15" RMPB Graphic card 512MB?

[cramazing]

Can someone please clear this up for me.

Apple advertises that the 15" RMBP has this;

Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

So when I got to my RMBP and click on "About this Mac"
It shows;

Intel HD Graphics 4000 512MB

Is this correct??? I thought it was 1GB

 

[snaky69]

Can someone please clear this up for me.

Apple advertises that the 15" RMBP has this;

Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

So when I got to my RMBP and click on "About this Mac"
It shows;

Intel HD Graphics 4000 512MB

Is this correct??? I thought it was 1GB

The computer has two graphics cards, the integrated one (intel 4000HD) which uses variable amount of your RAM as VRAM depending on load, and the GT650 which is the discrete card and does have 1GB VRAM.

This simply means that right now, your intel card is the one powering your screen.

Some googling would've told you all of that.

 

[James_C]

There are two graphic cards in the rMBP , they switch depending on load. It is the discreet card the GT650M that has 1024MB, not the integrated card (Intel 4000) which only has 512MB.

 

[Snowshiro]

Basically the nvidia card is much more powerful, but uses a lot more power so it drains battery life. Your rMBP intelligently switches to lower powered Intel GPU which is integrated into the CPU chip when it doesn't need the extra horsepower. Think of it like a Toyota Prius. When it's just cruising slowly through the suburbs, it can run on the electric motor alone, but it needs the gas engine as soon as you want to do anything more taxing.