Dedicated ati card stealing system Ram...how do I stop it?

I have a gateway m-6862 w/ hd 2600 w/ 512 ram. If I go to the properties of "my computer" it shows my system having 4gb RAM (which is correct), but my windows experience index score for Ram is only 4.5 which is weird, cuz my old laptop only had 2gb ram and had a 5.9 rating.

I know this WEI score is pretty pointless, but seemed strange to me. When I open up the catalyst control center though and go to "Graphics hardware", it lists memory as "2303 mb", which is obviously wrong. Is somehow my card using that dumb pointless "hypermemory" thing by default even though it doesn't have to? This would probably stop my system ram from acting in dual channel mode too then right?

Any thoughts? Why would CCC show that much memory for my 512mb dedicated card?

 

Just to reference, i went to the details about my windows experience index score and this is what it said:

Total amount of system memory 4.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 233 GB
Disk partition (C 176 GB Free (217 GB Total)
Disk partition (D 8 GB Free (16 GB Total)
Media drive (E CD/DVD

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600
Total available graphics memory 2303 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 512 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1791 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.452.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1280x800
DirectX version DirectX 10




It says like 1791mb of system memory is being shared. I don't need to share that much ram do i? I mean my video card should be fine w/o stealing system ram. I looked in the BIOS and didn't see any option specifically about this. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

Don't worry about it, it'll just take if it needs. It just wants to say that it can use up to 1791MB if it needs it (if so, God help us that's one insane game!).

 

Yeah I would definetly say it's using hypermemory. That's the only way it would show 2303 MB of vram.

Edit: or what notyou said

 

Lol why the heck is my WEI score for ram then only 4.5 when i have 4gb of ram?

 

Because your processor has an effect on your 'Memory (RAM)' score, as evidenced by the old CPU upgrade threads for the 6860-FX. It doesn't matter how fast your RAM is if your CPU can't full advantage of it.

Also, WEI is a POS.

 

weird oh well so the consensus is that my system ram isn't being stolen?

 

it sbecause of the 32 bit vista (i guess) youre using

 

Your ram is quite possibly slower by specification than the ram in your old computer. It is also possible that your ram is being clocked down and/or being run at loose timings. If you really want to know, pull up a program like CPU-Z and take a look at the current memory frequency and timings.

Don't worry about Hypermemory.

 

well, you already have 512MB dedicated vram. there is no way right your card will experience any benefit from the shared system ram.
this hypermemory thingy is a just a blender. it will supposedly help a little when you have 64-128 mb of graphics ram. but with a card like yours and 512 mb dedicated vram you will not have any advantage from hypermemory.

it is save to turn it off and get full access to the reserved memory.

there are two ways for that :

1. use ati tray tools from ray adams. there is a little checkbox to turn off and your done.

2. you can be a little bolder and have a look at the registry.

for xp32 and x64 there is a registry switch :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\CDS\0000\0\Memory

There will be an hypermemory string modify it to No (0x00000000) instead of Yes (0x00000001)

supposedly the same registry switch will be available under vista. if it´s not exactly the same you should search for ati technologies in regedit.
when you have found it and you have switched it to No (0x00000000) you will
get back your precious system memory.

 

^^^THAT^^^



Do not get hung up with the WEI. It's Microsoft & partner's covert way of getting people to spend money on upgrades.

 

meh i just won't worry about it. this is my 1st lappy w/ dedicated graphics EVER (and i've had 3 in the past) and it's nice to have something that doesn't chug w/ games or videos! my last 2 laptops couldn't even do that vista screensavers "windows energy" without going like 1 frame per second lol, seriously. now i can see what the dumb screen saving was supposed to look like. sad when integrated graphics can't effectively even run a screen saver

 

Hi schoko ... will ATI Tray Tool run on Vista 64-bit?

Thanks!

G!