Does video card memory contribute to overall ram when it comes to games and such?

Answer 1

Nope, but if you were formerly running integrated graphics that share from system RAM, that previously shared RAM becomes available to total system RAM.

Graphics cards perform better with fast dedicated RAM like gddr3 or gddr4(still expensive at the moment).

Answer 2

Not really. The video card RAM it mostly dedicated for video purposes (obviously); so it doesn't count as computer RAM (this is the one that really runs your game and programs).