AGP Graphics Aperture Size...

M

Marzeth

New Member
I have a 512MB Video Card, ATI Radeon X1600 to be accurate, and 1GB DDR400 of RAM.

The AGP Aperture is the allocated size of "Emergency" RAM that would only be needed if I ever run out of memory in my Video Card, for what I understand. Since I have a 512MB Video Card:
1. Should I even worry about this setting?
2. Should I lower it down to 32MB, to make sure I have more non-allocated RAM for other use?
 
H

H-Bomb

New Member
This has been discussed before but i've forgotten what the conclusion was. I think it should be set to match your VGA memory but i'm not certain.
 
M

Marzeth

New Member
That wouldn't make sense though. Would it?
Allocating 512MB RAM from my total 1024MB RAM, that if the use is right, I would never use?
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
You can't use system memory as part of your video memory for any video card, except ones that have turbocache or hypermemory, which yours does not.

I'm not entirely clear as to the point of it, but I know it's not "emergency" RAM.
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
Marzeth said:
If it's not "emergency" RAM, what is it exactly?
And if I increase it will it help my graphics output?
Click to expand...

As I said, i'm not exactly sure what it does.

And no it won't, i've had it at 32MB (default) and then put it at 256MB, which is what my card has, and there was no difference in games or in 3DMark.
 
The_Other_One

The_Other_One

VIP Member
I'll probably go research it now and edit this post if I find anything interesting. But back when I had AGP in my computers, I tried high settings and low settings without ever seeing any real difference.

*edit*

Well well well, Omega, you might have to rethink this ;)

"AAS is the amount of system memory (RAM) shared with an AGP graphics card in order for it to have more memory to process textures and other visual data."

http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/aperture-size/
 
B

bigcomp

New Member
lol i was about to post a topic for this and one more thing.. thanks anyways i really need to increase it..
 
M

Marzeth

New Member
My VRAM is pretty large and should not require any additional "shared" RAM to process visuals/data. True or False?

When running games the VRAM stores data to process, does the RAM at the same time do the same with different data to process?

If I decreased the shared RAM, would it leave more free RAM to process other data?

Does this "shared" RAM activate automatically when required, therefore I should not be worrying about it at all?
 
maroon1

maroon1

New Member
You have 1 GB of ram, so it doesn't matter if you save 32MB of memory.
Just leave it at default setting.
 
M

Marzeth

New Member
It's never enough! 1 GB is never enough, specially when a lot of games nowadays require 1GB RAM as minimun. And I am sharing a portion of it?
 
M

Marzeth

New Member
Marzeth said:
My VRAM is pretty large and should not require any additional "shared" RAM to process visuals/data. True or False?

When running games the VRAM stores data to process, does the RAM at the same time do the same with different data to process?

If I decreased the shared RAM, would it leave more free RAM to process other data?

Does this "shared" RAM activate automatically when required, therefore I should not be worrying about it at all?
Click to expand...

By the way, I need an answer to my questions please. Thanks!
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
Marzeth said:
It's never enough! 1 GB is never enough, specially when a lot of games nowadays require 1GB RAM as minimun. And I am sharing a portion of it?
Click to expand...

You only share the RAM if the game requires more then what your video card has. It's not like integrated graphics where another 512MB will be set aside for only the video, if you dont go over your VRAM size, it wont use up any of the system RAM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top