Intel 810e Video Graphics

[mrc73]

Does anyone know if there is a way to change the video memory allocation size on an intel 810e motherboard with onboard graphics? I know this is a crappy chipset, but one particular game requires 16MB memory, and I thought there was a way to change it, I just can't remember how. I did a search on google and found nothing. Thanks in advance.

 

[DClark]

The Intel 810 uses the system memory (it doesn't have its own memory). According to Intel, the 810 graphics chipset can be allocated up to 32mb of memory, but it's dynamic so it can't be manually adjusted.

On the Intel website it says "The Intel® 810/815 chipset families will dynamically allocate video memory up to 32 MB with the PV 6.x graphics drivers". You can download the latest intel graphics drivers from here. Just choose your OS and click Go. Hopefully the drivers will allocate 16mb from startup, allowing you to play the game you want to play.

 

[AndyHui]

The i810 has a fixed frame buffer allocated from system RAM, either 1MB or 4MB in size. This is usually adjustable in the BIOS.

It is also a strict implementation of the AGP spec with no texture memory: it all comes straight from the system RAM's AGP Aperture, up to 32MB in size as DClark says.

 

[Peter]

not quite ... the i810 implements what looks like an AGP VGA with no memory of its own, everything borrowed dynamically from system RAM. On top of that, there's a constant 1 MByte set aside to emulate a minimal set of legacy text and graphics modes, for use in operating systems that don't have native drivers for the i810, and of course during the initial boot phase.

That 1 MB cannot be increased ... but that doesn't matter anymore once you have native drivers running. Then, it'll borrow as much as it needs anyway. Limits do exist however - memory bandwidth and pixel clock ceiling are limiting the thing to low color depth and resolution.

If a game is silly enough to insist on a certain amount of graphics card local memory, then you're busted. Games aren't supposed to do that at all, since the "borrow system memory when there's not enough graphics card memory" is the whole idea behind the AGP concept.

 

[kurt454]

Originally posted by: mrc73
Does anyone know if there is a way to change the video memory allocation size on an intel 810e motherboard with onboard graphics? I know this is a crappy chipset, but one particular game requires 16MB memory, and I thought there was a way to change it, I just can't remember how. I did a search on google and found nothing. Thanks in advance.

If you can swing the cash, a cheap pci video card will give a considerable boost. My brother had an i810 machine. We swapped in an old Voodoo 3 pci card. Games ran much better than the onboard graphics.