Graphics ram and system ram

Solidsnake07

Distinguished
Aug 25, 2013
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0
18,640
Hi all

I wanna be sure that the 3gb (DDR5) of ram on my graphics card is purely for gaming only. The other 16gb (DDR3) system ram is used for other programs/functions and if needed i wanna allow my graphics card to access the system ram for extra support in gaming if ever needed.

How can i be sure of or change my system settings to match what i want?
Does the mixture of DDR5 ram and DDR3 ram cause any major problems and if yes
should i also change my system ram to DDR5?

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
xxxxx
Total amount of system memory 16.0 GB RAM
Windows 7 Home premium
System type 64-bit operating system

Display adapter type AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series (7970)
Total available graphics memory 10987 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 3072 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 7915 MB
Display adapter driver version 13.152.0.0
DirectX 10&11
TOSHIBA-TV 40inch (1920x1080@60Hz)

SYSTEM RAM
Memory slots
Total memory slots 4
Used memory slots 2
Free memory slots 2
Memory
Type DDR3
Size 16384 MBytes
Channels # Dual
DRAM Frequency 800.8 MHz
CAS# Latency (CL) 11 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 11 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 11 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 28 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T
Physical Memory
Memory Usage 21 %
Total Physical 16 GB
Available Physical 13 GB
Total Virtual 32 GB
Available Virtual 27 GB
SPD
Number Of SPD Modules 2
Slot #1
Slot #2

Graphics Card more info

Manufacturer ATI
Model AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
Device ID 1002-6798
Subvendor ATI AIB (1787)
Current Performance Level Level 0
Voltage 0.850 V
GPU Clock 925.0 MHz
Temperature 31 °C
Core Voltage 0.850 V
Bios Core Clock 500.00
Bios Mem Clock 150.00
Driver version 13.152.0.0
Memory Type GDDR5
Memory 3072 MB
Bandwidth 264.0 GB/s
Count of performance levels : 2
Level 1
GPU Clock 300 MHz
Memory Clock 150 MHz
Level 2
GPU Clock 925 MHz
Memory Clock 1375 MHz
 
Solution
Only the GPU has access to it's RAM, a discreet card is an add-on graphics card, not a built in one. An integrated GPU such as the one on the 3770 can be assigned a specific amount of RAM it has access to although it can only utilize as much as the iGPU can actually use. So any graphics/video processing performed on your discreet card is only utilizing it's onboard vRAM (Video RAM), the system RAM is for the CPU to store data provided from I/O devices, that it needs to access quickly, it is not accessible to your GPU. Also, because even minuscule distances can affect performance, if the GPU tried to access the RAM (which is also 2 "generations" slower) it would affect the performance of the GPU. It would have a similar effect to a...

Solidsnake07

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Aug 25, 2013
86
0
18,640
So the dedicated graphics ram isn't actually dedicated (Dedicated graphics memory 3072 MB ). So to try and understand this a little better, that 3gb of ram will be shared with other applications outside gaming?
And the system ram wont support my gaming at all unless im using a amd apu which i guess is the similar to my Intel Core i7 3770 (cpu)?

Chugot what do you mean by a discreet GPU? Bare with me i know very little about this topic. I thought the gpu ram will dedicate resources to gaming (3d applications) and if needed the pc would draw more ram from the system ram if needed.
What im really trying to point a stick at is i wanna try and use as much of that gpu ram while playing games. I guess the gpu ram been used outside of gaming isnt a issue as long as that ram is used and preferences itself to my games when i play them with system ram for support if needed.
 

chugot9218

Honorable
Only the GPU has access to it's RAM, a discreet card is an add-on graphics card, not a built in one. An integrated GPU such as the one on the 3770 can be assigned a specific amount of RAM it has access to although it can only utilize as much as the iGPU can actually use. So any graphics/video processing performed on your discreet card is only utilizing it's onboard vRAM (Video RAM), the system RAM is for the CPU to store data provided from I/O devices, that it needs to access quickly, it is not accessible to your GPU. Also, because even minuscule distances can affect performance, if the GPU tried to access the RAM (which is also 2 "generations" slower) it would affect the performance of the GPU. It would have a similar effect to a PC needing to use the Page File on an HDD because system RAM is full.
 
Solution

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