Where have all the memory gone/looking for a new laptop soon

[donyd]

I've been going through a few models and configurations for the past several months, while I get the necessary funds together to purchase a laptop.

My focus was on the mid range laptops somewhere between 500-700 baseline price. There used to be a few with the option of getting up to 2 GB of video ram. Now only the top end model seems to offer anything more than 1 GB.

The top end would be most definitely out of my price range. Is it possible to get more than 1 GB video memory on the 15.6" Optimus III or the 15.6" Vortex III LE. Would the configuration options change again or is it something that's been set by the component design restrictions?

 

[M3zxu]

I think you might be mixing up real VRAM and shared VRAM. Sure, even Intel's HD series integrated can have your 2GBs of shared VRAM, doesn't make it any stronger tho.

When you are looking at those values, you also have to consider what kind of memory is inside that specific card. For example for Nvidia GT650M that's inside Optimus III we are talking about GDDR5 memory. That memory is "rather expensive" compared to the older VRAM types, GDDR3 and GDDR2 - let alone DDR3&DDR2 so companies are putting in the amount that the card can theoretically use (won't happen in many real life scenarios).

What you are talking about in the 500-700 bracket is the typical marketing trick of having a rather weak GPU and slam in 2GBs of low bandwith GDDR2. The card will never be able to use it but heck, it sounds so awesome to have that much VRAM. (While having 1 gig of GDDR5 would multiply the bandwith)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html

That's GT650M, you can use the table on the right hand side of the page as a guide as to what is the order in terms of computing power of current and past mobile GPUs.

 

[donyd]

Thanks for the reply M3zxu. I wasn't mixing up shared and dedicated VRAM. At this moment I plan to spend a decent amount on a system as it will have to last me for atleast the next 5-6 years, as my current has been my main system since 2005, unless I get in on a veritable cash milling business or job in which case I'll upgrade every 8-12 months.

At this moment I'd want at least 2GB of VRAM, hopefully the higher end Nvidia GT650M in an Optimus III and leave system RAM at around 8GB, which I'll eventually upgrade. I highly doubt I can upgrade VRAM as the last I heard, and that was a good while back, that it's not on laptops.

The 15.6" Vortex III starts off at 1.5GB DDR5 and has options upto 4GB. I'd be happy with 1.5GB to 2GB but on a slightly less expensive system like the Optimus.

So I really wish that PC specialist would bring the option of having higher VRAM in lower priced systems.

ps thanks for the info link.

 

[ahall91]

Thanks for the reply M3zxu. I wasn't mixing up shared and dedicated VRAM. At this moment I plan to spend a decent amount on a system as it will have to last me for atleast the next 5-6 years, as my current has been my main system since 2005, unless I get in on a veritable cash milling business or job in which case I'll upgrade every 8-12 months.

At this moment I'd want at least 2GB of VRAM, hopefully the higher end Nvidia GT650M in an Optimus III and leave system RAM at around 8GB, which I'll eventually upgrade. I highly doubt I can upgrade VRAM as the last I heard, and that was a good while back, that it's not on laptops.

The 15.6" Vortex III starts off at 1.5GB DDR5 and has options upto 4GB. I'd be happy with 1.5GB to 2GB but on a slightly less expensive system like the Optimus.

So I really wish that PC specialist would bring the option of having higher VRAM in lower priced systems.

ps thanks for the info link.

VRAM (Once you get past 1-2GB anyway) on a high-end card becomes meaningless to get higher volume - what you want is the type of VRAM is uses (It will be GDDR3, GDDR4 or GDDR5) basically the higher the number of GDDR(X) it is the better it'll be - what affects the performance of the video card at this point is 99.999% the memory bandwidth, speed and clock speeds of the card etc rather than the sheer amount of RAM - ie 1GB of GDDR5 is going to be much, much better than 2GB of GDDR3, even though there's more of the latter type.

What you're better looking at is the benchmarks of each card you're looking at - try looking on http://www.notebookcheck.net/ for each of the cards you're thinking of getting - they give each of them an overall "score" - this will be far more useful than simply looking at how much VRAM is on the card

 

[M3zxu]

Unless you are going with the higher end cards that vortex III offers - i.e only HD7970M or GTX680M which already take a huge chunk of your budget, the GPU itself won't have enough throughput for 1GB of GDDR5 memory running out. It doesn't have the juice to run multiple screen setup for anything demanding anyways. And multi-screen gaming is almost the only moment where large VRAM will count.

 

[donyd]

Thanks for the info guys, opens up a new perspective and feels a lot less like I'll be compromising. Cheers.

 

[Adli]

you'll be fine with 1GB of DDR5 on the GT 650m. it plays Skyrim on High at 1376x768 without any issues, and on High at 1920x1080 without dropping below 25 FPS.

its more the type of VRAM that is important, not the amount