VGA Shared Memory

[Mo-Kay]

VGA Shared Memory???

Hey everybody

I've just hooked up my new computer (haven't installed windows yet) and was setting up my bios.
I noticed that my onboard VGA chip uses system memory to function.

Shared memory can be set to:
[disabled]
[enabled, 1 mb]
[enabled, 4 mb]
[enabled, 8 mb]
[enabled, 16 mb]
[enabled, 32 mb]

standard setting here is 8 mb



There's also an option that lets you set Graphics Aperture Size, that, according to the manual
"Allows you to select the size of mapped memory for AGP graphic data"
Configuration options:[4mb][8mb][16mb][32mb][64mb][128mb][256mb]

standard setting here is 64 mb
what is this option anyway???




I read in a music-magazine (Keys, German mag) that having shared memory VGA is a bad thing if you plan on making music on your PC.
This was around 2001, and regarded laptops with 256 mb RAM ofcourse...
(I used to own one of those, it wasn't all that fast, P3 desktop processor 1,1ghz /256mb Ram and shared memory VGA)

My PC is a Pentium 4 @ 3.0 Ghz with 1 mb cache
2 memory slots used out of 4
memory is 2x512MB DDR Ram @ 400 mhz,

I plan on running a 19 inch tft @ 1280x1024 pixels
This PC will be used only for music-making (recording, vst, sampling, libraries), maybe for some occasional TV/DVD watching, so no games or any graphics stuff.




So, as for my question: like I said, I read it's a bad thing, or at least was back then....


-What's that Graphics Aperture Size function for?


-How much memory will I need to run my desired resolution?

-Will I be OK using that amount of memory from my sytem ram, since I have quite a lot of ram already?

-Why is using system ram such a bad thing? Because of borrowing part of it, or is it really bad for the RAM speed?

-Should I buy a seperate PCI card and forget about the internal vga alltogether?




A lotta questions, I know, but this is my first strictly-music PC and I wanna do this right, and get the most out of it!


Thank you

Mo-Kay

 

[Monkey Allen]

AGP:

AGP sidebanding requires a minimum of 16 MB to work correctly, and this is probably why the crashing occurs below 16 MB on some tests (and reduced performance on others). As a new rule of thumb, never set the AAS below 16 MB, as performance and stability will be compromised. Another rule of thumb is that you should always set AAS to either be less than or equal to your total system memory, as you cannot use memory you do not have in the first place.

Performance is nearly identical from 16 to 256 MB, with minor dips at 64 MB AAS and problems with 256 MB on the GeForce3 Ti500 card. With new games coming out all the time that push our PCs to the limit, it might be a good idea to try and run a higher AGP aperture size, to be sure you’ve allocated enough memory for the video card. For this reason, we suggest at least a 128 MB AAS unless system memory is very low, or problems are experienced.

Ideally, you’d want to run a 256 MB AAS, as it would result in the best video performance and compatibility. As our tests showed though, 256 MB AAS does not work on all PCs and configurations, so it must be tested. You should run an AAS of 256 MB on your system if you do not experience problems and you have the memory to spare (or you do not notice problems with applications hogging your memory). Remember that even if you have a 256 MB aperture size set, it is highly unlikely that you’ll use nearly 256 MB of memory at a time.

I just got this from the net. Thought it might help

 

[Mo-Kay]

ok, so...this means...screw the agp? As I'm not gaming anyway? put it to 4mb?
Anyone else got something to say on the whole topic?
Looking forward to some real computer experts dropping their opinions

 

[Mo-Kay]

*bump*

c'mon people, helpa fellow out

 

[Mo-Kay]

Views 33

ok, found it, seems shared memory vga effectively cuts your overal system performance in half....

thanks Mo-Kay, good to see there's someone that's willing to help.

No thanks Mo-Kay...you're welcome.

 

[apl]

If I don't understand a setting in BIOS I usually leave it at the default.

 

[zed32]

do add-on video cards provide their own memory? or do all video cards rely on using up system memory? (i suck at computers) i know my computer uses 32MB of my system memory for graphics so it tells me i only have 480MB of RAM.

 

[noodles2k5]

Non-integrated video cards provide their own memory. If it's built into the motherboard, then it shares memory.

Since you're dealing with audio and not video, set everything to the default. You can try doing the minimal, but who knows how much improvement that will do?

 

[Mo-Kay]

I bought a dedicated VGA card. problem solved.

 

[zed32]

awesome. i'm definitely going with a dedicated video card on my new computer i'm tryin to build.