A10 4600m and 7660G Graphics and Memory Question

[CindowsXP]

Hello there, I have been struggling with a question now for the last 2 months, today I decided to call HP and got tossed around their phone lines for a half hour before I was about to snap and had to hang up.

I purchased an HP Envy dv7-7333cl laptop that comes with:

AMD A10 4600m with Radeon HD 7660G
8GB Ram
and all the other fixings, those two are the most important for the question.

It says clearly on the box, advertisements, etc that this video card can access up to 4gb of video ram. When I enter into any game tho it only shows 512mb of ram available. I have also seen posts online of people with the same laptops running switchable graphics, which seem to be non-existent on mine. Don't have the option and it doesn't pick up another card.

So the question is, is it possible to increase the amount manually or does this occur automatically or does this have switchable graphics and I am using the onboard and not the APU that is in the system?

Thanks in advance because I have been wrapping my brain around it so much I am dizzy.

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

No thats normal, Laptops only come with around 512mb-1gb of video ram.

 

[CindowsXP]

I understand that, but this system is designed to use up to 4g of the 8g of system shared memory, I just don't understand as to why it only shows 512mb. Thank you for the reply tho, but that isn't the answer.

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

It is NOT dedicated memory. It is up to 4GB of shared system memory, which you would not want to do anyway. 1GB would be plenty for that and 512 is probably not hurting you much.
Windows Uses more when needed. So it will use less when it needs less, and use more when it needs more. Its automatic, you cant do anything about it. Thats why its say "upto 4gb"

they just say that so it sounds more high tech to the customer, they know the customer wont really realize it says upto. So yeah just let it flow, you shouldnt have any problems.

And if you want it for games, Dont bother cause you just Fry the motherboard like it did, cause the cooling in laptops is not good for games.

And switchable graphics are accesible from the desktop when you right click, it will say something like Switchable graphics, or it might say catalyst control.

 

[CindowsXP]

I am gonna go ahead and upgrade the amount of memory then as it must be the game and system require what I have which is showing the system only having 512. I am running GTA 5 believe it or not just fine on this machine, just want to increase the memory so it runs slightly smoother. I average 30fps as is. Any idea what the memory limits might be on this motherboard in the laptop? I know it currently has 8gb 204pin SODIMM 1600 DDR3, but I was wondering if it is possible to upgrade to a faster speed or not. Thanks for the reply and any more input on the memory upgrade would be wonderful.

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

Yeah you can actually you can just add another 8gb in laptops, then you have 16. I suggest you do that, because on desktop PCs we use 8gb of ram, but then the Graphics card has its own ram, My card has 4gb. so you have a total of 12gb.

But for you the problem is that GTA uses around 4GB of the normal ram, and around 2gb Graphics ram, so that =6gb, you have 2gb left, but that 2gb is used by windows itself.

So what you should do is get another 8gb stick pop it in and hope that the laptop realizes that "oh i have more ram now, lets some more for graphics".

 

[CindowsXP]

Do you know if I can do 32gb on this laptop? If so I will just get 2 16gb sticks and be done for a long while, I expect to keep this laptop even after I get my desktop for programming and such. I just can't find any information on the limits of the motherboard at all. I found the model number easy enough but no sites have information on it's specs. Thanks again everyone for the help.

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

no i dont think so, Cause i have never seen a 32GB ram laptop, but man 16 is more than enough. i think you have to buy 2x8gb sticks to make it 16, because it says that it has 2x4gb sticks in it.