Shared video memory for Intel HD graphics

Ok, I have no problem with that.

My problem is with the amount of RAM reserved for Graphics.

3gb out of 6gb is too much. Who would use 3GB of video memory? Of course there are games that could use it but those will certainly not run on Intel HD Graphics.

What if he laptop would have had 8GB of installed memory? Then I would only be able to use 4Gb ? and the HD Graphics would have access to 4?

That's not right ..

thanks for th reply ;)

Well I find that hard to believe as it would be plain 'stupid'.

But even if it were the case ... why is it the same for Ubuntu? it has nothing to do with Windows ...

I think the issue is better linked to the BIOS on the board.

Most recent versions of Linux do what Windows Vista and windows 7 do - offload the video processing to the GPU from the CPU.  If you run the system in text mode (no X), you'll see the difference.

The GPU and the CPU are being merged now - such as the AMD Fusion processors, so there is no longer much distinction between the two.

There is no way - this is the way Windows Vista and Windows 7 operate, by design.

Nevertheless I should have the power to decide how much memory to reseve for the GPU.

Shouldn't I?

Other motherboards I've worked with before had an option into BIOS that let you select the maximum amount of shared memory reserved for GPU ... from a list of course, but you did have that power.

What I want to understand now is if this is a limitation of the Intel HD graphics core that is hardcoded to always use 50% of the available RAM, or is it a BIOS issue that it does not allow you to change this max size.

Thanks

You're looking at the issue in a traditional sense that video RAM is used only for display purposes.  It is not - the operating system offloads significant work from the CPU to the GPU by design.

That work requires memory - which is why memory must be allocated to the GPU.  

In a sense, modern OSes treat the GPU the way older systems treated math coprocessors - the workload is allocated from the CPU to the GPU in the same way calculations used to be shifted to a math co when one was present.

As I have understood it, the integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics memory usage varies between 64 MB (minimum) and 1.65 GB (maximum), depending on the video load and the memory available. So, in this case there can be another cause for the observed memory availability. 

It is not the HD graphics core - and you are correct that a BIOS can override the OS.  Since you don't have that option, it's a moot point.

Yes, the BIOS (and the mainboard) itself are completely custom to your model system - no other BIOS will work (short of one you write yourself).

Yep.

That's what I found also.

Intel HD Graphics 3000 is listed by Intel as beying able to use between 64M and 1.65G of shared memory.

My system has 3Gb reserved ... I want it back :D

256M or at most 512M are enough for my needs.

I searched for another BIOS for the laptop but could not find one.

I'll try to find the motherboard vendor and search there ... I'm not sure if it's Intel or not.

PS: does Dell install custom BIOS'es on their laptops?

Regards

Thanks for the support all.

After all the problem is not hardware or BIOS related.

I installed Windows 7 32b which does not have support for >4G RAM (~3G usable because of the hardware reserved memory mappings).

That's my fault for trying to use M$. Any Linux OS I am using has a PAE enabled kernel that allows me to see/use all the RAM.

I installed Fedora 16 32b which comes with a 3.1.0 PAE enabled kernel by default and works just fine ... well, at least it sees all the RAM. I still have to find drivers for wirless but it's promising.

I don't have a 64b Windows 7 and I don't think my key will work on one so I am either stuck to using 3G of RAM on Win or just using Linux.

Thanks again