[Q] - Share more RAM with Video Card?

[alsiladka]

hi guyz ,

I have a MSI RS482 M2 series Motherboad with ATI Xpress 200 integrated for graphics .

Now , i have been able to share only 128 MB of RAM with my ATI display card .

I have 1 GB of RAM and want to share more of it for Display.

In the BIOS , the UMA frame buffer Size , shows a maximum of 128 MB only whereas AGP Aperture size goes well beyond 128 MB , upto 1 GB.

Due to this , my UMA Buffer size is 128 , as much as i could give to it and the AGP Aperture size is currently 256 MB.

Can anyone of you Help me how to Share more of the RAM? Maybe 256 MB?

P.S - I have an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ running on this Motherboard.

Can i overclock it?

[nmX.Memnoch]

That would require changes at the hardware level...something that the average Joe won't be able to do.

My suggestion would be to pickup an add-in video card so that you're not sharing system RAM at all. Your system will perform much better. Even a 6600GT or X600 based card would be better than the integrated X300 you have now.

Edited March 23, 2006 by nmX.Memnoch

[alsiladka]

Even a 6600GT or X600 based card would be better than the integrated X300 you have now.

X200 Mate

I dont wanna go for a new card is because this is a new computer i bough . Cant go on adding up stuff or my dad would kill me *LOL

I plan to wait for maybe another year before getting myself a new card with great performance on Vista too!!

Till then , there must be some way to do this?

[nmX.Memnoch]

Check Device Manager...it's an X300. The chipset is called the Radeon Xpress 200, but the graphics portion is a Radeon X300.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonxpress200intel/index.html

ATI’s Radeon® Xpress 200 chipset for Intel® Pentium® 4 processors and Intel® Celeron™ processors is built for the PCI Express® architecture and delivers leading graphics performance, bandwidth, and advanced functionality. With a built-in graphics processor derived from the Radeon X300, this chipset provides full support for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and offers high-performance graphics designed for value-oriented desktop PCs for the mainstream PC user.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonxpress200/index.html

ATI introduces the next generation PCI Express® chipset with Radeon® graphics for the complete range of AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX, and AMD Sempron™ processors. The Radeon® Xpress 200 brings both stunning 3D graphics and universal connectivity in a chipset design that provides exceptional value for the high performance. The new chipset can effortlessly scale from everyday multimedia applications to high-definition 3D gaming. The Radeon® Xpress 200 is the first chipset solution in the market with a DirectX™ 9.0 graphics core that is a derivative of Radeon® X300.

Anyway, the only way you're going to get more video RAM is to get an add-in card. The capabilities of the integrated X300 you have now won't get any benefit from having 256MB of system RAM allocated to it. You'll lose performance from the overall system anyway because the rest of the system would only have 768MB available for use. An add-in card would give you back your full 1GB of system RAM instead of the current 896MB left over after allocating 128MB to the integrated graphics.

Edited March 23, 2006 by nmX.Memnoch

[ripken204]

well how many mb can the card use? its most likely a 128mb card therefore u wont be able to use any more ram.

[alsiladka]

My friend has a MSI RS 482 M4 and he can share 256 MB , so i thought even i can do that!!!!

And about xpress 300 , i checked the Device Manager , Under the Display Adapter , it shows MSI Radeon Xpress 200 Series.

Actually i think, that xpress 300 was an add on card , and xpress 200 was built on the same framework!!

[nmX.Memnoch]

The difference in the shared amount of RAM has to be one of the differences between the M2 and M4 revisions of that board then. A BIOS update may give you the option to share more.

Again, the overall chipset is called the Radeon Xpress 200. The graphics part of the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset is most definitely based on the X300 series GPU per the information quoted above directly from ATI. If you use the actual ATI drivers the display adapter will show as a "ATI RADEON X300 Series" display adapter. We have about 40 or so HP machines at work with the same chipset in them.

I really wish that ATI would've come up with a different name for their motherboard chipsets than using the same Radeon moniker they use for their graphics chips. The average user gets confused by this.

Edited March 24, 2006 by nmX.Memnoch

[alsiladka]

If you use the actual ATI drivers the display adapter will show as a "ATI RADEON X300 Series" display adapter.

I use ATI Catalyst Drivers only!!! Still it displays MSI ATI Radeon xpress 200

I have the latest BIOS v.3.9 .

It seems MSI has this limit enabled .

Thanx for the time guyz

[nmX.Memnoch]

MSI is definitely doing something other than limiting the amount of memory usage. This was taken from the ATI driver INF (from ati.com):

"MSI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series" = ati2mtag_RS480, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954&SUBSYS_71411462

Several other companies are doing the same thing:

"ECS RADEON XPRESS 200 Series" = ati2mtag_RS480, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954&SUBSYS_1B341019

"Sapphire RADEON XPRESS 200 Series" = ati2mtag_RS480, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954&SUBSYS_0A56174B

"ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series " = ati2mtag_RS480, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954

If you notice, the device IDs are the same for all of them (PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5954). The part that differentiates the motherboard manufacturer is the SUBSYS part. It really doesn't mean anything other than the motherboard manufacturer gets their name listed instead of ATI's.

My point still stands in that the motherboard chipset is called the RADEON XPRESS 200, but the integrated graphics part of that chipset is based on the RADEON X300 GPU. The RADEON XPRESS 200 is comprised of many more parts than just the integrated graphics. Back to my original point, nearly any PCI Express add-in card is going to give you better performance than your current integrated graphics.

I understand your reasons for not wanting to put an add-in card in the system right now. But to be honest, allocating more system memory to the integrated graphics really isn't going to give you any performance boost. Besides, the way graphics cards work is that they go out to system memory anyway if they run out of onboard memory (which in your case is the 128MB of shared system memory). In other words, if the graphics chip needs more than 128MB it's going to look to system memory for that anyway.