RAM

[Sophy]

When I ordered my new Dell computer (using Vista Home Premium), I paid extra to have 2 GB of RAM as the system only came with 1 GB. I did a scan with a program called "Crucial Scan" and it shows that I have a 1 GB card in one slot and a 512 MB card in the other slot. I wrote to Dell about this. Following is the explanation they gave me and I would like to know if their explanation is correct. It seems to me that no matter where the RAM is diverted, it should still show me having a 1 GB card in each slot -- but then I admit to knowing nothing when it comes to the technical side of things. So, here is what Dell wrote back and told me:

"Your video card uses shared memory with your system instead having onboard memory on the card itself. So your system does have 2 gigs but 512 of that is being used for graphics card, this allows the graphics card to go directly to the memory and allows the graphics to run smoother and less choppy."

Thanks,

Sophy

[cluberti]

That is correct - if you got a Dell with shared video RAM, it takes as much RAM from the system as you've configured it to in the BIOS. Always best to get a real card with it's own RAM.

[D_block]

to make sure u can go to the run command and type "winmsd" without the commas it will give u a listing or since it is that u are u sing vista, hold the windows key and press pause. here uwould see the system rating, click on it an then when the page opens it should tell u whats in ur pc, there is also another link on the page to see everything, i cant remember what it says right now cause im in class on a machine running windows xp

[gosh]

That's why you don't buy a computer from one of those big box retailers. They save money by using cheap components that use more resources, such as winmodems. Winmodems are cheaper but use the computers hardware to do the modulating instead of a chip on the modem itself.

-gosh

[dwarfer]

This would explain why my Acer laptop is only 728mb of RAM when it should have 1gb.