Reported Dedicated VRAM

[jobush]

Hi, I have recently got the baseline 2012 15" Macbook Pro.
I have been playing some games on bootcamp, and I noticed that games like GTA 4 are reporting 458MB of VRAM instead of the supposed 512MB.

Is that normal? Or should I go to an Apple store and request for a warranty claim?

My Nvidia driver is 310.90 WHQL running on 32-Bit Win7.

I have not checked rather this persists with other drivers.

Both the nVidia control panel and Techpowerup's GPU-Z are reporting 512MB dedicated VRAM, but things like Steam big picture, GTA IV etc are reporting 458mb. Any advice?

 

[alphaod]

Yes, because your OS needs VRAM to display desktop elements, hence less VRAM is available for your game.

 

[iVikD]

Yes, because your OS needs VRAM to display desktop elements, hence less VRAM is available for your game.

Spot-on. If you want a small boost, I'd suggest you get a program called Tune-Up utilities. It has a "Turbo-boost" option that turns off the OS 'fancy' graphics, delays indexing, and some other nifty things that will give you a better performance. Alternatively, you can just find these options manually and turn them off.

 

[yusukeaoki]

Ive heard of solutions like eGPU if the dGPU is being a problem for you.
You can install AMD Radeon 6870 for your Mac.

 

[jobush]

Thank you all for your reply. I think I can put my paranoia to rest