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diff between shared & dedicated vid mem?

post #1 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:17pm
Thread Starter 
hey, i'm looking for a new notebook, and i'm not too used to laptop specs. i'm looking at laptops and their graphics cards and wondering how big of a difference there is between dedicated and shared video RAM? it probably depends on the system, so i'm looking mainly at a compaq r3000z with a 2.0ghz amd 64, 512 RAM, and Nvidia GeForce 440 GO w/ 64 mb dedicated, 1394 port & TV-out. thanks for any help
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post #2 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:19pm
i am not sure exactly how it works...but basically, in a nutshell, shared graphics don't look as good as dedicated...i don't know the nitty gritty, and i don't know how much better, but dedicated will look better
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post #3 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:21pm
Shared means the video card shares the main memory with the rest of the system (meaning if you have 512 mb of RAM and the graphics card shares 128, you will only have 384 Mb system RAM available). Dedicated means the graphics chip has its own memory to do what it needs to do. If you plan on graphics intensive games, then shared is a no no.
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post #4 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:22pm
so in other words, it drags down your system as well
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post #5 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:23pm
Thread Starter 
i kinda figured that shared stole from system ram, and thanks for confirming that. would things like GTA 3, FS 2000 Pro, and NFS underground mean i need dedicated?
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post #6 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:24pm
i would go with dedicated unless you have absolutely no need for graphics...like web surfing, and e-mails, and word processing, etc
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post #7 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeyboy383
would things like GTA 3, FS 2000 Pro, and NFS underground mean i need dedicated?
You will definatly want a dedicated chip to play those games.


P.S.: Another thing about shared chips is that some of them dont contain some of the extra features that some games require (like hardware T&L), and you wont be able to play those games without a workaround.
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post #8 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:32pm
Thread Starter 
thanks. and i should probly make a new topic about it, but since you're already here, how do you guys think gta3, NFS underground, and FS 2000 pro play on the system i listed in the first post?
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post #9 of 11
6/26/04 at 10:38pm
i think it will play fine. yeah, obviously you could get a better gpu, but i think it would play fine
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post #10 of 11
6/26/04 at 11:16pm
those games will work fine. i actualy have those very same games and am about to order almost the same configuration (slightly better..more ram, and i decided on the 3400+ cpu). I will give it to you straight, the 3000z is NOT a gaming system. the 440go, although it hsa 64mb dedicated ram, it is older technology and it spits out slower framerates. unless you have no problem tunning down the game settings, and are not planning to play FarCry or better....the z will be a fine system for you.
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post #11 of 11
6/26/04 at 11:22pm
Thread Starter 
thank you, that's exactly what i wanted to hear (well, i wanted to hear that it's the best gaming system in the world and the price dropped $1000... god i'm bored... but it's the type of info i wanted). thanks, and congrats on your notebook. i went to the site and thought i'd do basically what you did, the system would be:
Compaq Presario R3000Z customize notebook
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.00 GHz
- Microsoft Windows XP Home
- 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)
- 30 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
- 54g Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
- 15.4" WXGA (1280x800)
- 64MB NVIDIA GeForce 4 440 Go +1394 & 5-in-1
- Microsoft Works/Money
- 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Built in 3.5" Floppy Drive

- Optical USB travel mouse
- Compaq USB notebook light
- HP Deskjet 3650 printer
- HP USB 2.0 printer cable a-b, 6' (2 m)
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