[SOLVED] How to decrease vram after upgrading RAM from 4GB to 8GB ?

LeviTech

Commendable
Sep 27, 2021
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22
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Hi.
I've got a lenovo that come with a 4Gb stick and I've upgraded to 8Gb, but now he's taking 2Gb to vram and in bios I don't have nothing to change that value, as UMA or graphic vram usage.
Do you know how to do it?

Thank You.
 
Solution
No, it's dedicated to the graphic card not sharing.

If you don't have a dedicated video card, then that RAM is shared RAM and is free to use by the system if it needs to. That RAM is not "locked" to be used only by the video chipset.

"Faking a VRAM Increase
Because most integrated graphics solutions automatically adjust to use the amount of system RAM they need, the details reported in the Adapter Properties window don't really matter. In fact, for integrated graphics, the Dedicated Video Memory value is completely fictitious. The system reports that dummy value simply so games see something when they check how much VRAM you have.
"
This is really dumb! I've got to email Lenovo with this, I don't play games in this laptop and I'm losing performance because of this...

How do you know you are losing performance? It's just the max RAM that the video card can use, not what it's using. Start performance manager go to RAM and check what is used there and what is free.
You can also compare things with a benchmark with the 4GM of RAM and the 8GB to see exactly what the changes are.
 

LeviTech

Commendable
Sep 27, 2021
283
22
1,715
How do you know you are losing performance? It's just the max RAM that the video card can use, not what it's using. Start performance manager go to RAM and check what is used there and what is free.
You can also compare things with a benchmark with the 4GM of RAM and the 8GB to see exactly what the changes are.
No, it's dedicated to the graphic card not sharing.
 

I Mess With Windows

Commendable
Jul 9, 2021
77
4
1,545
If there is no option in the BIOS, you would need to make a custom BIOS image and falsh the computer with it, way too difficult and too risky to be worth it.
Updating the BIOS can still improve your performance, because if the graphics uses 2GB, it lets you 6GB, which is higher than before.
You should also check in the task manager the RAM and CPU usage, and what is using too much. Sometimes a lot of tasks you don't need are eating up your ressources.
Finally, if you get an SSD and reinstall a new copy of win 10, you will get rid of any issue that is OS related, and also get a much faster experience. Don't forget to save all your data and make sure you know the microsoft ID and password you used in the previous install so that you don't need a new license.
 

LeviTech

Commendable
Sep 27, 2021
283
22
1,715
If there is no option in the BIOS, you would need to make a custom BIOS image and falsh the computer with it, way too difficult and too risky to be worth it.
Updating the BIOS can still improve your performance, because if the graphics uses 2GB, it lets you 6GB, which is higher than before.
You should also check in the task manager the RAM and CPU usage, and what is using too much. Sometimes a lot of tasks you don't need are eating up your ressources.
Finally, if you get an SSD and reinstall a new copy of win 10, you will get rid of any issue that is OS related, and also get a much faster experience. Don't forget to save all your data and make sure you know the microsoft ID and password you used in the previous install so that you don't need a new license.
Hi.
Yes I've done that clean install and the increase of performance even with that 2GB dedicated to the graphics, was huge. Probably not only because of the increase of ram but from ram timings.
 

I Mess With Windows

Commendable
Jul 9, 2021
77
4
1,545
I kinda knew it. Hope you enjoy some good performance, and I would still recommend an SSD for even better. The first time using an SSD is such a crazy good experience for anybody coming from an old and slow hard drive...

EDIT. the poor performance was likely due to some background tasks eating up your ressources, mostly the CPU. It can ruin even a high end gaming system.
 

LeviTech

Commendable
Sep 27, 2021
283
22
1,715
I kinda knew it. Hope you enjoy some good performance, and I would still recommend an SSD for even better. The first time using an SSD is such a crazy good experience for anybody coming from an old and slow hard drive...

EDIT. the poor performance was likely due to some background tasks eating up your ressources, mostly the CPU. It can ruin even a high end gaming system.
The laptop already came with a M2 :)
 
No, it's dedicated to the graphic card not sharing.

If you don't have a dedicated video card, then that RAM is shared RAM and is free to use by the system if it needs to. That RAM is not "locked" to be used only by the video chipset.

"Faking a VRAM Increase
Because most integrated graphics solutions automatically adjust to use the amount of system RAM they need, the details reported in the Adapter Properties window don't really matter. In fact, for integrated graphics, the Dedicated Video Memory value is completely fictitious. The system reports that dummy value simply so games see something when they check how much VRAM you have.
"
 
Solution

LeviTech

Commendable
Sep 27, 2021
283
22
1,715
If you don't have a dedicated video card, then that RAM is shared RAM and is free to use by the system if it needs to. That RAM is not "locked" to be used only by the video chipset.

"Faking a VRAM Increase
Because most integrated graphics solutions automatically adjust to use the amount of system RAM they need, the details reported in the Adapter Properties window don't really matter. In fact, for integrated graphics, the Dedicated Video Memory value is completely fictitious. The system reports that dummy value simply so games see something when they check how much VRAM you have.
"
That's not true.
Dedicated memory represents memory that is exclusively reserved for use by the GPU and is managed by VidMm. On discrete GPUs this is your VRAM. On integrated GPUs, this is the amount of system memory that is reserved for graphics.

Shared memory represents system memory that can be used by the GPU. Shared memory can be used by the CPU when needed or as “video memory” for the GPU when needed.
 
That's not true.
Dedicated memory represents memory that is exclusively reserved for use by the GPU and is managed by VidMm. On discrete GPUs this is your VRAM. On integrated GPUs, this is the amount of system memory that is reserved for graphics.

Shared memory represents system memory that can be used by the GPU. Shared memory can be used by the CPU when needed or as “video memory” for the GPU when needed.

Is the BIOS setup showing you that 2GB is being used by the video card? Did you check Resource Monitor and Performance tab in Task Manager to see how the RAM is taken up?