nick said:
Hello All,
I have a Dell Dimension E520 that seems to drag sometimes?
The machine runs Vista Home Edition.
Can someone tell me how I can find out how much video memory my
computer (video card) has?
Thanks
Try Everest.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
Also, Microsoft DirectX installations usually come with a copy
of "dxdiag". On my machine, I go to Start:Run and type dxdiag
and then carriage return. The video memory should be listed
there, under the "Display" tab.
I don't know how those options will work with Vista. It
is possible that Everest cannot even run with Vista (poking
the hardware directly probably violates the Vista security
model). If you go to Lavalys.com , there are commercial versions
of Everest, which are kept up to date. The one I offer above,
is the last free version, and that version is getting old
now. In which case, "dxdiag" will have to do.
In terms of performance:
1) The Vista Experience Index can be used to determine what
part of the system is lagging.
2) Motherboards with built-in graphics, use system memory.
Vista Aero still works with them. Some built-in graphics can
use up to 256MB of system memory. That is plenty to composite
a large number of windows, without a slowdown caused by running
out of pseudo-video memory. Check BIOS settings for the option
to increase the usage of built-in memory.
3) Some separate video cards, split their memory usage. A card like
a 7300LE (a $30 video card), have memory on the video card, but
they also have "Turbocache", which is the usage of system memory.
A separate video card is probably always faster, but if system
memory is low to begins with, the approaches in (2) and (3) can
chew into available memory.
4) It is possible to purchase video cards slightly above the
tier of the 7300LE, and get a card which is self-sufficient
in memory. At least that removes any uncertainty about the memory
issue. It is possible to buy a card with relatively low power
consumption, and get good Aero performance.
5) Vista uses a number of caching techniques. Unused system memory
is used to do stuff in the background, and there is only a
statistical chance that the work done, gives the user some tangible
benefit later. While the memory may appear "full" all the time,
OSes which use these caching ideas, can "eject" all the cruft in
microseconds, so it really isn't an issue. (It means CPU cycles
are being invested for some potential future good, but in an
emergency, the invested work can be thrown away in microseconds.)
The best config for Vista, would be to have 4GB of physical memory
installed. At $25 for 1GB DDR2 memory, the basic price of DDR2 is
pretty low right now. As the memory speed rating goes up (enthusiast
RAM), the price goes up all out of proportion. The trick is, to
read reviews (like the reviews on Newegg), to see which of the memory
products is a solid error free performer, yet at a reasonable price.
The low price of memory, means it is all too popular to cut back on
the level of memory testing. But with some careful shopping, you
could fill the machine with memory (4x1GB sticks) and let Vista
go crazy.
To check for what memory upgrades are possible, you can use
http://www.crucial.com , and see what they suggest. But you can
also shop at Newegg, if you want to trade price versus quality.
For an article on Vista, try reading this for some background info.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2917&p=3
HTH,
Paul
