256mb vram? In built to chasis?

Finally,

I am looking to get the x1600....now I think some are 128mb and some 256mb. having contacted the manafacturer I was told that the laptops chasis had 256 dedictaded video memory built in. So I take it that this renders the card as 256mb? Apologies if I sound naive but first time buyer!

 

WHat laptop are you looking at? If its stated as having 256mb dedicated, that exactly what it is.. There is a proper graphics card attached to the motherboard
with its own memory attached to it, and thus does not use any of you system memory to run a game.

 

Zoostorm 4 6610
256mb x1600 radeon it is advertised as


Acording to their guy the motherboard has has 256MB dedicated graphical memory built in to it.

This means that the graphics card has its own 256MB memory separate from the system memory. Does this sound correct?

 

ATi Mobility Radeon X1600s always have 256 MB of dedicated video memory. For reference, here's a good site to check other attributes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ati_gpu

I think I've actually seen some X1600 equiped machines with 512 MB of dedicated VRAM and I think it's possible some are configured with the dedicated 256 VRAM and having a supplement 256 MB of shared video memory taken from system RAM if more then 256 MB becomes a necessity.

 

Sorry, but ATi mobility x1600s do not always have 256mb of dedicated ram. A certain version of the Acer 5672 have the 128mb version of the x1600.

 

That's the first instance I've heard of this. I'm not saying you're wrong, but are the 128 MB setups rare or something? Kinda dumb to not let something on the level of the MR ATi X1600 not have 256 MB VRAM.

 

No, there are also some Asus and Toshiba that have the X1600 128MB. A lot of these cards have a 64bit bus, due to a different configuration of the ram modules.

 

Yes, my laptop has 64bit, which I did not know about until after buying the laptop.

 

Wow, what a disservice to the capabilities of the GPU by handicapping it via the memory bus and amount of dedicated VRAM. Even though the 7200 in my notebook isn't that powerful, the 64 bit bus is still a handicap for games built to use a 128 or 256 bit memory bus.

 

Apple MacBook Pros also come in 128MB and 256MB configurations. However, Apple does not cripple the memory bus and both versions use the full 128-bit bus. The new Core 2 Duo versions are also no longer downclocked with the 15.4" versions running at 423MHz core and 450MHz memory and the 17" versions at 472MHz core and 477MHz memory which is pretty much the fastest X1600 speed.

In general, if the advertise 256MB it should be the the full 256MB dedicated. If it's 128MB then it's 128MB dedicated. It's only when they say 512MB then it's 256MB dedicated and 256MB Hypermemory for the X1600. The newer X1700 does have some full 512MB dedicated versions.

 

Some manufacturers include 128MB GPUs to cut costs. Acer is a prime example; Sony also does it on their 15.4" FE, which has a 128MB Go7600.

Having only 128MB of video memory on a Go7600 or X1600 causes a significant performance hit, at least according to synthetic benchmarks. Usually they score around 2,800 - 3,000 in 3DMark05 compared to 3,500 - 4,000 for the 256MB versions. Roughly 1/3 less performance.

Could we have a link to this laptop?

 

Ati practically gives away chips that are 'bad' , mainly the ones that can't get the memory clocked as high as it should be. So they lower the bus width if i'm not mistaken (although i probably am).

Well at least this is the way it was with desktops. Cards that couldn't reach the desired clock speeds were referred to as 'XT' instead of 'XTX'