Question about Video Card

I was reading in an older post about the X200 from ATI and saw this..

32MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M
ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M with 32MB shared video memory is the ideal blend of performance that brings you a visual, cinematic experience. Integrate 3D images into applications to create exciting multimedia presentations and share large spreadsheets or other documents simultaneously across two screens without scrolling. User configurable up to 128MB video memory. Shared video memory (UMA) uses part of the total system memory for video performance. System memory dedicated to video performance is not available for other use by other programs. Note - this disclaimer affects system memory, and Graphics.

Now, does this mean and I can configure this graphics card up to 128 MB of shared memory, thus making it almost exactly like the actual 128 MB ATI RADEON EXPRESS 200M w/Hyperthreading? What would be the big difference between configuring and the actual card?

 

Yes, you can reserve upto 128MB of your RAM to be used by your graphics card.

There are different flavors of the 200m some have their own dedicated memory and also have the ability to use shared memory. This feature is called hypermemory(not hyper threading). You can control the amount of system RAm the GPU uses through the BIOS.

There are other version which use only shared memory upto 128MB and the user through the BIOS can set it use either 32MB, 64MB or the full 128MB(all shared) depending on the requirements.

The shared memory versions have less performance than their dedicated cousins since they have to use slower system RAM.

 

Miner is correct.

If you plan on enabling the X200M to take 128MB of shared memory, I recommend having over 512MB of memory [1GB would be ideal] so you have enough RAM to run comfortably. For gaming, the minimum you should have is 1GB. Of course, anything over is better, but not necessary for everyone.

 

keep in mind though.. that the 200m isnt much of a gaming chip. it reminds me of a cheap way for ATI to trick people into thinking they have a gaming chip and then, wham, you cant do too much.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I was just wondering if I could allocate memory towards it. I don't planto game much on my new laptop and if I do, it'll be older games like Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale series, and maybe some Fallout. I like the older RPGs, but I do appreciate the help a lot, everyone's really knowledgable here and helpful. Really helps when buying a new laptop.

 

One last question, the first 32MB of RAM that this card uses, will that always be part of my 512 MB of RAM I have in my laptop?



Also, I just purchased a laptop with 512 MB of RAM and the 32MB ATI X200. I purchased this laptop for mainly and mostly typing. I would however like to play older games on it, like

Baldur's Gate: TOTSC
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn: Throne of Bhaal
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout: Tactics
Arcanum

I should be fine right?

 

Not sure of the reqs of those games . . if they are older and don't need much to run, you should be fine.

If that's a shared X200M, which I assume it is, then yes, 32mb's of memory will always be taken by the GPU

 

How does one tell what version of the X200M one has? Currently windows says I have 960 mbs of RAM, so I am assuming that 64 is being taken by the Vcard. Is this correct? How can I boost that up to 128?

 

You should be able to go into the bios and change the amount of RAM for the Video card.

hope this helps.

 

thanks, I will do that, but is there anyway of seeing which "flavour" of x200m I have?

 

Umm....I think you can use Everest for that. It should tell you about most of the components that are in your pc. Just google it.

 

Thank you kindly! ...now I pray Farcry will run.... gulp

 

I have the Compaq Presario v2555us, upgraded my ram to 1gb, but am thus far upset with the battery life. Will decreasing the graphics from 128 to 32 increase battery life in any drastic way without ruining preformance too much? I will just do this so I can keep my laptop unplugged in meeting rooms and classrooms on campus which do not have power outlets, simply to take notes. Please let me know. Thanks.

 

I doubt it will give any more battery life - maybe a few more minutes, given that the memory is being used less . . but not enough to make a difference.