Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Dedicated video memory

Does your windows uses to much ram memory for graphic card?
Is there a solution to reduce it?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Well, no.
Oct 5, 2015 1:04PM PDT

The move to more graphical "Windows" meant Microsoft did tap the GPU to deliver more speed (Scotty!)

As this is released when an app like a game starts, this should never be an issue.

HOWEVER last month there was a leaky Catalyst driver that has since been corrected.

Why you ask?

- Collapse -
Dedicated memory

So ati Catalyst driver is making this trouble? Its a real problem as I have seen.
You can't configure it from bios(at least for HP) which allows only integrated graphic card to be shared with RAM.
And Windows at start installation already shares memory with graphic card.
ATI will surely lose plenty of customers because of this.
But I have read other posts at Microsoft telling the same thing. No one had a good answer.
So Catalyst driver should be updated then?

- Collapse -
Sorry. No I can't tell in your case.
Oct 5, 2015 3:36PM PDT

As presented it's a non-issue as memory is used, released as needed. As to the ATI leak, that was fixed in under 7 days. Maybe 5.

I do not have a good answer because it's very unclear what issue you are trying to solve.

- Collapse -
Too much pc lag

Graphic card is using to much ram memory. That is the issue. I don't know if that is only with ATI or you should buy some other graphic card. Even if you have 2GB graphic card half of the memory almost goes on it so it has 4Gb or more memory.
So if you have 6GB RAM most of its memory goes to graphic card and computer becomes really slow. Main ram memory becomes 2-3 Gbs or so.
That is the case. I couldn't find a good answer.

- Collapse -
I only see games use that much.
Oct 5, 2015 4:52PM PDT

Windows seems pretty tame as I ran a test on GPU RAM use last year. So as you asked I never found an issue.

But here we are a few posts down and no details about the PC make, model, if there is some game that is laggy and more.

That said I find folk with laptops that are entry level models that we have to be real careful on game setting or it lags. I re-read this thread and the question is about Windows, not a game.

- Collapse -
Yes about Windows

I don't know whether Windows or a graphic card is using most shared ram memory for the GPU. But even if you have a really good computer it lags and becomes slow.
I didn't knew whether do I need to change windows or a graphic card.

- Collapse -
Bob has asked for
Oct 6, 2015 6:03AM PDT

info about the computer . Make, model , MB, and so on.
He can only give you a generalized answer with what little you have provided

- Collapse -
Here are the stats

Ok so here are some few stats at this computer I'm running:from Speccy:

Operating System
Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 32 °C
Windsor 90nm Technology
RAM
6,00GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 299MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 0A64h (XU1 PROCESSOR) 25 °C
Graphics
ASUS VW190 (1366x768@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 5450 (Sapphire/PCPartner) 48 °C
Storage
465GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00Z7B0 ATA Device (SATA) 31 °C
298GB Western Digital WDC WD3200AAJS-00L7A0 ATA Device (SATA) 29 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp DVD-ROM TS-H353B ATA Device
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NS95 ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

And I have 4852 Mb (which means that 2852 mb are added to the 2GB graphic card) of RAM in the graphic card seen from dxdiag.
Which leaves only 3148 Mb for the processor.
Should I change the graphic card or Windows platform to get all ram memory for the processor?
Thanks for replies.

- Collapse -
Why not buy some more RAM ...
Oct 6, 2015 7:43AM PDT

if Windows doesn't have enough?

Kees

- Collapse -
Wow, Windows 10 Enterprise
Oct 6, 2015 8:00AM PDT

That's that version that comes with great support. But so....

Hypermemory. That's what you want to try to control.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/282235-33-radeon-4350-question

The ATI Control Panel changes so much that I will not tell you where to control ATI's Hypermemory feature.

Here, I set it all up and never saw a problem with a measly 4GB main RAM W10 machine.

- Collapse -
Windows 10 Enterprise ?
Oct 6, 2015 7:27PM PDT

Do you run Torrents ?
C'mon tell the truth so we can get a grip on things here

- Collapse -
As it works fine at the office across dozens of machines.
Oct 6, 2015 7:32AM PDT

I can't dive much deeper here without details. Maybe it's some malware or setting but I've gone as far as I can without more clues.

- Collapse -
Still think of switching card

As I can't really figure out how to solve this issue unless I manage a hyper memory in ati control panel I think I will switch to another graphic card. And this maybe to use on Linux. I was also thinking about using a new computer too. As far as I can see this is really a buggy issue.
Thanks for your help.

- Collapse -
I've used 5450's before.
Oct 6, 2015 8:56AM PDT

And never found this to be any issue. However as ATI drivers have changed over time, who's to say?

It's not like the 5450 is any screamer of a card. That is, today's users may consider it sluggish.

- Collapse -
Installed ATI Control center

I just installed ati control center and I see no hyper memory option. But there is graphic "OverDrive" and still there is nothing to do with Ram or shared memory. I will try get another graphic card or something. Computer is really working sluggish. Thanks to all for the help.

- Collapse -
Remember those controls vary too much.
Oct 6, 2015 9:31AM PDT