NVIDIA® GEFORCE® GT 540M 1 GB to 2 GB?

Apparently a website here in my country is selling the NVIDIA® GEFORCE® GT 540M with 2 GB of DDR3 Memory. I didn't realise you could even get the Memory past 1GB... I've barely seen any 2GB laptop graphics cards.

So my questions is, could you, yourself upgrade the RAM of the GT 540M from 1GB to 2GB?

Lastly, would the extra 1GB of Ram make much of a difference in gaming? Like as a percent % how much?

Thanks

 

Nope. It's soldered on the card's PCB.

 

Yep, dedicated video card memory is never upgradeable.

 

No difference in 1 to 2gb at all, the card is not powerfulenough to utilize that memory.

 

So an 80€ increase i.e. $100 increase is a waste of money.
There's a Laptop here for 700€ without the extra 1GB and then an identical one for 80€ more with the extra 1GB...

So it's like a false gimmick? It wont make a difference at all... I didn't think any laptops except the most expensive ones could utilise more than 1GB...

 

Massive amounts of GPU VRAM is virtually always a gimmick.
The GT 540M is a mid-range card.
It doesn't have the bus or memory bandwidth to use 1GB properly, let alone 2GB.

The only cards that MIGHT utilize this kind of VRAM amount are high performance gpu's (GTS and AMD equivalents for mobile) or professional cards used in CAD based programs.

High performance gpu's tend to have larger bus or larger memory bandwidth (or both - depends on the manufacturer), and cases where such high RAM comes into useful play is when you game at resolutions of 1600x.... or higher, or you work in programs such as 3d studio Max and are working with large meshes/scenes/textures.

Go with the cheaper version (you will gain nothing by getting the 2GB - and to be honest, one has to ask themselves, why is Nvidia wasting resources on this anyway... they could have increased the bus or VRAM bandwidth instead... something actually useful).

You can also try to undervolt that gpu in order to reduce temperatures under load (by roughly 10 degrees if not more - depending on how low you can go), and overclock it by about 25% (after the undervolt) - though since this gpu is effectively an overclocked 525GT already (with everything else being identical), I'd recommend you stick to the undervolt only.

 

Thanks for that, I found a few more places that offer more vRAM and they all want another 100€... that's a really sneaky disappointing gimmick. I knew it was too good to be true..

 

heh 2 gb gpu vram. and i thought 1g vram was overkill. 2 is just plain silly.

 

Sadly they do that to get more money on the people that simply think 'the higher the number, the better'. They should be taught to come to NBR so that they can be smart in their PC shopping.

 

i can max out 1gb vRAM on a desktop 5870 with GTA4 on all high with massive view distance and detail distance so easily.

 

Thats because the HD 5870 is a relatively high-end card, while the 540m is mid-range. The HD 5870 also has a 256 bit memory bus, while the 540m has 128 bit bus.

 

Well it sad to say but DDR3 is officially slow
GDDR5 offer twice the bandwidth.

 

That's a desktop silly.. laptops don't have the bandwidth. Desktops can eat that much ram up easily.

DDR5 might be much faster but only the best laptops come with that.. the 540M might support GDDR5 but it'll never be used for it. I doubt I could find anyone to solder GDDR5 on my 540M lol.

Anyway, case closed. More than 1GB ram on midrange cards is a huge scam.

 

Memory bus width has little to do with how much memory a chip can use, it's usually down to the horsepower of the chip itself.

There is some correlation, but there are other much more important factors.

 

2Gb or 1Gb or 512Mb no difference..

 

Hi, I looked at two Acer Timelinex laptops today, model no. 4830TG, both had absolutely exact specifications, but one laptop's sticker showed NVIDIA 540M 2gb, while other showed 540M 1gb. Can a video card have same model no. with different amount of dedicated memory? I thought may be it's error because why would a laptop have exact specifications, exact model no, same price, but only difference is the dedicated video memory size. When I looked up specifications of 540M on NVIDIA website, it doesn't say that two different variants (1 GB or 2 GB) available. I'm confused! Please help!

 

Yeah the 540M can accept 1 GB per nVidia reference or 2 GB of VRAM due to OEM discretion (nVidia just says 1 GB as a reference, but OEM's can add another 1 GB on their motherboard PCB's if they like). The thing is like what everyone else said before is that it won't ever have the power to utilize 2 GB. If they are both the same price, then either will work exactly the same really.

 

That's not exactly right. 2GB 540M should run Oblivion with a boatload of texture mods and utilize all 2GB.

 

Nope. The GDDR3 (or is it DDR3, which is even worse) 128-bit doesn't have the bandwidth to even mow down 1 GB of VRAM at a time. Even my FirePro can't use more than 1 GB max with 128-bit GDDR5. In fact, only high end desktop cards like the Radeon 6970 or the GeForce GTX 580 has the power to do so since they got massive bus-width to really push the GDDR5 to the limit.

Remember than every 64-bit of bandwidth in VRAM is tied to two 256 MB VRAM chips based on the current GDDR5 configuration. In order to even have the GPU the complete access to 2 GB of dedicated VRAM, it needs at least a 256-bit bus width and the clock speed on top of it, which GDDR 3 often doesn't cut it.

How dell is doing this is that they are VRAM chips that can do 512MB a piece, but it is still tied to a 64-bit bandwidth per pair, so 64-bit of bandwidth is going into 1 GB of VRAM, which is pathetically slow to even fill up 1 GB on time.

The texture mods in Oblivion will be clogged by the bus and no matter how much VRAM you want to stack in it, the texture rendering will get stuck in the tubes like a narrow bottleneck.

It is a gimmick. 2 GB doesn't NOTHING when your bandwidth is not up to it. Even at most the improvement is negligible.

 

Any one wanna answer please?

 

It has been answered. Both 540M's perform on the same level. The VRAM boost does nothing to improve the performance of the GPU. Either choice is sufficient and equally leveled.

 

The only thing with some other GPU's is more memory is tied with a wider bandwidth, and you'll frequently see like 1GB with 128-bit bandwidth or 1.5GB with 192-bit bus.

But that is not the case this time around, only more memory, which as Star Forge pointed out, is irrelevant considering the constraints of the card.

 

But as a gimmick, wouldn't 2gb dedicated video memory will attract more customers? coz there are only handful of non-gaming laptops with 2gb dedicated VRAM.

 

It does, cause the OEM wants to trick them in thinking more VRAM = Better, when in MOST cases, it isn't...

 

It will certainly trick customers who are not educated in the matter. But those that come here tend to know a little better and won't waste money on useless things like this.

 

Instead we'll just buy two or three or four laptops that we really don't need, except to satisfy that urge to hoard them.

 

What is max of memory can be utilize with GDDR5 and 192 bit, especially GF 460m GTX?

 

1.5 GB. 64-bit per every 512 MB VRAM. In realistic usage, you will be seeing more towards 768 MB utilized by the GPU itself.

 

So if 64 bit of bandwidth is going into 1 gig of VRAM (as you stated is the case with Dell), is there a possibility that it will result in slower performance?

 

No.

Think of it as a car park.

The bandwidth is the speed and number of lanes leading into and out the car park, the size is simply how many cars can park in the car park.

 

Hello.

I've been debating on what laptop to get for about a week now and this thread made it all clear for me. I was choosing between the ACER ASPIRE 4750G - 540m 2gb, Asus K43S 540m 1gb, and the MSI FX420 540m 1gb.

I probly won't get the Acer anymore because the build quality was the worst out of the three. I was amazed at how cool the Asus was with its new IceCool technology. But... I think I'll just go for the MSI FX420.

 

gt540m 1gb vs gt540m 2gb.....
which one overclocks better??

 

the one that can be the gt 550m, but due to production quantities ended up as a gt 540m

the amount of memory wont interfere in that

 

you mean the memory will not interfere in overclocking capability??

 

higher density modules tend not to overclock so well but its just on average.

 

you mean if higher capacity memory chip have lower overclocking capability??

 

More transistors, less chance they can all keep up with the higher clock rate.

 

hmm.... okay now i know

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam.../559942-nvidia-geforce-gt-540m-1-gb-2-gb.html

Hey man,

i read your post here...and i need to know some things...

i was thinking about purchasing that NB ( ASUS K52JV-SX055V CORE I3, GT540M 2GB bei notebooksbilliger.de ) - but mostly because of the 2 GB RAM GPU...

Here the 540m is ranked Pos. 98 (Benchmark Overview) - Mobile Grafikkarten - Benchmarkliste - Notebookcheck.com Technik/FAQ

I thought the 2 GB Version would be a whole lot better...can u explain me why it ain´t?

Brgds

 

Think of the memory like a car park.

The faster the GPU the more cars need to be parked.
The wider the memory bus the more lanes on the entry/exit ramp.
The faster the clock the faster the cars can drive into and around the car park.
The size of the car park is the amount of ram.

The 540m does not produce enough cars to fill the regular sized car park AND the ramp is not wide enough to get enough cars in and out to use the extra space.

So it's never filled and goes to waste.

 

This card is impressing, it can run Crysis 2 at 720p medium settings.

 

@ Meaker; nice explanation...thx

What would be a GPU with "a bigger affordable car park?"

 

GT 555m or AMD HD 6770m

 

Ah but don't you see? No mattery how good your car park is, it's how good the shops are that's really important. In this case, the shops are the GPU.

So look at the shops rather than the car park, and as above they are good solutions, or if you are willing to get your hands "dirty" a barebones notebook like mine is a great way to start off with a more powerful GPU and then upgrade the rest as you can.