2012 Mac mini Graphics Memory

[MacManiac76]

On my Late 2012 Mac mini, About This Mac shows that I have 1536 MB of graphics memory allocated to my system. Everything I have seen regarding specs for my machine shows that 1024 MB is supposed to be the maximum for the Intel HD Graphics 4000. It has always shown 1536 MB whether I have had 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM installed, so I know it's not from upgrading the RAM. I'm not complaining about the extra 512 MB of video memory, just curious if others have this showing on their system and if my system truly has this total amount of video memory allocated?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Perfectly normal. El Cap assigns more VRAM to iGPUs, providing you have 8GB+ of RAM.

 

[DeltaMac]

Two things affect the VRAM amount on your 2012 mini: the total RAM installed, and the OS X system version.
If you boot to the oldest OS X version for your mini, Mountain Lion, you will see that the original VRAM is 768MB.
Yosemite (maybe Mavericks, too) bumped that to 1024 MB. El Capitan bumped that to 1536MB. The Sierra beta so far continues to show that amount of video memory. The graphics chip CAN take 2GB, I think. There's command line tweaks to make more video memory available in the mini, although I have never tried that. You'd have to search for those if you are interested. From what I remember reading, I think they may be somewhat unstable, or are just not actually using more VRAM, and the system is faking the numbers, idk.

 

[MacManiac76]

Okay thanks, the OS version makes sense. Didn't think of that. I know Windows can allocate up to 2 GB of memory. Strange how none of the tech sites, or MacTracker, don't mention that the OS version can affect the amount of video RAM. Mystery solved, thanks again.

 

[Miat]

Yosemite (maybe Mavericks, too) bumped that to 1024 MB.

Mavericks user here (2012 Mini, 16GB RAM). Can confirm it uses 1024 MB.