dedicated graphics ram + shared?

[Lokrado]

okay so i got my MBP 17" early 2008, my problem is i drain my graphics card too much, the gddr3 is simply full... so i was wondering if there was a way to set up like additionally 512mb of shared ram, so my graphics would get 1gb avilable..
i can do that on a pc couse the bios' are that much less advanced, but on a mac i'm pretty much blank
any ide how to do this?

 

[J the Ninja]

There's a BIOS setting for that? My rig doesn't have one. How exactly do you think you are filling it up? The 9600M is not that powerful of card. It would struggle to max out 512MB without running out of steam itself.

 

[Lokrado]

lkj

i have the early 2008 mbp
it only has the 8400 gt...
well basicly its lagging when i play games at max resolution and settings

 

[oculus42]

i have the early 2008 mbp
it only has the 8400 gt...
well basicly its lagging when i play games at max resolution and settings

Actually, it's an 8600M GT with 256MB or 512MB of GDDR3, depending on the model. Unlike onboard graphics systems that use main memory, or the pool you could set aside for older cards that used the AGP interface, your MacBook Pro's video card has discrete memory which is the only memory with which the graphics chip can talk directly. The problem isn't memory, it's the limited capabilities of the graphics chip.

 

[Lokrado]

bahh

so basicly there isn't anything i can do?
but if the chip is too slow is it then possible to share some of the cpu for graphics? like apple did (vise versa) with snow leopard?
Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
and yeap you were right

yeah you can do this on most pcs, it however most often require a bios update.

 

[oculus42]

so basicly there isn't anything i can do?
yeah you can do this on most pcs, it however most often require a bios update.

This setting is only available if you have a video card that uses a Shared Memory Architecture. These are mostly onboard or low-end graphics cards. If you have a high-end desktop card, this is not an option. I have a 7800 GT 512 in the Athlon 64 X2 PC on my desk and a 9800 GTX 768 in my home PC (which I coincidentally brought in to work today) on a Core 2 Quad PC. This post took me a while because I confirmed neither of these computers offer the feature of which you speak in their BIOS.

 

[Lokrado]

Ugh

This post took me a while because I confirmed neither of these computers offer the feature of which you speak in their BIOS.

im not sure why you cant, there could be many reasons I supose, I don't know much about it. I did it on my dad's laptop and 2 of my friends, but all of those had semi-low end. graphics. (I guess it might just be by chance those 3 I tried it on had the option) I never tried it on a desktop either.

 

[oculus42]

im not sure why you cant, there could be many reasons I supose, I don't know much about it. I did it on my dad's laptop and 2 of my friends, but all of those had semi-low end. graphics. (I guess it might just be by chance those 3 I tried it on had the option) I never tried it on a desktop either.

Almost all low-end laptops (and plenty of mid-range ones) use integrated video with SMA, which would allow you to choose how much memory you give to the video card. If you check those laptops they almost certainly use an integrated graphics system with Shared Memory Architecture. With SMA, whatever memory you allocate to the graphics system is taken away from the main memory available to the operating system, which you can verify easily enough.

 

[alphaod]

What are you doing that requires more VRAM?