I read on site dealing with the installation of Linux that it is possible to increase the amount of ram that is being used by the graphics/video card. The graphics card as far as I know has 8meg but this can be increased to 32 meg allegedly. Is this unique to Linux or is there a method of changing it ? Alternatively is it oossible to replace the mother board with one that has a better level of ram?

All help appreciated.

Afaik the amount of video mem used is o/s indepenent - you should be able to change it in the bios settings of the pc. Haven't got a linux box handy to play with but I don't remember seeing anything like that ( mind you i'm a linux newbie anyways!)

It may be a video chip on the mobo. Some of them do have adjustable RAM use. They just lock in a set amount of the system RAM for video. Some Intel chips have that feature, but their may be others. No idea how to adjust it with Linux. Never tried it and can't even run it at the moment. No mouse drivers. I definitely am not an expert with it either. Try a search for Linux forums, there are many to choose from.

Agree with Vipie, that is usually a hardware thing with onboard video, quite often set to 8mb as the default, you just change it in the BIOS. Shame purtie didn't give system specs, possibly worth getting more mem before allocating more to the video.

Purtie - you need to go into your laptop's BIOS to adjust the amount of memory given over to the display device.
Hope that helps!

After some checking, there is some software available to enhance video in Linux, but it won't work with the video chip you have.


BTW: Not all video RAM is bios-controlled. Most Intel chips use a variable software-controlled amount of video RAM. It is adjustable, even in Windows, but it requires some heavy tweaking which I don't remember how to do. They do have Linux drivers available which perform the same function. Does not apply in this case though. Just in a disagreeable mood, I guess.

Thanks for the heads up pollock. Got any links for info about that?

This is the best documentation that Intel has to offer. The amounts vary depending on which chip is involved. The old version of driver for that chip had a variation from 2-11mb. in the software. The manual method of setting it involved editing the driver .ini file, but I don't have one to try it on and my memory isn't working.

Edit: Found this page, too.

I have a 5480DVD and in the BIOS settings you can allocate upto 64Meg to the Graphics card or set as low as 4Meg.