changing laptop shared ram

[philip]

I just got an Toshiba Tecra A2 and it's supposed to have shared memory. However I've been through the BIOS like 10 times now and I can't find the option to set it? Does anyone know where it should be or how I could check the settings on it?

[Bungleau]

Shared Memory? I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that, but here are a couple of thoughts.

First, let me say that to my customers, shared memory is something you have on a server, and it's what lets each user connecting to that server access the same information (like a database). It's typically the database-type application itself that actually sets up the sharing.

It may mean that part of your main memory is used to cache video information. That used to be done a while ago, and may still be done on some older machines, but I don't believe it's all that current of a practice.

It may also mean virtual memory, which is controlled by Windows in My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Virtual Memory. Or somewhere in there...

Other than that, I'd check the manual and look for any references in there.

[philip]

Originally posted by Bungleau: It may mean that part of your main memory is used to cache video information. That used to be done a while ago, and may still be done on some older machines, but I don't believe it's all that current of a practice.

Yes I mean this. As I had to choose between mobility and accu time and power. It's not a desktop replacement and I don't use the video card for heavy things. I found out it uses 16 MB by default but I think NWN detected 64 MB so I'm not really sure what it wants. Maybe it does it automatically but after playing nwn (which went fine on highest settings) it still said 16MB used. But both the retailer and internet suggest I should be able to share more up to at least 64 MB with a bios setting.

[Bungleau]

Okay... but in my dusty memory, I can't remember systems measuring the video cache in MB. It was measured in KB, and I don't know if it's going to make much difference. Originally it started out as using some of the area between 640kb and 1024kb to buffer video... and 16 to 64kb in that space would make sense.

Look for something in BIOS called video caching or shadowing. That's probably going to be it.

[Stratos]

Are you referring to UMA (Unified Memory Architecture), philip? I believe it's the one where you re-allocate some of your RAM (?) to your graphics memory.

[Ilander]

He's refering to the same memory as all other video cards mention...and it is, simply put, just RAM on those cards...it's just that in laptops, even some newer models, they simply don't have the physical space (or, more probably, the heat-sink capacity) to put the memory in with the video card. This memory must come from somewhere, so they steal some from the system's RAM.

For instance, I have one Gig of RAM on Lappy-de-Muerte. I have set my video card (an ATI model) to use 128 MB of my 1024 MB of system memory, in essence making my ordinary system run on about 900 MB of RAM.

As far as the question goes...you probably can't. Laptop manufacturers like to lock those setting on laptops, and you have to have a manufacturer's BIOS password to get around it. I got around it, but only because an emergency came up, and I had to put a new copy of Windows on my machine, thus bypassing the BIOS lock.

SORRY!!!

(EDIT)Try and find out the model of your graphics card...that might help you to determine what the maximum amount of RAM you can allocate to it IS. It really should be 128, if your laptop is at least reasonably new.

[ 07-29-2005, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: Ilander ]

[Zebodog]

Integrated graphics accelerator. As a general rule of thumb you cannot change the amount of RAM that the video chip will use as in most cases it is a limitation of the actual video chip.

[philip]

Thanks for the answers so far [img]smile.gif[/img] Sorry for replying a bit late, I was on holiday. Gives me a nice idea on how to get past it. Conclusion one it's probably locked away for me. Now I know there are general passwords that will unlock bios completely in case someone forgets the password, might be a thing to try though it probably won't work if toshiba doesn't want it. Other thing I could try is flashing the bios [img]smile.gif[/img] I'm not sure if that's a good idea though if the bios was specially made for my PC.

I have a centrino chipset I think the video card in it is always the same. Intel onboard or so. Didn't expect to much of it since it will be a work computer and no gaming one but nwn ran better than expected.

[Bungleau]

If it's your machine, Toshiba shouldn't have anything locked away. If it's a work machine, your IT department *should* have things locked away. I wouldn't flash the bios at this point... that's a far more advanced step in my book.

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by philip: I have a centrino chipset I think the video card in it is always the same. Intel onboard or so. Didn't expect to much of it since it will be a work computer and no gaming one but nwn ran better than expected.

I missed this earlier. If you are running the centrino chipset, then you *should* have 64Mb Intel 855GME Shared Graphics, on a 256 Mb setup, which would anwser your NWN question. But that would leave the 16Mb statement open for discussion. Logically then, if you have 128Mb, you would then have 32Mb, and so on, as long as all things remained default on a basis of 4. All probability is, you are running 256 w/64 shared as default. I have hearsay that the 855GME provides a nice pacakge overall. But as you stated, would not be a premiere 3d gaming rig.