Can I increase the Video Memory of an integrated HD card to improve FPS/performance? Is there a maximum?

[mickael28]

Hi,

I bought a new mini-tower PC that should arrive next week. It's got an i5 6th generation, integrated intel HD 530 graphics card and 32GB RAM.

I've never done it but I was reading today that there's a way to assign more RAM to an integrated HD graphics card that could help with the performance on games.

Do you guys know if this is indeed possible and there's an actual difference in the performance and FPS when assigning more video memory?

And is there a limit on the maximum RAM one can assign. Eg, could I assign 24GB of Video Memory and keep 8GB of normal RAM? and how would that compare to let's say a dedicated graphics card with only 1GB or 2GB of dedicated memory? ie, would the dedicated be better than an integrated with a much higher assigned memory (maybe x12 or x24 times higher in this case)?

Cheers!

 

[k1114]

It's size not just speed which can complicate things. Like a x16 adapter will have a x16 gpu in it but m.2 is x4 so you are being limited to x4 speed.

 

[mickael28]

The other slot is mpcie not m.2. I've mentioned this already too.

Hi again, confused about the following:

I was just checking the QuickSpecs PDF and on page 2 they mentioned:

Slots
(1) internal M.2 PCIe x1 connector for optional wireless NIC
(1) internal M.2 PCIe x4 connector for optional Turbo Drive SSD drive

Doesn't that mean that both slots are M.2 shape and size and it's just the speed in them what's different?
Or does it mean that a M.2 PCIe x1 slot is also known as MPCIe?

 

[k1114]

No mpcie and m.2 are different. It appears it is 2 m.2 slots.

 

[mickael28]

I see. And from a compatibility point of view, could I plug the m.2 to PCIe adapter to any of those slots? with the only different being the speed at which the PCIe slot would be limited?

 

[k1114]

Compatibility is the same since it's both m.2. But you don't want to limit the gpu performance and the ssd being on x1 makes no difference for your uses.

 

[mickael28]

Got it, thanks!

I'll ask another question to clarify what kind of graphic card is recommended if we've got a max speed of PCIe x4. It seems it doesn't make much sense to get something too good if we're going to be limiting the speed a lot due to all these kind of connections.