[THE_MASK]

Originally Posted by Zantham

HyperMemory (ATI) and TurboCache (nVidia) are two ways of saying Shared memory, meaning that it will use system memory, which as pointed out above, is inferior to dedicated memory.

Shared memory runs at the same speed as your system memory, which compared to dedicated graphic memory can be significantly slower. Also it takes away some of your system memory from Windows. Often these memory systems do have a bit of their own dedicated memory, but will steal more memory as needed from Windows. So say that GeForce 7300 says it has 512MB...it may actually have, say, 64MB of its own independant memory...but when you load up a game like SH4 it discovers that it needs much more than 64MB and so steals up to 448MB from Windows to run your game (448+64=512). Thus the manufacturer can claim it as a 512MB video card.....

To make it even more fun....laptops that look equivalent often aren't. Two laptops of differing brands may have identical specs on paper. Both laptops may have say a GeForce 7300 - 512MB. Laptop A however might just have 64MB dedicated, whereas laptop B may have 128MB dedicated, hence needing to steal less memory from the system to take it to 512MB. Then again...laptop B's GPU may be clocked at 300MHz....but laptop A may have a 350MHz clock.....

You can see why it is very important to research why two laptops that are perhaps comparable on paper, but for some reason one looks like a much better deal when really you are still getting what you pay for.

Its all clear now thanks. The x1700 graphics card i have , has 256meg on board memory and can use 256meg of system memory . That is why it is important to upgrade to my maximum of 2gigs of system memory .