945GM chipset SBIOS access.

[joe11]

Hi

According to http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/whitepaper/307508.pdf my incredible 945GM has the option to have FIXED MEMORY so i can getgreaterq then 8Mb of Pre-Allocated Memory ~32Mb for god's sake i've been looking everywhere, the manual says that 945GM with intel 950GMA has 128 memory so WHY is it using only 8Mb that makes no sense! plus does it have a PCI-E x16? Toshiba A100-TA6 model.

thanks

[joe11]

bump

[7oby]

It is using up to 224MB anyway:
http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/whitepaper/307508.pdf

You might also want to read section "Dynamic Video Memory" here
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-gma-3000-and-x3000-developers-guide
to find out about some differences between XP and Vista in this respect.

Last but not least read this document by microsoft to see how you find out the actual used memory in Vista:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/c/5/9c5b2167-8017-4bae-9fde-d599bac8184a/GraphicsMemory.doc

I don't know about XP, but you may also display current memory usage using the igfxcfg tool that is installed in the taskbar:

[joe11]

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/7148/oktr4.png

look..and what you linked above is supposed to...?

[joe11]

anyone? please

[7oby]

joe11:

intel 950GMA has 128 memory so WHY is it using only 8Mb that makes no sense!

You didn't have a look a single document I posted:

. it makes perfectly sense that Windows XP (that you are using according to the screen dump) uses only 10MB of memory, when having the desktop displayed. This way the memory can be used by Windows itself and is not lost.

. Open a 3D application such as the free GoogleEarth and the "Memory currently in used" should go up. It says already in the same screenshot you provided that it will go up to 128MB.

[joe11]

Sorry misundertanding.. Whats about the PCIEx16 i read that 950GMA can be upgraded!?!

[7oby]

joe11:

Sorry misundertanding.. Whats about the PCIEx16 i read that 950GMA can be upgraded!?! Toshiba A100-TA6 model.

Graphics in notebooks in general can not be upgraded. There are just very few exceptions like the gamer notebook Dell XPS M1730.

External USB-/Expresscard docking stations sometimes also feature graphics cards, however those are in general slower than the one you have.

If your intention is to get faster 3D performance, there is no other way than buying a new laptop.