GeForce 6150?

The specifications from my retail store said this was 280 MB. 3DMark read 271 MB. NVidia specs say 128 MB max. BIOS gives me an option to choose between 32, 64, and 128 MB "Dedicated" video memory. Right now I put it on 32 MB, and my usable RAM is 1024 (how much I have) minus the "Dedicated" video memory = 992 MB. Windows Vista reads 259 MB of "shared video memory." When I increase the BIOS setting to 128, Vista still maintains the 271 MB total, now reading 143 MB of "shared video memory." 3DMark03 reports absolutely no difference in performance between 32 and 128 MB settings in BIOS. What's going on here....

 

the 6150 doesnt have dedicated memory, all the memory it has comes from the system RAM. dedicated memory means the graphics card will have its own RAM which is memory that is for the graphics card ONLY and attached to the card, not taken from the system.

I think the 6150 uses turbocache, which is usually used by dedicated video cards to increase the RAM by taking some system memory. here the card has RAM that is reserved by the BIOS from the system but via turbocache it can also take memory from the system while it is in windows. What does this mean? the bios lets u set the minimum amount it can reserve, turbocache will give u more RAM from the system but only when u need it. so while in the BIOS the memory reserved is memory that windows cannot use for general RAM, turbocache only takes RAM that it needs and this RAM can probably still be used by windows if it needs it.

why is there no performance difference between the settings? since turbocache takes memory anyways, the difference between those settings is minimal and only there so the system knows how much RAM it can still use while leaving some reserved for the 6150 in the BIOS. within Windows, it probably doesnt even know that the RAM that you reserved in the BIOS is from the system RAM. to windows that RAM is almost like dedicated RAM except in reality it isn't.

also RAM isnt everything, having tonnes of it doesnt mean your graphics card will perform well, it only matters if your card has the power to use it. the 6150 is not a card that can fully use 128 or even 256MB to its full capabilities, it's just not a powerful card

 

Thanks for your explanation, but according to NVidia the 6150 doesn't have TurboCache. Even if it did, I still don't get where the 280 and 271 are coming from. Any help there?

 

Changing the memory will not have any impact at all on the speed of your card. Memory size only affects the size of the textures you card can store. Has nothing to do with the speed until you start overflowing the texture buffer.

 

the 280 and 271 or watever is where the turbocache is coming from, take the amount reserved away from that and u get the amount its taking from the system in windows. this is the only explanation, i think the 6150 does have turbocache, what nvidia leave there is merely a general guideline, not always 100% true.

 

I had the same question when I got my computer. Under XP MCE it reported that I had 256MB of Video Memory, but the max is 128mb. One of the guys in the forum explained to me that while the system have 1gb or less of Ram, the max Video memory the card will be able to use is 128mb. And when the system have more than a 1gb ram, the system will be able to fully use the max Video memory it allows you to use. My computer display used to display 256mb when I got it, but after updating the Bios it got fixed. And know it display the actual amount of memory is using.

 

Trying to figure out allocated ram on these nVidia gpus is rather confusing to me. I much preferred the BIOS option on my ATi x200m which allowed me to switch between sideport(dedicated) and UMA(shared) of 32, 64 & 128MB. Windows XP would read it correctly, as would any diagnostic program.

With my 256MB GeForce 7200, the BIOS says nothing and Vista reports that this card has 1071MB graphics memory available to it. 3DMark06 says it has only 61MB of useable vram, and therefore fails the gpu in it's Vista compatibility test.

I don't get it. lol