How to Increase Dedicated Video RAM
What Is Dedicated Video RAM?
The computer Video RAM is a special type of RAM that works together with your computer’s graphics processing unit, usually shortened to as GPU.
The GPU is simply a chip that is on your computer’s graphics card (or video card) which is responsible for showing images on your screen. Though technically not correct, the terms GPU and graphics card are mostly used interchangeably.
How to Check Your VRAM
You can easily change the amount of video RAM that you have in your Windows 10 by following these steps below:
1. Open up the Settings menu by pressing Windows Key + I.
2. Click on the System entry, then select and click on Display which is on the left sidebar.
3. Scroll down and select the Advanced display settings option.
4. On the menu that proceeds, click on the monitor that you would like to view settings for. Then click on the Display adapter properties text which is at the bottom.
5. In a new window, you will see your current video RAM being listed next to the Dedicated Video Memory.
Under the Adapter Type, you will see the name of your Nvidia or AMD graphics card chip, depending on what device you have. If you can view AMD Accelerated Processing Unit or an Intel HD Graphics (this is a more likely option), then, you are using integrated graphics.
How to Increase VRAM
The best way to increase your video RAM is to buy a graphics card. If you are using an integrated graphics chip and suffer from poor performance, upgrading your card to a dedicated card will do wonders for your video output.
However, if this is not an option for you, you might also be able to increase your dedicated VRAM in two ways.
The first way is by adjusting the VRAM memory allocation in your computer’s BIOS. Enter your BIOS and look around for an option in the menu which is named Advanced Features, Advanced Chipset Features, or the like. Inside that, look for a secondary category which is usually named something close to Graphics Settings, VGA Share Memory Size or Video Settings, .
These should contain an option that allows you to adjust how much memory you allocate to the GPU. The default is mostly 128MB; try taking it up to 256MB or 512MB if you have enough space to to spare.
Not every CPU or BIOS has this option in it, though. If you cannot change it, there is a workaround that might help you to change it.
Faking a VRAM Increase
Because most of the integrated graphics solutions automatically adjust themself to use the amount of system RAM that they require, the details that are reported in the Adapter Properties window do not really matter. In fact, for most integrated graphics, the Dedicated Video Memory value is totally fictitious. The system returns that dummy values simply so that games would see something when they check how much VRAM you have.
Therefore, you can edit a Registry value to change the amount VRAM that your system reports to those applications. This does not actually increase your VRAM; it just changes that dummy value.
Open up the Windows Registry Editor window by typing 'regedit' into the Start Menu.
Go over to the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Intel
Right-click on the Intel folder that is in the left sidebar and choose New > Key. Name this key an 'GMM'. Once you have made it, choose the new GMM folder that is on the left and right-click inside the right side.
Choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this DedicatedSegmentSize and give it a value, ensure that you select the Decimal option. In megabytes, the minimum value is usually 0 and the maximum is 512. Set this value, reboot your computer, and see if it helps a game run.
