How to adjust VRAM on Intel Graphics 4000

[Clay Buxton]

I own a Lenovo Yoga 13 wielding the Mighty (/s) Intel Graphics 4000 on a Intel i5-3317U with a base clock of 1.7Ghz.
This currently has 32MB of Graphics Memory, which is a very big problem since I want at LEAST a half a gig to play indie games.
Apparently the Intel 4000 uses shared memory, which uses RAM as VRAM and is only set at 32MB. I upgraded the RAM to 8GB so I am comfortable putting a maximum of 1.5GB at it. Right now it says I have 8GB of Ram and 7.88GB usable so I am assuming that missing .12GB is the Video RAM+ the normal couple megabytes not usable in RAM.

How do I adjust how much RAM is allocated to the GPU, I looked in the BIOS but I couldn't find anything, and I am pretty sure you can do this. If not its OK i still have my gaming computer, but I wanted to be able to actually do some higher-tier stuff on this laptop.


Thanks!

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Laptop maker's typically provide only a very few user settings in the BIOS to prevent the owner screwing it up then expecting the laptop maker to fix it under warranty. If shared RAM cannot be adjusted in the BIOS then you can't do it, the amount is fixed.

The BIOS is the only place it would be if it was possible to do it.

In any case, the Intel Graphics 4000 chip is built in to the CPU (so technically it's an APU). You can't adjust the video RAM for that type of graphics chip.

I wouldn't expect very much in the way of gameplay with the 4000 either.

 

[Traciatim]

I own a Lenovo Yoga 13 wielding the Mighty (/s) Intel Graphics 4000 on a Intel i5-3317U with a base clock of 1.7Ghz.
This currently has 32MB of Graphics Memory, which is a very big problem since I want at LEAST a half a gig to play indie games.
Apparently the Intel 4000 uses shared memory, which uses RAM as VRAM and is only set at 32MB. I upgraded the RAM to 8GB so I am comfortable putting a maximum of 1.5GB at it. Right now it says I have 8GB of Ram and 7.88GB usable so I am assuming that missing .12GB is the Video RAM+ the normal couple megabytes not usable in RAM.

How do I adjust how much RAM is allocated to the GPU, I looked in the BIOS but I couldn't find anything, and I am pretty sure you can do this. If not its OK i still have my gaming computer, but I wanted to be able to actually do some higher-tier stuff on this laptop.


Thanks!

You don't.

The video card will use system memory as needed but reserves the 32MB for basic operation. There is no point in dedicating 1.5GB to video if you aren't using it at the time since it could instead be used as a drive cache or your software could use it for whatever it's doing at the time.

If you look at your adapter properties you will see:
Total Available Graphics Memory: Some Number
Dedicated Video Memory: 64MB

The total available is how much the on board will use in total if your software requests it, and the 64MB (or 32MB in your case) will be what your video card always has reserved so no other process can use it.