Question about shared video memory allocation.

[MyBailiwick]

I got a pretty cheap Toshiba laptop for school, and did a little bit of upgrading. It only had 512MB of RAM, so I got a 1gig and threw that in, mainly because Vista sucks on 1/2 a gig of memory, but also because I'm using a shared memory graphics card and wanted a little leftover to allocate the maximum amount possible of RAM to Video. I'm not sure how to allocate memory to a shared memory device, so I was wondering if anyone had any experience/input on this. If it helps, it's an ATI Radeon Express 200M series. DXDiag indicates I currently have "Approximately 574MB Total Memory"(Under Display, System under DXDiag indicates the full 1.5 Gigs of memory), but judging how poorly my laptop has been running some games, I'm guessing that's just available memory that isn't necessarily allocated to video. Thanks!

EDIT: Clarified something regarding the memory.

[Teranfirbt]

You'll never get an integrated video solution to game very well.. You should be able to change the memory allocation in the BIOS, that's how it was on my old Averatec...

[adciv]

Try this, for an explanation.

What is the processor on the laptop and what games? It may be that the laptop is just too low end.

[MyBailiwick]

I know I won't be able to get a lot out of the laptop, but I should be able to get more than what I have now. It's a T2080, each core @ about 1.73Ghz. Er, yeah, after I get into the Bios, how do I manage memory allocation? I just get a black screen with white text, and while I'm not retarded, I really don't know how to navigate Bios.

Thanks for the replies.


EDIT: Spelling.

[Arc Orion]

What games are you having a problem with? Also, what kind of settings are you using on the games?

[MyBailiwick]

Stepmania on varying low and high settings. Had no problems with it on my older, slower computer.
WoW on varying low and high settings. Had no problems with it on my older, slower computer except a slightly low frame rate (10-15fps).
Company of Heroes on lowest possible settings.

The problem is not frame rate or anything, they are just choppy. I know frame rate can sometimes cause this, I've experienced it, but please understand, it's not the same thins. Objects seem to move, the instantaneously relocate to where they were a few milliseconds before, then relocate back to where they should be. I suppose I would call it "jumpy" rather than "choppy."

[Arc Orion]

What were the specs of your older, slower computer?

[MyBailiwick]

3.2 Ghz intel single core. 1Gb RAM, 64MB integrated video. I don't remember the exact model number off the top of my head. I'll post them when I get them.

[edge]

Two things...

First, make sure you have the most recent drivers for your graphics card provided by the manufacturer (not the Microsoft provided drivers).

Second, check your hard disk activity while you're experiencing the issue you describe. I had a similar problem with WoW and CS:Source when I had Vista on my gaming machine. The problem seemed to be that 1GB of memory just wasn't quite enough to run Vista as well as some of the more graphics intensive games. Both of those mentioned run just fine under XP on the same computer.

[MyBailiwick]

I have all of the most recent drivers.