The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    MBP 8600M GT VRAM - XP shows as 512 MB whereas 128MB on OSX. Why?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by iTNerd, Nov 26, 2007.

  1. iTNerd

    iTNerd Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Well guys, had been away for a while (on vacation to Goa, India along with my new MBP :). It rocks!

    I just found out that Windows XP (under bootcamp 2.0) lists the VRAM of Geforce 8600M GT as 512 MB memory whereas in OSX (leopard), it just shows 128 MB memory (which is as per the specification). I am quite puzzled how the (512-128) landed up on XP? Is this a specific bug with BootCamp/XP or problem with the XP video driver (provided by BootCamp)? Or is it rather a new feature in the card, like say, dynamically allow sharing of the computer main memory for graphic intensive work? Any geeks, please throw some good answers.Thanks
     
    iTNerd, Nov 26, 2007
    #1
  2. ChristopherAKAO4

    ChristopherAKAO4 Notebook Nut

    Reputations:
    641
    Messages:
    1,700
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I'm pretty sure that it's just 384 MB of shared memory on top of the 128 MB dedicated.
     
    ChristopherAKAO4, Nov 26, 2007
    #2
  3. sly

    sly m1530 owner!!!

    Reputations:
    172
    Messages:
    1,403
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    yep osx is giving u only the dedicated no.
     
    sly, Nov 26, 2007
    #3
  4. iTNerd

    iTNerd Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    If that is so, then having a dedicated 256 MB VRAM on the higher MBP 15.4" (to game on Windows) does not seem to have any significant advantage over the lower spec MBP 15.4" (one with the 128 MB VRAM, leaving out the higher clock CPU and HDD)?
     
    iTNerd, Nov 26, 2007
    #4
  5. cashmonee

    cashmonee Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    787
    Messages:
    2,859
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Keep in mind though that dedicated VRAM on the card is MUCH faster than shared memory. While the extra shared memory may help a little, it is not a replacement for VRAM on the card.
     
    cashmonee, Nov 26, 2007
    #5
  6. CitizenPanda

    CitizenPanda Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    112
    Messages:
    1,240
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Nope, your way off.
     
    CitizenPanda, Nov 26, 2007
    #6