a higher resolution; or if you intend to play games with more strenuous graphics.
