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.

    XPS 17 R1 - GT445M RAM ammount incorrect?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by RedlanceEQ, Sep 28, 2011.

  1. RedlanceEQ

    RedlanceEQ Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    122
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    As I am waiting for the game Battlefield 3 to come out, I went on the "Can You Run It" website to see where my laptop stood in comparison to the recommended settings for that game. The result was I had the minimum requirements but nor the recommended, culprit being my GPU being too weak...

    [​IMG]

    Excuse me? Only 696Mb of RAM? My GPU should have 3Gb, no?

    I went to do the Dxdiag to see, same story, RAM at 696Mb.

    As a last test I went to see my configuration in the NvDia control panel, and my GPU is listed as having 3Gb of RAM.

    Bottom line, I'm confused. Do I have a bug? Is my card faulty? Is it normal?
     
  2. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    System Requirements Lab sometimes does not read VRAM correct. When I had my 6950 2 GB, it only read like 512 MB VRAM and was not recommended for half the games at high spec.
     
  3. RedlanceEQ

    RedlanceEQ Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    122
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yeah, looks like DxDiag and that online tool do not read the memory correctly.

    My Windows GPU gadget reads it as 3Gb and I did a Nvidia inspector check and got this result:

    [​IMG]

    So it looks I do have indeed the recommended specs to play *whew!*
     
  4. ExMM

    ExMM Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    185
    Messages:
    555
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    41
    You surprised me with this post... lol

    I was thinking.... my laptop is 7/8 months old and yet cannot play this type of games even with a 1600x900 resolution and a GT445M 3GB??? lol... :p
     
  5. RedlanceEQ

    RedlanceEQ Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    122
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yeah, I had the same reaction. lol

    Especially since I've so far have been able to play all the games I tried at high or close to resolution without a hitch. :D
     
  6. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    I've seen SRL see desktop ATi cards all wrong, I had a 6950 2 GB flashed to a 6970, and it read it has 512 MB video RAM and basically did not recommend any games on high. But for my GTX 580, it runs 4 GB video RAM...

    Or perhaps it depends on how new/old your card is.
     
  7. RedlanceEQ

    RedlanceEQ Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    122
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Well, seeing the laptop is not even a year old yet, I'd think the GT445M is not that old and would be recognized properly. Anyhow, as per this screen, I can run BF 3, and pretty smoothly at 1600*900 too :D

    [​IMG]
     
  8. ExMM

    ExMM Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    185
    Messages:
    555
    Likes Received:
    30
    Trophy Points:
    41
    I am still thinking that our 445M GT is a REALLY good discrete GPU!

    I am not a "pure" gamer, but out of curiosity, I played with a 32" inch sharp LCD Crysis 2 at extreme setting 1080p.
    I couldn't believe it, but I didn't notice any lag, and it was running pretty smooth (for 30 min play) without warm up the GPU over 71 degrees.. :eek: