Shared system memmory

[Arnagath]

I was just wondering, I have been running a system now with the specs shows below for quite some time. And I noticed I have shared graphics memory activated. Resulting in a total of 2 Gigs of memory for the graphics card. Could this potentially reduce system performance?? or shall I keep it as it is??
The reason I ask is because I noticed that a few of my friends with gfx cards around the 2900XT area of performance are performing better then my system in some games like GTA4 and crysis. Which gets me pissed off even though I don't play those games.

Vista 64
8800 GTS G92 OC
4048 MB DDR800
Phenom 9600BE OC
M3A32-MVP Deluxe

 

[jennyh]

It depends on what 8800gts you have. A 2900XT is about the same as a 640 mb, slightly worse than a 512 mb and a bit better than a 320 mb 8800gts. Dont' you just love Nvidia?

 

[Arnagath]

Its a G92 ergo a 512Mb version. So I am quite sure it should perform a better than a 2900XT in most games.

 

[jennyh]

It should be yes. There are plenty of other factors that could swing it around though. The 2900XT isn't a bad card, add a faster cpu, lower screen resolution, settings a bit lower (shadows especially), maybe they are using Fusion for Gaming which can help in some games...

Can you be more specific on their systems? The 9600 BE isn't exactly a stellar cpu so that might be holding you back a little bit.

I read somewhere that ATI's did better on GTA4 also, but I'd never have expected a 2900XT to beat an 8800gts 512 in Crysis under any circumstances.

 

[coozie7]

@ arnagath; Perhaps, but not by that much:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-gtx-radeon,review-31515-6.html

I`d turn off the shared memory and see what happens.

 

[Arnagath]

Well, my friend I was comparing with has a AMD X2 6000+. I am getting a new processor as soon as the Phenom II 955 is released. I am using AMD fusion for gaming and my friend is not. I'll try to turn off the shared memory though, just hoped somebody would know for sure if it gave any performance gains.

 

[jennyh]

How can you be using Fusion for gaming with an 8800gts? It's supposed to be for AMD/ATI chips only.

 

[Arnagath]

Fusion for gaming works as long as you have a AMD cpu and chipset, it does not however overclock the graphics card unless you have an AMD one. However the overclocking features I do not use as this I like to do myself anyway.

 

[jennyh]

Ah ok, good to know. I cant use it because I have a q6600, thanks.

 

[Arnagath]

I checked the bios and there is no option for turning of shared memory. I'll try downloading a new bios though