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Dedicated Memory versus Shared Memory

  • 05-06-2020 12:14am
    #1
    VanHalen
    Registered Users Posts: 87 ✭✭


    Folks,
    I always believed that a graphics card with its own memory was preferable to using system RAM but that was in the days when PC's had between 2 and 4GB of RAM.

    These days machine can typically have 8 or 16GB so my question is this:

    If a PC has say 16GB of RAM and the graphics card has 2GB of dedicated memory is this all it will ever be able to use? In other words can the graphics card tap into the system RAM if it needs more memory or is it limited to the amount of memory on-board?

    So if your machine has a lot of RAM are you better off having an integrated graphics card that can tap into the RAM as and when needed?

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    Simi
    Registered Users Posts: 1,864 ✭✭✭Simi


    VanHalen wrote: »
    Folks,
    I always believed that a graphics card with its own memory was preferable to using system RAM but that was in the days when PC's had between 2 and 4GB of RAM.

    These days machine can typically have 8 or 16GB so my question is this:

    If a PC has say 16GB of RAM and the graphics card has 2GB of dedicated memory is this all it will ever be able to use? In other words can the graphics card tap into the system RAM if it needs more memory or is it limited to the amount of memory on-board?

    So if your machine has a lot of RAM are you better off having an integrated graphics card that can tap into the RAM as and when needed?

    Thanks

    A dedicated graphics card will be significantly faster than an integrated graphics card in almost all instances. To answer your question though, an integrated graphics card with start using system memory as soon as it runs out of its own dedicated vram.

    The fastest ram currently available is DDR4. This will typically be slower than even entry level graphics cards from several years ago which will most likely be using GDDR5, which is significantly faster.

    Of course if you're using a terrible graphics card from 5+ years ago in a brand new system with decent integrated graphics then the difference will be minimal.


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