Hypermemory with HD 2600XT 512mb

[chaosinmind]

I purchased a

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131066

... It is a Powercolor Radeon HD 2600XT with 512mb of dedicated memory. People have reported it displaying 1GB of memory on the card instead of 512mb so I did some research. It appears the card uses Hypermemory even though it is not a low end card.

* Does Hypermemory actually "take" your system memory like shared memory? For example. If I have 4GB of DDR2 memory in my computer, will it display 3.5GB in system properties under windows?


* Or, does it just use my memory when needed like other high end graphics cards with dedicated memory.

 

[Tmagic650]

This is a low-end card, and it is the memory buss size (128-bit) that will be the most limiting memory factor... It shouldn't take away from you system memory though

 

[chaosinmind]

the 2600xt is actually a mid range card. It competes with the nvidia 7600gt and 8600gt on many benchmarks and I'm not looking to play Crysis at max settings 1680x1050 resolution. But that is not important and off subject.

Im just concerned because I use this as a development system and don't want any of my ram to me reserved for video memory like integrated video cards do.

 

[Tmagic650]

Ok, I have already said that your systems memory shouldn't be taken by the HD 2600XT... I still say that your video card is a low-end card mainly because of the limiting 128-bit memory buss spec

 

[Tedster]

The speed or type of memory has no bearing on the amount of memory (quantity) that can be addressed by a 32 bit operating system. Windows XP and Vista (both 32 bit versions) can only see up to 4gb. Due to the fact, each OS uses some of the memory - you will only see around 3.5 gb

As far as your graphics card goes, there are different versions of graphics cards as many cards are produced by third party manufacturers. Outsourcing is becoming more and more common with chip production. AMD just announced they will outsource chip production with their split-off company called "The Factory" which will also produce intel chips.

 

[chaosinmind]

The speed or type of memory has no bearing on the amount of memory (quantity) that can be addressed by a 32 bit operating system. Windows XP and Vista (both 32 bit versions) can only see up to 4gb. Due to the fact, each OS uses some of the memory - you will only see around 3.5 gb

When did I say the speed or type of memory has to due to the amount addressed by windows? I planned this system out and purchased Vista64, 4gb of DDR1066 and this video card. I know 32bit processors and operating systems can not address an entire 4gb of memory. At any rate, that has nothing to due with my question..

As far as your graphics card goes, there are different versions of graphics cards as many cards are produced by third party manufacturers. Outsourcing is becoming more and more common with chip production. AMD just announced they will outsource chip production with their split-off company called "The Factory" which will also produce intel chips.

I understand what you are saying here, but I'm not catching the relevance of this to hypermemory being similar to shared memory on integrated graphics or not similar to share memory on integrated graphics.

Tmagic650 - Ok, I have already said that your systems memory shouldn't be taken by the HD 2600XT... I still say that your video card is a low-end card mainly because of the limiting 128-bit memory buss spec

Thanks, and yes, after more research it seems that Hypermemory is a replacement for the AGP Aperture size for the PCI-E bus for ATI products and not a form of shared memory unless for dedicated cards. ALTHOUGH, it is flexible and can be used for shared memory on laptops.