Can you help with video card memory question?

[jasonpf1123]

hello there i have a evga gts 450 which is 1gb. when i test to see if i can run a video game it says i have 2.7 video ram. my question is where does it get that extra 1.7 of ram and is there any way to stop it and give me back the extra system ram its using. thank you for your help.

athlon x2 5400 2.8
gts 450 1gb
4gb ram

 

[purple stain]

VRAM and RAM basicly serve the same purpose,to hold random data for fast access.Windows use's the extra RAM that the system doesn't use and makes use of it with the GPU.It's actually a good thing because it offers a little performance boost when gaming.It's more like virtual memory because it can be used for the GPU but if your doing something that the system requires more RAM useage then it won't be used with the GPU instead with the System.