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    x1600 Video Memory Misrepresentation

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by misty6, Jul 21, 2006.

  1. misty6

    misty6 Notebook Enthusiast

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    when i open up display properties>>settings>>advanced>>adapter it tells me that my x1600 has 512m of video memory instead of 256.

    i had the default driver installed(that came on the CD w/ the laptop), and then switched to the latests catalyst driver, but it still thinks i have 512m.

    whats the deal w/ that?
     
    misty6, Jul 21, 2006
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  2. Bhatman

    Bhatman Notebook Evangelist

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    256MB actual memory + 256MB Hypermemory = 512MB all together
     
    Bhatman, Jul 21, 2006
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  3. gethin

    gethin Notebook Evangelist

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    Its the hyper memory, or what ever ati call it. Basically during times of great need, the graphics card can steal up to 256 mb from your ram to use for its self. Im afraid i dont knwo how to disable this, but im sure other users on this forum do.
     
    gethin, Jul 21, 2006
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  4. mach_zero

    mach_zero Casual Observer NBR Reviewer

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    Hypermemory, perhaps?. That would mean it's got 256MB of physical memory and borrows another 256MB from the system for a total of 512.

    EDIT: Oops. Wow, looks like I was quickly beaten to the answer. Well, enjoy the link.
     
    mach_zero, Jul 21, 2006
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  5. Juz_Follow_ATI

    Juz_Follow_ATI ATI all the way

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    256 of that memory is shared wit ur ram. So, u only have 256mb of Vram.
     
    Juz_Follow_ATI, Jul 21, 2006
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  6. Bhatman

    Bhatman Notebook Evangelist

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    To lower the memory being shared, you need to go into the BIOS(F2 at startup) and there you can lower the memory.Oops, couldnt find it in the BIOS

    About the memory being shared, doesnt really hurt performance if you have 1GB or more of RAM.
     
    Bhatman, Jul 21, 2006
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  7. bigbear89

    bigbear89 Notebook Consultant

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    is there any way you could use just some amt of the hypermempry to increase battery life rather than use the entire 256 VRAM? I know on some laptops there's a switch you can press that uses just 64MB shared memory.
     
    bigbear89, Jul 21, 2006
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  8. Sirius

    Sirius Notebook Consultant

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    Yea this misrepresentation of graphics cards of the exact amoung of mbs dedicated, shared, and hypermemory is often blurred in descriptions. Usually though its misrepresented, they aren't really lying as the gpu is capable of reaching those limits.
     
    Sirius, Jul 21, 2006
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  9. rudiger533

    rudiger533 Notebook Guru

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    mine says 256mb...
     
    rudiger533, Jul 25, 2006
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  10. PROPortable

    PROPortable Company Representative

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    Big words always get people to click on a thread.... remember that... it really does work.

    The problem here is that whatever you bought was represented falsely. One reason we only sell notebooks showing their actual dedicated vram and then may show hypermemory or turbocache seperately is so not to mislead anyone. Someone may have misrepresented it to you, but that was either by accident or to make a sale....... or just a misunderstanding on your part. Actual memory is the only thing that should really matter in 95%+ of the cases (outside of graphic design programs), and this hypermemory could go up past 1gb....... I've seen sites sell the notebooks as 512mb+ and I've heard from a couple of our sales guys that we lost sales to people who thought we had smaller graphics cards in the same computers...... nothing you can do besides to make sure you're educated and know what you're buying before hand.
     
    PROPortable, Jul 25, 2006
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  11. kf_man

    kf_man Notebook Consultant

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    That's exactly how it goes, education is key. The big question I have is whether you can disable Hypermemory altogether. I don't have any need for it and would probably prefer that it just wasn't there at all.
     
    kf_man, Jul 25, 2006
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  12. Mikeoo17

    Mikeoo17 Notebook Deity

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    Turbocache/Hypermemory isn't going to affect anything negatively. It only borrows ram when there is a large demand placed on the GPU, in which case you can only benefit. It's nothing to be concerned with...
     
    Mikeoo17, Jul 26, 2006
    #12