Intel med Accelerator x3100 vs. Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS for NON-GAMERS

Hi! I’m new to this forum. Please, I would need your opinion on this.

I just bought a HP DV9500t customized. As there was a Christmas deal, I put the NVidia GeForce 8400M GS (128MB dedicated, and up to768 shared) instead of the Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator x3100.

I’m not a gamer at all (I make music), but I always knew that a dedicated card is better. The GeForce has 128MB and the X3100 has none.

When I received the computer I saw that Vista was assigning 768MB of the main RAM to the video. As usually happened in the past, I thought I could disable or assign the shared video memory in the BIOS. To my surprise, the BIOS has no setting to change that!!! Of course, the driver either!!! Then I spent the last 4 days reading forums, but many “VIDEO TECH GUYS” say different things. What I would need to know is exactly this:

Since I’m not a gamer, I would like the ‘whole’ computer to have as much performance as possible for recording apps. I have 2GB of ram, but the Video is already using 768MB (Shared) that I will never use and there is no way to disable that! The Intel X3100 has NO dedicated memory, but it takes a maximum of 384MB from the main RAM!!!
So…….. Which card should I have??? Intel Med. Acceleraton X3100 or the NVidia GeForce 8400M GS???

I’m thinking of returning my laptop if needed, since it is INSANE to share 769MB out of 2 GB!!! I just want it to use the dedicated memory!!!!

Also, I read in forums that that memory is ONLY used when the dedicated memory is used up, so if I don’t play games, it won’t happen (TurboCache). I called Nvidia Technical Support and they told me that those 768MB assigned to video in the 8400M GS ARE NOT AVAILABLE for other programs. They are just assigned to video weather I play games or not!


Bottom line: I thought that spending an extra 100 bucks will give me better performance than the integrated video card, since it wouldn’t use my main RAM and would have its own graph processor. But in this case, I think I paid more money only to have less memory available fro what I really need!!!

All your opinions will be really appreciated!!!

Thanks a lot!!!

Danny Bullo

 

I too bought a Dell Inspiron 1520 purposely with the 8400M GS option as i knew a 'dedicated' card is always better, and have also since found it does'nt seem to be quite as 'dedicated' as I first thought!

However I do play games and believe the differece between the X3100 will shine through there.

Either way I shall be watching this thread with interest, and I too am keen to hear the Tech guys opinions on this.

 

Try turning off Aero, and see if that works.

 

It only borrows ram when needed so there is nothing to worry about.

 

To borrow the RAM, 3 conditions must be met

1. The card actually needs it (duh!)
2. The system does not need it.
3. You must be running Vista (or did they change that?)


The nvidia tech guy wasn'r bright on this one.

 

You don't need to worry- 768 MB are allocated (but not reserved) for your gpu. If you do a gpu intensive task (watch hd video or play a game) then your computer will devote some of your system ram to your gpu. When the gpu intensive task stops, it will release the ram. Your computer has priority access to the ram, though. So even if your gpu would benefit from having more ram, if its taken its taken.

Basically, the only time it does anything is when you are playing crysis, and crysis decides it needs 512 megs of video ram because you decided to blow up a tree or a building or something. Instead of the program crashing and giving up, it slows down to 5 frames per second while it borrows some of your system ram.

On a side note, if you need more ram, ram is cheap now, officially.

You don't need vista though... they didn't "change it"- this tech has been around since before vista...

 

Yh it seems u are uninformed. It will only use the 768mb IF IT NEEDS TOO. Its just saying that thats the max amount it will use if it even requires that much. It doesnt mean that it is always using the 768mb constantly.

 

Thank you all guys!

Is this a NEW FANCY VISTA THING?? I mean....borrow RAM as needed....
What about XP?

In the old days there were just two options:
1) You had a "REAL" video card that had its own memory. That's it. If it had 32MB, the video will have 32MB. It won't ask, borrow, steal....

2)You had an "ON BOARD" video card. It was cheaper at the expense of Borrowing MAIN RAM. In this case, the amount BORROWED was set up in the BIOS, but the operating system only could use the TOTAL RAM - AMOUNT BORROWED 4 VIDEO!


Any way to disable this feature so the video card "doesn't even know it can borrow extra ram"? (anyway, I don't play. It wont need it!)

Thanxs again!

Danny Bullo

 

No, you can't disable NVIDIA Turbocache on the 8400M-GS..

 

The concept of sharing video memory is not new, but Microsoft decided to build it into Vista.

There's no way to disable the feature as far as I know. As noted it does not really matter - the card can borrow up to x MB but it will only take as much as it needs. I doubt it will ever need more than its own dedicated memory, especially if you are a non-gamer.