Is 1GB video Ram too much?

[jackcnd 0]

The up coming GTX 280 nVidia card sounds promising for FSX:512 bit memory bus, 2x the 9800gtx and 8800GT240 stream processors1GB of Video memoryand the fastest GPU everI recall someone saying the more video memory on the card the less memory available to the system, is 1GB of video memory too muchor is this the card FSX was designed for?

[Guest jimcooper1]

Not a problem if you're using a 64-bit system.However if you're using a 32-bit system (Vista or XP) then the amount of Address Space is limited to 4GB. Therefore your Video Card will immediately grab 1 GB of Address Space. Your Operating System and peripherals will take less than 1 GB so you'll still have over 2GB of Address Space left for RAM. So with a 32-bit OS there's not much point installing more than 2GB RAM. I run FSX very well with XP and 2GB RAMEither way 1GB VRAM is not too much.RegardsJim

[jackcnd 0]

>Not a problem if you're using a 64-bit system.>>However if you're using a 32-bit system (Vista or XP) then the>amount of Address Space is limited to 4GB. Therefore your>Video Card will immediately grab 1 GB of Address Space. Your>Operating System and peripherals will take less than 1 GB so>you'll still have over 2GB of Address Space left for RAM. >>So with a 32-bit OS there's not much point installing more>than 2GB RAM. I run FSX very well with XP and 2GB RAM>>Either way 1GB VRAM is not too much.>>Regards>>JimJim , not clear on your post?Its seems installing 4GB in a 32bit OS would be the ideal, as opposed to the 2GB you mentioned?

[Guest jimcooper1]

Jim , not clear on your post?Its seems installing 4GB in a 32bit OS would be the ideal, as opposed to the 2GB you mentioned?No if you installed 4GB of RAM the Operating System could not use it all, because each byte of RAM has to be assigned an address, and a 32-bit OS only has 4GB of addresses to assign. Those addresses have to shared out between RAM, VRAM and all the devices inside and attached to the PC. RegardsJim

[Guest D17S]

With a 32 bit setup, the op system will split up 4 gigs of Vram (address space is a good term) with 2 gigs for the program and 2 gigs for the op system. The OOM (out of memory) problem occurs when the program tells the 32 bit controller it 'thinks' it is going to need more than the op system's 2 gig allocation. As soon as the 32 bit controller gets this request (for the program's projected needs) it crashes the program with an OOM message. At the OOM crash event, the program might have Actually only been using 1K of ram. Physical ram is loading logic is completely independently from this virtual ram-need forecasting system. The Vcard uses this 2G program allocation space too. This is all part of what the program is Projecting it will need. These players are complete idiots. First, they pay No Attention to the amount of physical ram that is installed in the system. This Virtual drill has nothing to do with the amount of Physical ram that is Actually installed . . . or even in use. Also, it seems they have no idea they only have a 2G virtual playground. There's no throttling, no max (post-limit) presets . . no nottin'. Those morons just ram the wall, full speed and crash with an OOM message.The concern is that if the program sees it has 1G of Vmemory to use, it will go into party-mode and send huge projected usage assumptions to the 32 bit controller. If this request goes over 2G, the program will crash with the OOM message. There's a way to swap another gig from the op system's corral to the program's party house, but that's not going to be enough (the "3-gig switch"). This is why we need to go to 64 bit op systems. The 64 bit op system expands this virtual playground exponentially. I'm guessing this 1G Vcard is going to play havoc with any 32 bit system. Remember, it will Not matter how much physical ram a user has installed. It will Not matter.