What is shared video memory?

phishy

Solid State Member
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17
Could anyone quickly sum it up? I'm looking @ laptops and some of these integrated VC's have sharded video memory, some also say 128 shared. I am confused on what to purchase.
 
Basically, the video card sucks up the main system RAM as opposed to having it's own. Most dedicated cards have their own RAM on the card. If it says it's shared, it's using the main RAM as opposed to having it's own.

Shared is a bad thing, because instead of being able to use that memory for the system, it's going to the video card when the video card could have it's own.
 
Thank you for the response freestyler105 I was thinking of going with a laptop one of these 2 (for school and to play older games*nothing newer than WoW*) Maybe I can get some advice on which you think would be better, I really want a laptop but maybe I should upgrade my desktop and just order a bare bones unit.

1) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115372

2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115349

I don't care for a big HD and Ram would be upgraded to 1500 and will roll back to windows XP. Also would a laptop with 256 cache versus one with 512 see a noticable difference for what I want to do with it? Because I also found this unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115350
 
Shared is a bad thing, because instead of being able to use that memory for the system, it's going to the video card when the video card could have it's own.

that and usually your computers ram is way slower than what video cards have, so the video card will have slow memory -> weaker performance.
 
Thank you Mammi, can you control the amount of ram the video card eats up? Wouldn't 1.5G of system ram be enought to let the video card work well and also keep everything else running in shape?
 
Thank you 4th grader, I'm still browsing maybe I will post a topic asking for help on picking a bare bones unit with # budget. First I must decide it I want a laptop or new desktop. :)
 
Thank you Mammi, can you control the amount of ram the video card eats up? Wouldn't 1.5G of system ram be enought to let the video card work well and also keep everything else running in shape?
yea but you wont get good performance from a shared card. no matter how much ram youve got. they arnt designed for gaming really. well light games.
yea core 2 duos are nice, i have one
 
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