Help! My 8600 GT is eating my memory!

I have a new Dell Inspiron 1720, and I just installed the latest (163.75) Forceware drivers from laptopvideo2go.com However, when I look in the system information box in NVIDIA Control Panel, it shows that my 8600 GT is taking up 1535MB of my system memory (3.5 GB), for a total of 1791 MB of graphics memory. Now, I'm sure it dosn't need that much, and anyway I don't game very often, so I'd rather have more memory for windows. I'd like to change the amount of shared memory to 256 MB, which along with the 256 MB built into the card should do nicely, and leave me with 3.25GB left over. How can I change the amount of memory shared? I didn't see a setting for it in my BIOS or the NVIDIA Control Panel.

Thanks,
-CompFreak247

 

You don't need to. The card will let go of that memory when the system needs it. Also the latest drivers are 169.xx

 

What does "let go when the system needs it" mean? Does it mean that it will reduce the amount of memory it uses on-the-fly as my computer uses more, or will it change it on restart? As for the drivers, the latest ones for 32 Bit Vista at laptopvideo2go.com ( http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista) is 163.75 (165.01 is an older version with an incorrect version number, or so the mod says). Is there somewhere else for drivers that I'm overlooking?

 

It means if you start doing something that requires memory, Vista will take it back from the video card and use it for your application.

 

Ok, thanks.
Can anyone tell me if my driver (163.75) is out of date for Vista 32 Bit? If so, could you please provide a link to where this driver can be downloaded?

 

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=72

 

Thank you very much!