Did I get ripped off or am I confused?

Provide the link to where you configured your laptop.

Generally speaking, the amount of video RAM (VRAM) on a video card is not that important beyond 1GB. That's because laptop resolutions maxes out at 1920x1200 and there are not many laptops with that high of a resolution. Anyway, 1GB of VRAM is enough for that resolution whether we are talking about a laptop or a desktop for the vast majority of games, the only exception that I know of is GTA 4, but that's a poorly coded game.

The amount of video RAM beyond 1GB is like a marketing gimmick because of the "more is better" mentality. I'm guessing your laptop probably has a 1366x768 or 1600x900 screen for which 1GB of VRAM is more than enough.

I learned about this after I made the purchase. However, I wanted to be sure that Even though it was not necessary, I still got what I paid for. I will link it to you in a message.

Sent PM

Not sure if PM went thru but here is the stuff I ordered


1


225-0790


Alienware M14X - Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish
Intel Core i5 2430M 2.4GHz (3.0GHz w/Turbo Boost, 3MB Cache)
6GB Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
14.0 HD (900p/1600x900) WLED backlight display
3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus technology
750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s

That's a decent setup.

Definitely not 3gb of VRAM, but that doesn't matter anyway for this system.

The 555M is a pretty solid mobile card.

I guess the question is how much did you pay for it?

So they charged me for it but didnt get it to me
That was my concen. I got it for just under 1400
I wanted a desktop but i dont have the room for it.

The technology is like a smart version of switchable graphics, as you can see here: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/optimus/tech...

Since the graphics card says it is DR3 it may used shared memory and be able to use up to 3GB with 2GB being from the laptop's memory. Call Alienware and ask them about it.

Did you buy it directly from Alienware/Dell's website?

If so, then contact them. Tell them you configured the laptop with a Geforce GT 555m 3GB, but it came with the 1GB version ($100 difference). I'm guessing your order/sale form that came with the laptop will have that info.

The 1GB version is more than enough for 1600x900 resolution so I suggest you ask them for $100 and related sales tax to be credited back to your credit card. Unless of course you really want the 3GB version. If so then they will likely ask to ship your laptop back to them so that they can ship the correct one to you. You will have to pay for the shipping though.

Okay, I appreciate the information you have all provided for me. I was mostly concerned about whether I actually received what I paid for or not. I was pretty excited to play Crysis 2 on there and have it run nicely.

Seems like they owe me money. I love forums. So many helpful people!

maybe they didn't charged you for it... if they really did yes go complain about it with them, but maybe that was just a writing mistake, 3gb besides 1gb, you must check if the prices match the 1gb version...

well @Jim_L9 is talking about shared memory, i don't think that they could offer a gpu by counting the shared memory value, it is VIDEO RAM only the shared memory size is relative and can't be sold like that.

3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus technology
could be a Writing error maybe, or even a reading problem on the, computer assembly process?

Anywais check if you really paid for 3gb before complaining. just ask them why it is the 1gb version and not the 3gb one.

Just checked this link:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-555M.419...

While 3GB VRAM will be utterly useless, it is the maximum available memory for your VGA. If you paid for it, might as well make them live up to their offer.

Per your advice I will go with the refund seeing as 3 GB is overkill.

Is it suprising this is a Dell issue...

Just so you are aware, dxdiag is known for giving very erroneous vram numbers.

My GTX 680 says I have 4GB's, which don't exist. I've seen a lot of others with errors in that info as well. (both plus and minus what it should have)

Try using GPU-Z for a more accurate number.

Okay, I will try it and post up results.

Clearly I am more ignorant than I thought I was. After running the GPU-Z;
Memory Type DR3
Bandwidth: 192
Memory Size: 3072...
Bandwidth 43.2 GB/s

So I guess they didnt burn me huh...

Cool, good to see that everything is good. I've seen a few people in the past post some weird results from dxdiag when it pertains to vram size.

Well. All is well in my world then. Guess Ill go read on how to overclock it lol.

I'd advice against it. It gets hot fast in a laptop.

Guess, I will go read up on fun, non-damaging things to do with the processor and gpu...

lol

Uhh.. gaming?

I actually OC'ed my mbp (which tends to get hot as it is all alluminium), increased core by 200 and memory by 150 with 0.455 less voltage....

Result: temperatures lower than without the overclock and +10-15 fps's!  

yes, laptops aren't made for overclocking, you will probably toast it, go play the game with your specs you will see that the temps will be already very high, so something a cool thing to do with laptops cpu/gpu is DOWNCLOCKING, speacially on hot days... it could help sometimes.

DxDiag(x86) gives inaccurate results on x64 bit machines unless you use the x64 bit mode of DxDiag because otherwise it can only access up to 4 gigs of total system memory with the video card combined and not the full 3 gigs the card should have.

Even the x64 version gives erroneous results. Mine says I have 4gb of vram, but I don't have a 4gb card.

With what you said in the OP question you are not with the full 3GB possiable but you are able to configure it up to there as at the posting you have only 2GB with the ability to get 3GB if nessary giving your system the other 1GB for system RAM instead of VRAM for the chip. It also seems like you have a power saving model of a computer which switches between chips depending on load and demand thus why both the nVidia Mobile card and the Intel chip. Both with 1GB which is enough to deal with whatever res you want to play at on a laptop anyways
pretaining to DxDaig it is due to your lack of looking at and understanding all the results as it might be listed mutliple times or listing differnet cards and/or chips inside of the computer and so DxDaig is a confusing but not so error prone way to get the specs of your computer in that CPU-Z is easier to understand but doesnt tell as much about the same things as DxDaig does due to lack of a audio portion which DxDaig covers but the rest CPU-Z is the better choice to go with unless you are able to understand the results in the format which DxDiag gives which is confusing if you are with a multiple GPU configuration in that a chip and a card solution is what is the most confusing to read on DxDiag (x86) and (x64) versions.

I specifically was talking about the vram results on dxdiag. The vram results specifically say "Approx. Total Memory: 4043MB". Dxdiag is saying it's not accurate in it's own results.

I have a single GTX680 2GB card. I do not have two cards. It is not adding up multiple cards to get that number. When I had my two 470's in, it said I have 6GB's of ram if I'm not mistaken. With some other 6950 setup, it had some other reading that was wrong. I believe with the 6950 2GB it showed having 1.8GB or something like that.

Maybe I don't understand it, but I'm more likely to assume that since it uses the word "Approximate", that the vram reading isn't accurate.

Its SHARED RAM, it's a cheap marketing ploy.

1GB Dedicated.

1GB GFX + 2GB Sys RAM = 3GB psudo GFX RAM.

They have nothing wrong, aside from a cheap marketting ploy, read your T&C's, it will say 3GB SHARED RAM.

Shared RAM:
You can't utilize shared RAM in a video game. I'm not even sure if software exists to let you do it anyway since the bottleneck would defeat the purpose of using it.

*Game Video RAM usage:
FYI, I started testing several games out of curiosity. These numbers are accurate and reflect an HD5870 (max 1024MB) which is still a fairly good card.

So here's the MAX ram I could use and the settings (textures and AA affect amount of VRAM needed):

System specs:
- i7-860 @ 3.6GHz, HT enabled
- 8GB 1600MHz DDR3
- HD5870 @875MHz, 1024MB VRAM

Torchlight
(2560x1440, max settings)
264MBytes

Batman AC
(1600x900, no DX11, no physx, max everything else)
590MB VRAM
*severe FPS drop/stutter when gliding in city

Kingdoms of Amalur - Reckoning:
(1920x1080, max settings)
512MB VRAM

Paradise City
(1920x1080, 8xAA, max, no motion blur or SSAO)
560MB VRAM (retry and drive around MORE. may buffer MORE.)

Crysis
(1920x1080, 4xAA, HIGH, VSYNC @60FPS)
895MB VRAM

(1920x1080, 8xAA, VERY HIGH)
972MB VRAM

Fallout NV
(1920x1080, 4xAA, 4xAF, mostly MAX, VSYNC)
730MB VRAM

Newer games are more likely to use more vram. For example, I just tested Crysis 2, and it was using 1.6 GB of video memory.

yes the resolution is also a big factor, higher resolutions requires more VRAM...