Geforce 8600, Vista and Turbocache

If I have Vista installed, could I enable turbocache? My 8600 has 512mb, could I use turbocache to bump it up to like 760 or maybe even 1gb? Or is turbocache a hardware thing, where only certain 8600's can enable it? And do I even need Vista to enable it, if it's not hardware based?

 

It is all automatically handled by the driver, and you'll probably never use system RAM anyway (that is all TC is). The chip itself has 256MB of dedicated memory, which is all its ever going to be capable of using (it draws 256MB or more from RAM if ever needed...but rarely happens).

 

So, what you're saying is turbocache is enabled on ALL 8600's? It draws memory from the RAM if needed? I saw a laptop on newegg and it says "up to 768mb of memory with turbocache" so I assumed that turbocache would have to be enabled, in a specific os (Vista). Also, is there any performance gain? Nvidia obviously says so, but that's because it's a proactive report. Any independent tests?

 

If you are using Vista, go into the advanced Windows video properties and it will tell you that there is x amount of dedicated video memory and y amount of shared system memory. I believe that all PCIe16 cards support it (though I may be wrong).

 

Why do you need turbocache anyway? You already have 512mb on your 8600... Anyway that shared memory won't give you any performance boost as data as to travel farther and at lower speeds from the system ram than it has to do for the card own memory chips...

 

The 8600M GT w/512MB does not use TurboCache at all, and it cannot be enabled. All 512MB are already on the 8600M, and it will give you more performance than a card that does have TurboCache with 256MB on the card and up to another 768MB pulled from system memory. As Ayle says, TurboCache has to travel slower and farther, so even with an additional 768MB coming over will not beat a card with 512MB on the card itself.

 

Inel Turbo Cache or Robson Chip is a seperate 1 gig flash cache card that is on the motherboard as an option on the Compal and other Santa Rosa 965 based laptops. It only works with VISTA with AHCI enabled in the BIOS. The jury is still out as to how effective this is in regards to program operation. It does not directly link to the video card.

 

vernonion, we are talking about nVIDIA TurboCache video memory, not Intel® Turbo Memory (Robson)...but thanks for the explanation anyway.

 

My mistake. Is turbo cache even available for the 8600m GT 512?

 

vernonion, please read post #6 above, just above your first post.