Shared RAM

[Pedro Fernandes Macedo]

Mark Panen wrote:

>Hi
>
>How does this shared RAM story work. My laptop specs state that i have
>512 MB RAM but free only shows about 448, ok so i know 64 is going to
>the vga card.
>
>What my question is, have i got 512 installed or do i have 448
>installed and a 64 MB vga card, maybe i should answer my own quesion
>as i don't think you get 448 MB RAM.
>
>I just don't understand why free shows up 448  and not 512 ? Is the
>vga chip taking the RAM away on boot ?
>  
>
You have a total of 512MB of RAM. To save money easily , the 
manufacturer of your laptop decided
that he wouldnt put dedicated memory for the VGA, so he set it up to use 
part of the main system memory as
the VGA memory. Call them cheap bastards if you want ;)
After booting , the BIOS reserves the ammount of memory according to the 
value set on BIOS and reports the RAM
to be 512MB minus the part reserved for the VGA card , hence the value 
of 448MB shown on free...

If you want , usually you can change this config on the BIOS from 32 MB 
up to 128MB (I think.. It's been awhile
since I last used a computer with onboard video)

--
Pedro Macedo