shared graphics v dedicated graphics?

Question

can a computer with 254mb shared graphic run the same programs as a computer with 254mb of dedicated graphis and can it run the new game supreme commander because my son keeps asking me to get it. the pc i am getting also comes with two giga bites of ram and i wasd woundering if a can change it so that it uses like 500mb of ram for the graphics and if so how would i do this

thanks

Answer 1

i presume you mean 256mb of shared graphics(not 254mb) well anyway,shared graphics are what we call "turbocache",the graphics borrow from the system memory(ram) to run games ect and then give it back when finished
dedicated graphics memory is ram that belongs to the card and thus dosent borrow any from the system memory
however with the p.c you are getting with 2gb ram,256mb of memory is a paltry amount to miss,but the main problem i can see is the quality of graphics,not the memory
you need to check with the manual or documentation,what the specs are with the shared graphics,you should be looking for what we call pixel and shader model,and you need to this to be either 2.0 but really pixel and shader model 3.0,this will run most modern games
as for changing the shared amount of memory for graphics,if the pc is stated as having 256mb of shared graphic memory then this is probally the highest it will go
however to check this restart your p.c and when it boots back up press delete to enter bios(set up) then you need to look for advanced bios settings,press this then look for intergrated periphals,what you are looking for is a option to change the amount of shared graphic memory,some users like to lower this down when they buy a dedicated graphics card,but you can sometimes only lower it to around 8mb,so if you have a 1024mb ram system then the actual memory will be 1016mb
however i am not sure about raising the shared memory,as the shared graphics memory is built into the motherboard
your best option is to buy a graphics card and turn down the borrowed graphics memory from insude bios,pci-express graphics cards are very cheap these days and you can pick up a card to play supreme commander for less than £50,take a look at this...http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=332976,this is a crackin card for the price and will fly through the game
it will also free up 256mb of shared memory which will all help to make the p.c run alot smoother
any more advice let me know
good luck

Answer 2

254mb of shared ram takes up to 254 mb of ram away from your gd of computer ram when needed. Of course you will have more ram available for gaming and smoother operation if you have a dedicated video card with its own ram. You can also configure your virtual drive or even a ram drive but a dedicated video card works much better than shared ram.

Answer 3

A dedicated graphics card is far better for your computer than shared graphics.

Answer 4

Yea, just get a dedicated card if you want to do gaming. Shared usually is not good for that stuff.

Answer 5

Most games only use 128mb of video ram, some 256mb, very little use 512mb. being on on-board video, giving it a 1gb is NOT going to change how it works. It's NOT a gaming card period. and memory has NOTHING to do with speed. you need a real video card in order to play 3d games. www.tomshardware.com for video benchmarks.

Answer 6

The video card has it's own RAM in this case and not shared