nvidia geforce - What is the "real" memory of my display graphics card?

08
2014-07

Mozan Sykol

I purchased a desktop two years back asking the vendor to install a "1 GB" graphics card. The card which is installed in my system is Nvidia 9400 GT, and the NVIDIA website provides the following technical specifications:

Memory Specs -> Standard Memory Config = 512MB

The DirectX diagnostics (dxdiag) give the following details:

      Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
   Manufacturer: NVIDIA
      Chip type: GeForce 9400 GT
       DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
     Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0641&SUBSYS_40091682&REV_A1
 Display Memory: 1775 MB

Dedicated Memory: 1009 MB Shared Memory: 765 MB

I am pretty confused now as to what the "real" memory is - is it 1GB? 512MB? Does the words "Integrated RAMDAC" mean the display shares memory with the RAM and the total is 1GB?

Can someone please help explain this?

Answers

bamboon

download this Tool GPU-Z and run it. It will read all the data of your GPU and show you your memory.

enter image description here

Iain Simpson

The way I see it : Dedicated Memory: 1009 MB - this is the onboard memory on the video card itself Shared Memory: 765 MB - This is system memory (plugged into motherboard) the card can use along with its own dedicated onboard ram.

Related Question

troubleshooting - GeForce 8800GT not even giving basic output

troubleshooting graphics-card nvidia-geforce

Samwho

My Dad bought a GeForce 8800GT graphics card quite a long time ago now. It has never worked in his PC.

Print out from a dxdiag:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/13/2010, 19:52:40
Machine name: USER-PC   
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.091208-0542)           
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.       
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.               
BIOS: Default System BIOS          
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6600  @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz             
Memory: 2046MB RAM          
Page File: 1045MB used, 3296MB available        
Windows Dir: C:\Windows    
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found     
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
      Display Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO     
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.       
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x94C3)         
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)       
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C3&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00   
Display Memory: 1012 MB 
Dedicated Memory: 245 MB    
Shared Memory: 767 MB     
Current Mode: 1280 x 960 (32 bit) (75Hz)          
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor      
Driver Name: atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.dat,atitmmxx.dll   
Driver Version: 7.14.0010.0523 (English)      
DDI Version: 10
Driver Attributes: Final Retail 
Driver Date/Size: 8/22/2007 02:43:14, 3021312 bytes

That info is from the current card that is installed in it and has been installed since its purchase roughly 3-4 years ago.

When I physically install the card I put it into a purple slot on the motherboard that the old card was in (if I go into the device manager and select properties on the current card it confirms that the slot is a "PCI Slot 16 (PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0)") and boot up the computer but get absolutely no output. The screen that we have registers that it is connected to something (by not displaying the screen it does when the cable is unplugged) but just remains blank, no output at all.

I recently took the card to my University and one of my friends who is better with hardware issues than I am tried it in his system and it worked perfectly. No issues whatsoever. I do not have a spec list for his system but I could get one if you need it.

If you need any more information on this issue I will be happy to supply you with it as I am starting to get very annoyed with this problem.