Only 64mb video ram with intel GMA

[4nr-]

Hey,

I know that under OS X, the maximum ram allocated to the GMA 950 is 64mb. However, under Windows, it should be up to 224mb depending on the amount of ram you have in your computer. My macbook however, only allocates 64mb to the pgu even though i have 1.25gb installed. I know that you can change this setting in the bios on a regular windows machine, but as I understand, boot camp emulates a BIOS that is not accessable by the user. I know that other macbooks have more vram allocated to the GMA when running Windows. Thus my question is: how can I change this? Also, could it depend on the fact that I have 1gb third party ram and 256 of the standard? The 256 is in the 1st slot. If I switch the ram around might this help?

thanks in advance!

EDIT 15/04:
I know this thread is practically dead, but this information might help people with the same problem.

I decided to install Vista and reformat my boot camp partition to see if it would solve this issue, and another I was having involving some of the valve HL1 mods on steam. After fiddling around with the drivers and other stuff (pre-Vista support boot camp), Aero eye candy ran really smoothly, and on top of that it solved my issue. Now I have about 90mb ram allocated to the GMA950 when surfing and carrying out other lightweight processes. You can imagine how happy I was. However, the effect this increase in vram did not prove itself to be as I expected. Whereas I was pretty stable at 55-60 fps (after setting max_fps to 60) in cs 1.6 in XP, in Vista, fps fluctuates a lot. When looking at walls I get 100fps, but in firefights I get down to 20-30, when playing the gungame mod with HLDM, I even get down to 4 (FOUR!) fps.

Thought this information might be useful for somebody else. If you, like me, are looking for an increase in gaming performance by installing Vista, don't do it at this stage.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Everything I've ever heard indicates that 64MB is a limit imposed by Apple and not adjustable. I hope that changes with the next-gen integrated GPU, but as far as I know right now those of you with the GMA are out of luck.

 

[4nr-]

Everything I've ever heard indicates that 64MB is a limit imposed by Apple and not adjustable. I hope that changes with the next-gen integrated GPU, but as far as I know right now those of you with the GMA are out of luck.

As I understand it, that is under OS X. Under Windows, it should be up to 224mb.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Ah, you mean in Windows on the MacBook?

I was under the impression that both Vista and XP dynamically allocate memory for the GPU, so you don't have to manually raise the limit. But I've never checked firsthand (I still live in the PPC world).

 

[CanadaRAM]

Question: Why does it matter?
Are you using a program that specifically requires more than 64 Mb VRAM?

 

[localoid]

As I understand it, that is under OS X. Under Windows, it should be up to 224mb.

If you check with IOReg, the GMA950 is shown configured with a 256MB aperture on Macs....

Yes, I know that many claim the GMA 950s on the Apple machine are "locked" to using 64MB, however Apple says otherwise...

"Mac OS X may make additional main memory available to the graphics processor for texture use beyond the base 80 MB amount mentioned above, depending on the application being used."

 

[4nr-]

Ah, you mean in Windows on the MacBook?

I was under the impression that both Vista and XP dynamically allocate memory for the GPU, so you don't have to manually raise the limit. But I've never checked firsthand (I still live in the PPC world).

Exactly, that's why I'm left wondering why I'm stuck with 64mb whereas others have up to 224 even though I have just as much ram. (- I am referring to other macs here (mini & macbook))

Question: Why does it matter?
Are you using a program that specifically requires more than 64 Mb VRAM?

No, but it should enhance the performance of the games I occasionally play on my macbook like call of duty and cs 1.6.

 

[gnasher729]

Hey,

I know that under OS X, the maximum ram allocated to the GMA 950 is 64mb. However, under Windows, it should be up to 224mb depending on the amount of ram you have in your computer. My macbook however, only allocates 64mb to the pgu even though i have 1.25gb installed. I know that you can change this setting in the bios on a regular windows machine, but as I understand, boot camp emulates a BIOS that is not accessable by the user. I know that other macbooks have more vram allocated to the GMA when running Windows. Thus my question is: how can I change this? Also, could it depend on the fact that I have 1gb third party ram and 256 of the standard? The 256 is in the 1st slot. If I switch the ram around might this help?

thanks in advance!

Ask yourself: How does it matter? It doesn't. The memory allocated to the graphics is not video memory, it is still main memory. The only difference is that the computer will not touch it for other purposes. This is not like the difference between a 64 and a 256 MB NVidia or ATI card. These cards have video memory connect to the GPU via an extremely wide, extremely fast bus, while main memory is much slower. Having four times as much super fast memory helps. With integrated graphics, having four times as much bog standard memory reserved for the graphics doesn't make much difference at all.

 

[4nr-]

If you check with IOReg, the GMA950 is shown configured with a 256MB aperture on Macs....

Yes, I know that many claim the GMA 950s on the Apple machine are "locked" to using 64MB, however Apple says otherwise...

"Mac OS X may make additional main memory available to the graphics processor for texture use beyond the base 80 MB amount mentioned above, depending on the application being used."

Thank you for that information and especially the link.

If you upgrade the memory in your Mac, make sure you have matching size SO-DIMMs (both in terms of memory size and in speed) in each slot for best graphics performance.

That probably answers my question as it suggests that I need another 1gb that matches my other gb in order for both os x and xp to allocate more than 64mb vram to my macbook's gma gpu.

Thank you

 

[MRU]

windows dynamically adjusts the ram to the gma950

 

[localoid]

...That probably answers my question as it suggests that I need another 1gb that matches my other gb in order for both os x and xp to allocate more than 64mb vram to my macbook's gma gpu. ...

Worrying about this may be pointless... I really suspect both OSX and Windows can make use of Intel's "Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT)" to change the RAM useage "on the fly."

What shows up in OSX's "About this Mac" etc. is likely the *minimum* assigned for use by the GMA. Like I said, I suspect OSX will dynamically allocated more RAM as required, etc. much like Windows does. IN short, what most see in OSX under "system info" probably isn't the "whole story" as far as RAM allocation goes...

Why don't you try running SiSoft Sandra under Windows and see what it reports for graphic use? It would be interesting to see what it shows...

 

[4nr-]

Worrying about this may be pointless... I really suspect both OSX and Windows can make use of Intel's "Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT)" to change the RAM useage "on the fly."

What shows up in OSX's "About this Mac" etc. is likely the *minimum* assigned for use by the GMA. Like I said, I suspect OSX will dynamically allocated more RAM as required, etc. much like Windows does. IN short, what most see in OSX under "system info" probably isn't the "whole story" as far as RAM allocation goes...

Why don't you try running SiSoft Sandra under Windows and see what it reports for graphic use? It would be interesting to see what it shows...

I did run sisoft sandra, as well as dxdiag and the intel drivers tool, and all of them show minimum 16mb and maximum 64mb. Even when I am running graphics intense applications like the games I mentioned before, it still reports this.

 

[localoid]

In Windows, using Sandra, under Display and Display Adapters, for Video Adapter, what's Sandra show as Total Memory?

In OSX, using Terminal, running the following command returns what?

ioreg -l | grep IOFBMemorySize

 

[localoid]

Here's another one to try, to see what is reported:

Video Hardware Info from Apple's Developers Connection -- more info on this page and on another page about the question: How do I determine how much VRAM is available on my video card?

 

[solarshd]

yes u can increase vram, i did it on mine

In Windows, using Sandra, under Display and Display Adapters, for Video Adapter, what's Sandra show as Total Memory?

In OSX, using Terminal, running the following command returns what?

ioreg -l | grep IOFBMemorySize

ACtually, you can increase vram on a mac via terminal. I used these codes to do mine and now i can play COD4 on my mac without any lag or it quitting on me. Type these codes into terminal. It might ask for your password though:

$cd /usr/lib
$sudo cp libcrypto.0.9.dylib libcrypto.0.9.dylib.old
$sudo cp libssl.0.9.dylib libssl.0.9.dylib.old
$sudo ln -sf libcrypto.0.9.7.dylib libcrypto.0.9.dylib
$sudo ln -sf libssl.0.9.7.dylib libssl.0.9.dylib

Dont copy the dollar signs, they just mean you have to press enter and its a new line there. after your done, reboot your computer and voila! ur done!

Do this at your own risk, if you mess up, your computer is pretty much screwed. These codes take away the barrier that allocates only 64 mb of vram for the mac and increases it to some amount. i forgot. so try it ppl and tell me how it goes!

Good luck!

 

[ayeying]

ACtually, you can increase vram on a mac via terminal. I used these codes to do mine and now i can play COD4 on my mac without any lag or it quitting on me. Type these codes into terminal. It might ask for your password though:

$cd /usr/lib
$sudo cp libcrypto.0.9.dylib libcrypto.0.9.dylib.old
$sudo cp libssl.0.9.dylib libssl.0.9.dylib.old
$sudo ln -sf libcrypto.0.9.7.dylib libcrypto.0.9.dylib
$sudo ln -sf libssl.0.9.7.dylib libssl.0.9.dylib

Dont copy the dollar signs, they just mean you have to press enter and its a new line there. after your done, reboot your computer and voila! ur done!

Do this at your own risk, if you mess up, your computer is pretty much screwed. These codes take away the barrier that allocates only 64 mb of vram for the mac and increases it to some amount. i forgot. so try it ppl and tell me how it goes!

Good luck!

last time i checked, more ram =/= more performance

 

[solarshd]

last time i checked, more ram =/= more performance

it does...............thats y i can play cod4 on my mac now. before i couldnt.

 

[solarshd]

last time i checked, more ram =/= more performance

so did it work for anyone??!?!?!??!

 

[SpaceMagic]

I think things have changed.

I just installed 2x2GB in my MacBook which can only address 3.3GB. In an Xbench score my openGL score was way over 300... let's just say OpenGL test on the latest MacPro is like 240. So I wondered what the hell was going on...

Just checked using ioreg -l | grep IOFBMemorySize and it says 256mb allocated!

That's awesome, no? Maybe 10.5.6 changed this??