what the?

[Teny]

so i am now running vista, and i went to can you run it
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest
and when i see the recommended section, i check my graphics card, and check the ram.
example DMC 4

Video Card
Recommended: GeForce 8600 with 512MB of VRAM
You Have: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (GeForce 8800 GT)
PASS
Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Video RAM: Required - 512 MB , You have - 1.2 GB
Video Card 3D Acceleration: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Video HW Transform & Lighting: Required - Yes , You have - Yes
Vertex Shader Ver.: Required - 4.0 , You have - 4.0
Pixel Shader Ver.: Required - 4.0 , You have - 4.0

on XP, it says that i have 512mb, since thats what my card actually has, but how come on Vista, it says i have 1.2gb?
specs are on the sig.
Thanks in advance

EDIT - I went to display settings, and went to advance, and it says i have 767 mb of shared system memory. what does that mean? and does only Vista do this?

 

[LukaszR1]

shared ram...means its using abit of your physical ram...aka memory sticks. You have 512mb of "Dedicated" ram on ur card...but windows (Vista) allocated another 767mb of "physical ram".

I am pretty sure thats what you're looking at, if i'm wrong...someone else will correct me and provide you with more solid information. But i'm pretty sure thats what's going on

 

[Teny]

now is that a good thing or a bad thing?
i know that the more ram the card has, the higher resolution can run smoother, but what if the game requires like 2gb?