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HD 3000 is only pulling fraction of stated max memory.

idata
Employee
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So I'm using the Lenovo Ideapad v570 laptop with the driver version (9.17.10.2875), presumably the latest and "greatest" for the Intel(R) HD 3000 graphics set. I am a gamer and purchased this laptop not knowing how much of a pain it is to even attempt running any sort of "new" game with, and this is a broad definition of new, including games from years ago. I have searched for months for a solution to the "dedicated memory" problem that has apparently been around for a year and intel has neglected to even attempt a fix for, as it would seem. Recently I gave up on that, assuming that there was just nowhere to go.

Then, today, I found that when I play games, my graphics card seems to not "allocate as much memory as needed by the programs running", the fabled tag line of this card's defenders. My max is around 1.6GB of memory, yet while playing Planetside 2, it seems to only be taking around 250MB from my RAM. I ramped it up from lowest graphics (Which i get 15 fps sometimes at, by the way), to highest, and "what?", it pulled maybe 10mb more. while my fps dropped to 6 in the most quiet of places, staring at a wall. I thought to myself "Oh, well this can't be so! It must be a fluke caused by PS2's poor optimization". So I tried it on another game, by a completely different company, Ghost Recon Online. Lo and behold, same thing, just about.

I had long thought that the games had been scanning only for the dedicated graphics memory, but apparently my graphics card just isn't seeing the need to allocate much more memory to the graphics card than it is. By the way, the v570 has 6 gigs of ram, and only 4 are used at any one time while I'm playing a game, so it should have no trouble taking any of that spare 2 gigs, 1.6 of which it should be readily gobbling up, as per what has been said over and over to be the function of this graphics card.

Now see the thing is, It's not like these programs don't need that much video memory. These are (graphically) high intensity programs that my computer isn't running at anything above 15 fps because my intel chip isn't doing what it should.

So my question to everyone who reads this is as follows:

What can I do to make this graphics card use all 1.69GB of the graphics memory it should be using.

I'll check back frequently and provide any information you need in order to help

8 Replies
idata
Employee
518 Views

I think the problem is the low frequency bug on drivers, try checking with gpu-z and see if the frequency is up to 1.1ghz.

idata
Employee
518 Views

I do believe that's it. It seems it's only going to 650MHz. Thanks for the answer, is there anything I can do about it? Surely a bug this important hasn't been overlooked... I hope...

idata
Employee
518 Views

Shawn, Im in nearly the exact same boat as you. Use to play Ghost Recon Online and my FPS was seriously low. Put another 4GB RAM into my Acer Aspire 5750 and installed the latest Intel HD3000 drivers instead of the "custom" ones that Acer had installed originally with the laptop.

Got a noticeable improvement and the game is actually playable now, but still playing on such a low res isn't fun.

Installed Planetside 2 a couple of days ago and the game is pretty much unplayable even with the graphic settings are on the lowest, it still lags even in small quiet areas.

Ive Googled this issue over and over for the past couple of months and from what I gather (and I hope I'm wrong), the HD3000 is almost "capped" at using 1.7GB even though its suppose to be / use "shared memory". Really hoped getting 8GB would make a difference for games on my laptop but sadly it doesnt seem to be the case.

Im hoping this low frequency bug thing is maybe the answer but maybe wondering if its somehow possible to overclock an integrated HD3000 card and wonder if that would make a difference.

Bookmarked this page and going to be checking it often.

Thanks for making this topic as there are many many MANY people out there with this problem...

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idata
Employee
518 Views

Hope intel someday fix it...

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idata
Employee
518 Views

Ah, I know what you mean, man. I can actually get playable fps on GRO, now. After heavy, heavy modding of my graphical settings and my .ini options files for planetside 2, it's playable if I'm a sniper and not at an amp station or in a big battle anywhere.

As for the RAM, I have 6 gigs standard, on this laptop, and I only end up ever using 4, as no game really takes all 6 on the low settings I'm forced to use because of my graphics card, even with it using some of my RAM itself. If this is fixed, having more RAM will surely give you even more pushed limits than if you only had 4GB.

Overclocking... Well, albeit I have no earthly idea how, it IS indeed possible for these cards. We're both on laptops, though, and that does pose a significant problem. Laptops, as advanced as they've become, still are subject to much more rapid overheating than desktops, and not only that, but the overclocking process for Intel cards seems to be much more taxing for the amount of improvement. I have forgone from overclocking as if you ruin your GPU in this, not only are you ruining it, but you're killing your CPU too, as they're integrated. Your computer is completely dead if you do it wrong.

That said, if it really is this low frequency glitch/bug that's at work here, overclocking may be very safe, to drive us up to 1.1GHz. In theory, simply by using logic without any knowledge of computer-specific stipulations, it should be perfectly safe for our computers to use a little outside push to get where they're supposed to be, right? The heat should be manageable and the stress at that level is what it was designed for, so I see nothing too dangerous at that level.

I'm going to look to try it carefully, after browsing the web thoroughly for a way to fix the bug. I seem to recall a thread on this very forum about low frequency bugs that was posted a day earlier than mine. Well, even if Intel isn't helping, progress is still being made.

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Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
518 Views

Hi Shawn,

In most cases, the computer manufacturer has already configured the system to use the maximum amount of graphics memory that is possible for your particular computer model. Sometimes you can change these values through BIOS level.

I wouldn't think the computer manufacturer would lock it down for our graphics controller unless there was a discrete graphics card included with the system. If you have questions on tweaking the BIOS though, try to contact Lenovo for that reason.

Thanks

Allan.

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idata
Employee
518 Views

My laptop doesn't have a discrete graphics card, but there are closely-related models that do. I don't see why they'd tie it down for my model too, but I'll take that to them. And I've tried and tried again but there's absolutely no way to do it in the BIOS for me. I wish Intel, if possible, had added an option to set it through the graphics driver UI, since for gaming, it offers literally 0 helpful options itself. And seeing as I have 6gb of RAM, a 2nd gen. i5 processor, and almost always use next to none of the capability of either, I have a hard time believing that it's using all it can. But aside from you guys seeming like you didn't bother giving us many options to work with on your part, I'll just pin the rest of this on Lenovo. Thank you for the reply, and sorry for the bitter tone.

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idata
Employee
518 Views

Shawn, not sure if this will work but it might be worth checking out. I updated my drivers to the latest ones (15.28.12.64.2932 (9.17.10.2932)) but found that I was getting random "lag spikes" when running around. Everything would be running smoothly then for about 2 - 3 seconds every now and then my character would jerk (for lack of better words) and stutter around a bit. Wasnt sure what the problem was but just assumed it was to do with the new drivers.

I rolled back my drivers to a very VERY old version (8.15.10.2266) and everything seems to be find now. Also, when I rolled my drivers back, if I right click on my desktop and goto Graphic Properties then the 3D tab, there is an option for "Vertex Processing" which I can now turn onto "Enable Software Processing".

Its weird cause as far as Im aware (unless I'm horribly mistaken), this Vertex Processing option is not available with the newer drivers yet is available with the older versions? Also not 100% sure what it exactly means by "software processing" but again I'm assuming it has something to do with the RAM usage. 8.15.10.2266 are however really old drivers and at the moment I'm trying to find (x.xx.xx.2696) drivers as I believe these drivers might be the last ones that had the "Vertex Processing" option available. It is however tricky finding out Intel drivers for some reason.

Just thought I'd put it out there as it might be something worth looking into (so I hope)

Thanks

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