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    Xps M1530 - *512mb* 8600m Gt?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by sonicwind, Jan 14, 2008.

  1. sonicwind

    sonicwind Notebook Evangelist

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    This is what is showing in my adapter properties. I thought it was only supposed to be 256, and yes I checked and the Dell site only shows 256 configuration. Is this a driver trick? Must be. I installed the XP driver from Ubnyan's package from the driver thread.

    Edit: Just rebooted and checked in BIOS. It's 256. Must be a setting in the modded drivers that is incorrect and "fronting" on the device info in Display properties. Might as well say 4GB.
     
    sonicwind, Jan 14, 2008
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  2. themanwithsauce

    themanwithsauce Notebook Evangelist

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    Are you sure it says 512 of memory on the card alone or total? Keep in mind that gpus have the capability to turn ram into temporary vram and often diagnostic tools will take that into consideration.
     
    themanwithsauce, Jan 14, 2008
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  3. chubbyfatazn

    chubbyfatazn Notebook Evangelist

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    I would guess that the extra 256MB would be coming from your system RAM, as it is being "shared" with your 8600.
     
    chubbyfatazn, Jan 14, 2008
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  4. sonicwind

    sonicwind Notebook Evangelist

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    It's not coming from the RAM, I'm showing total RAM in the computer properties. I don't think this card supports shared RAM. I think it's just a properties from the driver, and wrong. Probably should have done more research before posting this, but hey, it's what I saw and I got excited.

    Dang that 3DMark program has gotten big! BTW, this download location is giving quite good download speed, the first link I tried was like 56kb/s: good: http://www.bjorn3d.com/pafile/index.php?act=download&id=36

    Installed RivaTuner, and it reports 256 as well. It's obviously the driver.
     
    sonicwind, Jan 14, 2008
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  5. chubbyfatazn

    chubbyfatazn Notebook Evangelist

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    I get 3072MB listed under Control Panel > System, but when I right-click on the desktop, select "Personalize", and then select "Display Properties" I get 1399MB of total available graphics memory, with 1271MB of that being shared. Which obviously isn't right, but I don't really care.
     
    chubbyfatazn, Jan 14, 2008
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  6. scythie

    scythie I died for your sins.

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    GPU-Z is your friend.

    Google, too.
     
    scythie, Jan 15, 2008
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  7. PhoenixFx

    PhoenixFx Notebook Virtuoso

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    I think Vista shares system RAM even with cards having enough dedicated VRAM and cards that don’t support Turbocache or HyperMemory technologies. Have a look at this Microsoft document for more information on how graphics memory is handled and reported in Vista through WDDM.

    If you go to Personalize > Display Settings > Advanced Settings > Adapter, you should see the exact amount of dedicated, shared and total video memory.
     
    PhoenixFx, Jan 15, 2008
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