| The type and speed of
memory used in the video card play an important role in the card's
performance. Faster technologies mean improved performance in two
ways. First, the card itself is faster when the memory is faster,
leading to better performance overall for the PC. Second, better
memory means higher memory bandwidth, leading to support for higher
resolution and color depths, and better refresh rates.
The size of video memory on the video card has, for the
most part, not much impact on video card speed. There are a couple of
exceptions: one is the slowdown with 64-bit cards that use 1 MB of
video memory. Another is the fact that 3D accelerators often have
better performance when given more memory to use for intermediate
calculations. Otherwise, increasing the memory size gives you more
resolution and color depth options, but no increase in overall speed
The figure below are rounded up
XGA
Resolution is 1024X768
1024X768 at 256 colors (8 Bit)
787KB
1024X768 @ High Color (16 Bit) 1.58MB
1024X768 @ True Color (32 Bit) 3.2MB
SXGA+
is 1400X1050
1400X1050 @ 256 Colors 184KB
1400X1050 @ High Color 3MB
1400X1050 @ True Color 6MB
UXGA is 1600X1200
1600X1200 @ 256 Colors (8 Bit) 240KB
1600X1200 @ High Color (16 Bit)
4MB
1600X1200 @ True Color (32 Bit) 8MB
Note: 32 bit is usually not needed since you cannot print at this high
of color. High Color is the best choice
So as you can see, having a huge
amount of video RAM has no benefit whatsoever.
A little known fact is that even if
your dedicated video RAM card is short the amount needed to generate
your color/resolution combination, it will make up the difference by
sharing with your system RAM
© PCGuide.com HardwareCentral - Tutorials - Video Memory - Introduction
... More video memory DOES NOT speed up the video system on the card ... Obviously, though,
most users do not deal with low memory amounts such ... Next: Types of Video RAM ... How Much Video RAM Do You Really Need
Sarasota PC Monitor. How Much Video RAM Do You Really Need? by Vinny ... better.
Does that apply to video RAM as well? Not necessarily. Screen ...
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