Graphics Card Dedicated RAM & Virtual RAM - Is there a difference ?

[mbutton15]

My graphics card is an embedded HD3200 with 256 MB RAM.

But if I use the 'Can I Run It' website to check a games requirements against my PC it says different things for different games. For Prototype it says required 'Video RAM' is 256 MB and that I have 1.6 GB and gives it a green tick. But do the same with Tomb Raider and it says required 'Dedicated Video RAM' is 512 MB and I have 256 MB and gives it a red fail sign.

So what is the difference and how do I know if a game specifically needs dedicated RAM or not?

[Charlie]

Different game companies may label things slightly differently. Video RAM and Dedicated VRAM are the same thing. Companies just label things differently, Quad Core, 4 Core, Video Ram, Dedicated VRAM etc... It does go slightly deeper with System RAM, Dedicated RAM and memory pools but in a simple answer they label things differently.

[mbutton15]

For a long time I've basically been checking games I'd like to buy, seeing they have video requirement of 512MB+ and deciding not to buy as I'd thought my graphics card didn't have enough memory.

Sorry for asking a stupid question, but does that mean when checking game specs I should use 1.6 GB and my PC figure and not 256 MB ?

And more specfically would I be able to run Tomb Raider, with listed Steam requirements: DirectX 9 graphics card with 512Mb Video RAM: AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT, nVidia 8600

[Charlie]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

For a long time I've basically been checking games I'd like to buy, seeing they have video requirement of 512MB+ and deciding not to buy as I'd thought my graphics card didn't have enough memory.

Sorry for asking a stupid question, but does that mean when checking game specs I should use 1.6 GB and my PC figure and not 256 MB ?

And more specfically would I be able to run Tomb Raider, with listed Steam requirements: DirectX 9 graphics card with 512Mb Video RAM: AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT, nVidia 8600

When all your VRAM has been used up the application will start to use system memory (regular RAM) for texture files and cache. This is not ideal as it can cause lag, stutter, artifacting and can cause the game to crash. My GTX 770 has 2GB of dedicated VRAM but I can use an extra 2GB of system memory if I need it.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by GhostMotleyX:

When all your VRAM has been used up the application will start to use system memory (regular RAM) for texture files and cache. This is not ideal as it can cause lag, stutter, artifacting and can cause the game to crash. My GTX 770 has 2GB of dedicated VRAM but I can use an extra 2GB of system memory if I need it.

So, my PC has 4GB RAM, though only 3.3GB accessible as I'm running Vista. The game says 2GB minimum memory so I should have 1.3GB 'spare'.

Argh !! Now I've checked system memory and Task Manager says I'm currently using 1.5 GB and all I have open is the Steam GUI. So I don't even have enough free system memory, never mind any spare for the graphics... Argh !!

I'll have to wait for another game on my wishlist to come on sale that's not so demending on system memory. But it's nice to know I shouldn't just dismiss a game because it needs more than 256MB RAM. Thanks.