Quick Question

Inzigna

This may sound awfully dumb, but I've not been in the computing loop for a long time and found something that I wanted to clarify. I purchased a new computer that was to come with the 1792MB GTX 260, but upon running DxDiag, I was shown "Approx Total Memory: 489MB".

So my question is, is this normal or have I been cheated? And if it's normal, I would appreciate it if someone would explain to me why this is so. Apologies if this question sounds awfully stupid.

Mr. Buttons

that's kinda odd that you'd get less than 1792MB. As I'm understanding it, the "Approx. Total Memory:" in DxDiag is a combination of both the dedicated memory on the video card, as well as what is available from the system memory.
Try checking things out using the nVidia Control Panel, and taking a look at the System Information through that. It should break down the memory issue a little better for you by saying how much "Dedicated video memory" is on your card

Jasconius

If he has a 32-bit OS it could theoretically be limiting his GPU memory.

Mr. Buttons

It shouldn't; as far as I understand, the 4-gig cap on 32-bit includes the video memory. take your 4gigs and minus the amount of dedicated video memory and you're left with the amount of system memory that the OS can recognize (in this case, 2304MB). I don't think that the GPU memory is capped at an amount (aside from the 4gig point on a 32-bit OS)

You do raise a good point though.... there is a little bit of information that could be useful from the OP. What OS are you running, and when you ran DxDiag, did it say you had the video card you thought you had?

Jasconius

Yeah but if you have a bajillion megs of video ram the OS will not give the GPU everything it wants, because it it did then you could technically rob yourself entirely of system memory.

I'm just guessing, but it sounds like a 32-bit OS.

slash000

I see the problem.

Do this instead:

Go to Control Panel, go to Display settings, go to Advanced settings, click the Adapter Tab, and under Adapter Information it will list "Total Available Graphics Memory" as well as "Dedicated Video Memory." As well as System video memory and shared system memory.

So for my PC which as a 512 megabyte Radeon 4850 and 4 gigs of system memory, I show this:

Total Available Graphics Memory: 2303 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 512 MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 1791 MB


If you do in fact have a 1792MB GTX 260, then Dedicated Video Memory should show 1792 Megabytes.

And also if the total available graphics memory is less than the dedicated video memory there's a problem.


Also, please let us know if you're using a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.

Inzigna

I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit with 6GB of RAM. I couldn't find Display Settings under my Control Panel, so I instead used the NVIDIA Control Panel instead, this is what I see:

Total available graphics memory: 4603MB
Dedicated video memory: 1792MB
System video memory: 0MB
Shared system memory: 2811MB

So I suppose I do indeed have 1792MB? Then why would DxDiag show otherwise?

As a side note, thank you all for replying!

Edit: Just for reference, this is what DxDiag shows under "Display:

Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce GTX 260
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Approx. Total Memory: 486MB

Fats

My Dxdiag lists 3688MB approx. total memory for a 896MB GTX260. I'm not sure what values it's reading, but as long as you're not seeing weird graphics performance I wouldn't worry about it.

slash000

Inzigna wrote: »

I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit with 6GB of RAM. I couldn't find Display Settings under my Control Panel, so I instead used the NVIDIA Control Panel instead, this is what I see:

Total available graphics memory: 4603MB
Dedicated video memory: 1792MB
System video memory: 0MB
Shared system memory: 2811MB

So I suppose I do indeed have 1792MB? Then why would DxDiag show otherwise?

As a side note, thank you all for replying!

Edit: Just for reference, this is what DxDiag shows under "Display:

Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce GTX 260
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Approx. Total Memory: 486MB

Well you definitely have a 1792MB Geforce GTX 260.

It looks like your info under the display adaptor is good.

I'm still confused as to why DxDiag is showing 486 megabytes though.


My understanding was that Approx. Total Memory in DxDiag is an approximation of how much dedicated memory plus memory set aside by the OS to use for graphics data. And so I thought that typically the normal user will have a higher number in DxDiag than they do for the amount in their dedicated video memory. Example, I have a 512 meg video card, but DxDiag shows 2297 Approx Total Memory. In my advanced display settings, i have 512 dedicated video and 1791 shared system memory for a total of 2303 megs.

I would figure that the DxDiag number should be approximately the same as the Total Available Graphics Memory under the adapter information. For me, 2297 and 2303 are pretty close.

For you, I find it strange you're getting 4603 megs under Adapter and 486 megs under DxDiag. I would think that the two numbers should be similar, instead of a factor of 10 different...


hm..........

I assume you haven't done anything funny in messing with your video card settings, right? Like you haven't changed any video related options in the BIOS or in windows?


Try this: Run DxDiag again. This time click the button at the bottom that says, Run 64-bit DxDiag. See if the numbers are any different.

Mr. Buttons

Inzigna wrote: »

I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit with 6GB of RAM. I couldn't find Display Settings under my Control Panel, so I instead used the NVIDIA Control Panel instead, this is what I see:

Total available graphics memory: 4603MB
Dedicated video memory: 1792MB
System video memory: 0MB
Shared system memory: 2811MB

So I suppose I do indeed have 1792MB? Then why would DxDiag show otherwise?

As a side note, thank you all for replying!

Edit: Just for reference, this is what DxDiag shows under "Display:

Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce GTX 260
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Approx. Total Memory: 486MB

The only thing that I'm seeing in regards to the incorrect amount of Approx. Total Memory is that it's a cosmetic glitch in Vista/Win7 with DxDiag. I wouldn't worry about it, as you've confirmed the card and memory though another (and more accurate) method.

slash000

I think it's a cosmetic glitch too but I'd be interested in seeing if DxDiag 64-bit provides any different numbers, esp. given the amount of memory he's got in the system

Inzigna

slash000 wrote: »

I think it's a cosmetic glitch too but I'd be interested in seeing if DxDiag 64-bit provides any different numbers, esp. given the amount of memory he's got in the system

Well, the numbers doesn't seem to change under DxDiag 64bit, so I'm definitely puzzled. This is quite queer.

EDIT: I haven't done anything to my graphics card too. It's all stock.

slash000

OK, well, ultimately I wouldn't worry about it. Your adapter information is showing 4.6 gigs of available graphics memory and I'd trust that source more than Dxdiag's approximation.

Unless you're seeing serious performance issues, which I doubt will occur, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

The important thing is that you can rest assured that you are, in fact, running a 1792MB GTX 260.

Inzigna

slash000 wrote: »

OK, well, ultimately I wouldn't worry about it. Your adapter information is showing 4.6 gigs of available graphics memory and I'd trust that source more than Dxdiag's approximation.

Unless you're seeing serious performance issues, which I doubt will occur, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

The important thing is that you can rest assured that you are, in fact, running a 1792MB GTX 260.

I'm increasingly convinced that this is a cosmetic issue, so thank you all for the time! You guys have been great in providing help.