How much shared memory intel iris?

[mankymanning]

I need most of the memory I can get running VMs and 16GB can sometimes be a squeeze. What happens if you switch on the discrete graphics chip in the MBP? Does that mean that the shared main memory used by the integrated graphics is given back?

Waiting for my maxed out MBP to arrive but wondering if I would have been better off with base spec with 16GB + 1TB.

Not convinced the processor difference between base and 2.6 is all that much in reality.

 

[Gav2k]

The memory allocation isn't a static figure it's dynamic and varies depending on task going by the keynote. But yes in theory if the igpu is inactive then the memory is handed back.

 

[joe-h2o]

Mavericks can allocate as little as 16 MB for the vRAM for the Iris, or as much as 1 GB. If the integrated chip is not under load, the OS will free up that RAM for other things.