Sony Vaio VGNFE25GP: What is the dedicated video memory?

The Sony Vaio VGNFE25GP has the Intel 945PM Express Chipset and also the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 with NVIDIA TurboCache (PCI Express x16 Connection). The video memory is stated to be 256MB using NVIDIA TurboCache Technology.

Under the heading of "main memory" the specifications say that the FE25GP has 512MB DDR2 SDRAM (upgradeable to 2GB) (partially shared with video memory).

Can anyone tell me please what the dedicated "standalone" video memory is for the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400? Do you think the GeForce Go 7400 is Windows VISTA capable and would run the premium version of VISTA?

Thanks for your help

Fred

 

the Go7400 is 128 dedicated +128 shared (but you can turn the shared future off in the bios because its pretty much useless) i reccommend that you turn the shared future off.because it only wastes the original system RAM , and helps nothing in terms of performance (well almost nothing)

and yes..the 7400 is vista Aeroglass compatiable

 

Thanks deedeeman for this information. The next model up is the new Sony Vaio VGNFE28GP, which has the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600. Can you tell me what amount of dedicated and shared video capacity this gives? Is the Go 7600 much better than the Go7400? Would it pay to buy a laptop with 256MB dedicated video memory to get the best out of VISTA premium, or would this be hard to buy in a laptop?

Regards, Fred

 

well the Go7600 is about 40~60% more powerful than the go 7400. so if you plan to game...you should really go for the Go7600.
as for vista....both of them should be able to handle vista pretty much the same

here is a link comparing the two cards:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=408&card2=409

as you can see the go7400 has a 7.4GB/s memory bandwidth..and the go7600 has 16GB/s....so thats over twice the memory bandwith!!!!

 

Thanks deedeeman, the gpu review site is very good. The only thing I am not sure about is why Sony, in the specs for the Vaio VGNFE28GP, which has the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, shows the video memory as 128MB, when for the Vaio VGNFE25GP, which has the Go 7400, the video memory is shown as 256MB.

Do both the Go 7400 and the Go 7600 have 128MB dedicated video memory? Does the Go 7600 use any shared memory, like the 128Mb shared of the Go 7400?

Regards, Fred

 

that is just a marketing thing. the go7400 only has 128 dedicated RAM. the rest is gained through TurboCache.
you can check out this page (go to the very bottom and look at the chart):
http://www.nvidia.com/object/go_7_series_techspecs.html
as you can see, the only nVidia GeForce7 cards that use turbocache are: the Go7200, Go7300, and Go7400. the cards above the go7400 are verypowerful and dont need and shared memory (infact a go7600 with shared turbocache memory is actually abit slower than a go7600 with full dedicated. because dedicated memory is much faster than shared system RAM).

Turbocache and Hypermemory (ATI) are just marketing things. the make the card look more powerful than it actually is.

the main future to look for in a graphics card for its power is the GPU core.

the go7600 core is much powerful than the go7400 core. because of more pipelines......memory bandwidth.... and stuff.

if you need more information about Graphics cores...core numbers or other stuff.

first: look at chazman's chart in the graphics section
2nd: look at my GPU comparison Guide (link in my siggy)
3rd: do a fourm search
4th: do a google search.

thanks.

 

Do you know if the nVIDIA Geforce 7400 in the FE590 has 128mb dedicated?
How do you turn off the turbo cache feature?

 

Thanks for these comments. I know a lot of people when looking at the "power" of graphics processing units rely on the number of megabytes given. I was confused because the VGNFE25GP says it is 256MB (using the Go 7400 NVIDIA TurboCache Technology). I know now that this is 128MB dedicated and 128MB shared.

Yet the more expensive model, the Sony VGNFE28GP, says it has a video memory of 128MB (using the GeForce Go 7600) and doesn't mention sharing. It has been explained to me here why the Go 7600 is a far better GPU than the Go 7400, so I guess the number of megabytes is really only part of the picture.

I looked at the web sites quoted by deedeeman, but they don't seem to make direct comparisons of the dedicated and shared megabytes used for the video cards. Because people who don't understand a great deal about GPUs look for this information in particular, I don't know where deedeeman found that the Go 7400 only has 128Mb of dedicated memory.

I would recommend that Sony should amend its specification sheets so that the amount of dedicated video memory is clearly distinguished from the amount shared with the laptop's main memory.

Anyway, on another matter, it's good to see that the new laptops referred to in this thread now have a C drive partition of 30GIG instead of the former 20GIG. This should help when running Windows Vista.

Regards, Fred

 

yes Fres, your right. the ammount of megabytes a card has is only and i mean ONLY part of the picture. the main thing that determines a card's power is the GPU.
so lets look at it this way:
256MB Go6200 (128 TC) = 3dmark05 score of 1070
128MB Go6600 = 3dmark05 score of 2500
256MB Go6600 = 3dmark05 score of 3800
256MB Go7400 (128TC) = 3dmark05 score of 1500
128MB Go7600 = 3dmark05 score of 3700
256MB Go7600 = 3dmark05 score of 4000+

so yes....the ammount of megabytes a card has dose effect performance to a certin point.
so a 256MB Go7400 is WEAKER than a 64MB Go7900GTX

 

Thats a cool comparison table there. I like it.

What about heat? As the GPU gets better dose the amount of heat significantly increase?

I am still trying to decide between the 7400 and the 7600 and although I play a few games and the 7400 will likely suffice i still would prefer the 7600. The only thing putting me of though is the increased heat as my laptop now is like a portable heater.

Do you know if there is a lot of heat produced by the 7600 compared to the 7400? Are the cards clocked down when idle?

 

the go7600 will most likely produce more heat than the go7400....but the ammount of heat output also depends on the laptop's cooling system. My graphics card (Go6600) is the older version of the Go7600 and it dose not produce a large ammount of heat. the temperatures during gamming and stuff remain from 50~54C which is pretty cool (as in cold). so the go7600 should not be any higher than that.....maybe between the range of 56~60C for gamming........

the point is that the temperature of your system depends on the cooling system of your laptop. ive seen people with go6600's and temeratures between 67 and 75C for gamming..............but it all comes down to the cooling system of your laptop..

(Personally i think my laptop has a very good cooling system )

 

Guys another question?
Can you play games that require 256 MB with the 7600? Do u think that this will decrease the performance or might be imposible to play them at all?.
Because I’m not very sure which one to buy, 7400 with 256 share or 7600 with 128 dedicate???? What about the games of 256mb ?
Hope that you can help me with my doubts, I’m loosing my dreams..

 

deedeeman I am currently using FE25GP model and mines is 128MB shared + 128 MB dedicated video memory.

Will there be any problem if I turn off my shared memory?

I am using XP & desided not to use VISTA, mainly I use my laptop for Photo editing, movie watching etc

I am not hardcore game player .