Updated Drivers, lost a TON of Video RAM

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Rufio29

New Member
Hello all,
I recently had to update my radeon HD 4850 graphics card drivers after being prompted to when loading my first Battlefield 3 game. Before I updated the drivers I went on systemrequirements.com to see if I could run Battlefield 3 and I was assured I could with my 3.5 GB of Video RAM more than meeting the 528 MB minimum.

After uninstalling my old drivers and installing the new 11.9 drivers I am running into a problem. The drivers installed correctly according to my catalyst control center but now when i go on systemrequirements.com it says I cannot run the game and i only have 256 MB of Video RAM. I tried to play BF3 with the updated driver hoping that systemrequirements was wrong or something and the lag was comical.

Is there something I did wrong installing the drivers to make all this RAM disappear or is it possible I could lose it from another way. I built this computer ~3 years ago with limited knowledge and the help of these forums and this is the first major hiccup I have encountered that I have not been able to troubleshoot with a few hours of my time and google.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
 
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Rufio29

New Member
JaredC. said:
Have you tried rolling back your driver?
Click to expand...

I used system restore to get my computer back to when it had enough Video RAM to run BF, but everytime i load a game it prompts me to get the newest drivers and after playing for about 5 minutes the game gets unplayably choppy after being fine for the first 5 minutes in game. I wasn't sure if this was because the game needed something that was on the most recent driver updates.

Not sure if that is what you meant by rolling it back?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
I think you are getting confused. The 4850 doesn't have 3.5gb of video ram, it only has 512mb. Now its possible to have 3.5 gb of system memory installed. You will need a lot better video card than the 4850 to run BF3.
 
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Rufio29

New Member
If you wouldn't mind, could you look at my build below and advise if I could just upgrade to a substantially better video card or if I will have to change multiple pieces of my build in order to accomodate a card that can adequately and smoothly run Battlefield 3.

Thanks so much for all your help everyone!



Build:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

BIOSTAR TPower I45 LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards


Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - Operating Systems

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3320613AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Radeon HD 4850

XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P4 600W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners



G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Game recommendations is for a 6950 but i'm running a 6870 with only a minor issue probably because the game is installed on an older drive instead of my ssd drive. Prepare to spend about $179 or more for a decent video card and then another $90 for a psu upgrade.
 
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Rufio29

New Member
johnb35 said:
Game recommendations is for a 6950 but i'm running a 6870 with only a minor issue probably because the game is installed on an older drive instead of my ssd drive. Prepare to spend about $179 or more for a decent video card and then another $90 for a psu upgrade.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all your help John. With my current build, Can I run the 6950 no problem with an upgraded power supply? If so, approximately how much power would I need to run it?
 
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