Question about ram and integrated graphics

Well my question is since windows vista 32 bit only recognizes like 3.25 of the 4 GB that is max physically, does the intel integrated graphics card just steal ram from the 3.25 or the 4 as a whole?

 

Its not the integrated graphics, 32-bit OS/software cannot detect the full 4gb of ram, I think only up to 3.2gb.

 

oh i know that, but im saying since the graphics card draws like 356 mb or something like that from the ram does it take it from the 3.25 or the total ram (4gb)

 

It's not that a 32-bit OS can't *detect* all 4GB of RAM. It certainly can. The problem is that the OS must reserve a portion of upper RAM for memory mapped I/O addressing of hardware, which includes the graphics card (whether integrated or not). This amount varies from system to system, based upon hardware installed. The max available to Windows usually ranges from 3.0-3.5GB.

Even video cards with dedicated memory result in similar memory mapped requirements. If you have over 3GB available, then you aren't really losing anything extra due to the graphics being integrated.

To answer your question more specifically: any system RAM required by the video card comes from visible RAM. That doesn't mean it necessarily reserves the full amount at all times, it may only allocate system RAM as needed. Whereas the upper half-gig or more that is mapped for I/O is "virtual" RAM space and doesn't occupy physical RAM -- however because it overlaps the area of addressable RAM on a 4GB system, that portion of physical RAM is hidden and unavailable. So whatever is left after the virtual mappings are reserved, the video card will take from that if it needs more buffer.