Help 8800 GT, noob

[sirsaechao]

I bought gaming computer. Got is on Friday. Specs:

AMD 2.3 Quad Core
Asus 570-SLI
512MB 8800 GT

I did the dxdiag on run and hit the display tab and it says my approx. total memory is 1246???

How is this possible when my single video card is 512MB?

 

[_simon_]

Can it use system memory if it runs out? I've also got an 8800GT 512MB and mine says 2267MB.

 

[Shane]

yes mine says the same thing, i think it can use system memory if all 512mb gets filled up but i doubt it would with current games.

 

[Okedokey]

Yes, it shares system memory. Not a problem.

 

[sirsaechao]

Thanks.

 

[hermeslyre]

For those wondering more, the actual cause of it is WDDM. A new caste of Vista drivers that allow "virtualized video memory".

WDDM drivers allow video memory to be virtualized, and paged out of video memory into system RAM. In case the video memory available turns out to be insufficient to store all the video data and textures, currently unused data is moved out to system RAM to make room for the data. When the swapped out data is needed, it is brought back in.

Problems persist, like those present in Turbocache. I believe this iteration is more stable however.