Shared Memory

[drblac0]

KK, so I have 2 ATI 3870 HD video cards, each with 1 gig of RAM each. They are setup in crossfire. I notice one day that Vista is using that RAM and claims it's " shared memory " I fail to understand this due to the fact that my system has 6 gigs of RAM already. Did I mention that it Vista 64 bit? So that a full 6 gigs Vista has, and yet it still wants the 2 gigs from my video cards.

1. Why does it do this?
2. What does Vista do with this " share memory "?
3 How can I stop it?



Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[netmare]

KK, so I have 2 ATI 3870 HD video cards, each with 1 gig of RAM each. They are setup in crossfire. I notice one day that Vista is using that RAM and claims it's " shared memory " I fail to understand this due to the fact that my system has 6 gigs of RAM already. Did I mention that it Vista 64 bit? So that a full 6 gigs Vista has, and yet it still wants the 2 gigs from my video cards.

1. Why does it do this?
2. What does Vista do with this " share memory "?
3 How can I stop it?



Thanks for your help in advance.

Video memory is addressed by the system/windows, but not used in the same way. It sounds like the phrasing of "shared memory" is just off. Can you be more specific, maybe a screenshot. Is there something happening that lead you to not want the system to do this?

cg

 

[shadows5631]

I think you have it backwards.

Windows is giving your gpu an extra 2.5gb's

Because, if you subtract the shared memory from your total memory you get 1024mb(1gig)

 

[drblac0]

Then I'm not understanding why windows would be giving RAM to two cards, each with 1 gig on board RAM, each connected in crossfire ( 2gigs ). This has been bugging me for a while and I do appreciate all the help that is giving to me to figure this out. The problem is, when I put my system together and played CS:S on dust2 I was getting 299 FPS. Now I have not messed with anything and I get 140-160 FPS. Why was the change made? When I run the Steam system test I get 289-299fps. So I'm just wondering.

 

[shadows5631]

So, when were you getting 299fps on Dust 2?

And if you mean the benchmark in CSS, it's always higher than actual in-game playing. Because, the benchmark has hardly any physics going on, etc.

 

[drblac0]

The first few days after putting my PC together. then next week they week down. As if they system scaled them down for some reason. even in dark places I don't get what I use to. I played 'Highschool' yesterday morning and was getting 299 FPS around 90% of the time. But is my RAM system jacked up? Is Vista doing me right by using 6 gigs of on oard RAM and playing with 2 gigs on video RAM? Where is it all going/being used for?

Once again thanks for the quick reply and help.

 

[drblac0]

will this help?

 

[shadows5631]

I would say the shared video ram isn't the problem.

The only people I've come across to disable it are business users. They need more system RAM than video RAM. Vista alone is a resource hog so maybe you installed new programs that are running in the background? And DDR3 RAM has been known to be pretty buggy for some, for others it works wonders.

Feel free to disable it if you want. You should find the option in the Bios, also disable the onboard graphics if you have one.

 

[drblac0]

cool, thanks!