minimum video memory requirement in xp?

[daveymark]

I'm building a few systems, and the users want "basic" video cards. How low can I go? Some of the motherboards will have onboard video, so I figured since they take 32mb of shared ram, that is what I should look for? The pc's will be used for surfing the net, microsoft office.

 

[Jeff7181]

I've used 4mb with integrated video and everything worked fine.

 

[JammingJay]

Depends what monitor resolution & color depth your buddy wants to drive his system on if you really want to test how low you can go. I've used a 8mb ATI rage (shouldn't cost more than $10-$15ish) and worked fine for me but you can technically go lower. :beer:

 

[VIAN]

64MB minimum requirements.
128MB recommended requirements.

I heard some features arent active with only 64MB.

I would just 256MB, its cheap enough.

EDIT: I'm talking about System RAM.

 

[TheAudit]

Just being used for the net and MS Office you can get away with 4MB.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: VIAN
64MB minimum requirements.
128MB recommended requirements.

I heard some features arent active with only 64MB.

I would just 256MB, its cheap enough.

He's talking about RAM on the video card, not system RAM.

 

[BFG10K]

Pick up a Radeon 7000. They're dirt cheap and have decent 2D/DVD plus they have dual-display capabilities.

 

[Rage187]

I'm running it on my 2nd box, 8mb sis 6326

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Rage187
I'm running it on my 2nd box, 8mb sis 6326

God, I had one of those. Avoid like the plague. They just plain suck.

The Radeon 7000s are about 40 bucks at Newegg, but you could probably get them for a little less.

GF2MX400s are about 40 bucks as well. And the MX200 variety is close to 30.

You can also get a Xabre 200 for under 45, but I don't know how they perform. Shoot, a Xabre 400 is under 50.

 

[hans007]

newegg sells rage mobility 8mb ati cards (basically its an 8mb rage128).


granted they arent anything at 3d, but they are $15 i think. when they go on refurb they are $7.

 

[VIAN]

I was addressing his question to shared memory with a built in video card, which in my opinion would be cheaper and less of a hassle. Just get 256MB of RAM and share 32. 256MB of RAM is like about 40 bucks and maybe a little more for high speed sticks. If you buy an older card like those mentioned above, your asking for compatability problems. This was is cheaper. And whats more, I don't think that they even make 128MB sticks any more so 256MB is the cheapest and your gonna have to buy it anyway.

 

[Peter]

Microsoft doesn't approve drivers for VGAs with less than 16 MBytes anymore. That however doesn't mean they wouldn't work in XP. Basically anything where the vendor has provided XP drivers does work, even those ancient 8-MByte chipset integrated Trident units still found on the EPIA V-series mainboards.

Everything else works in XP too btw, unaccelerated using XP's generic VGA driver, as long as the VGA BIOS is VESA 2.0 compatible.

 

[Booster]

I ran Windows XP on a P3-733 paired with an Intel 815 integrated chipset (without an AGP card). It ran 2D-everything just fine, but only in 16-bit color (and XP doesn't look good at that res.). When set to 24-bit mode, the image was great but it was sluggish in DivX (but great everywhere else). So I had to switch to 16-bit color when watching DivX movies and DVDs. It was totally usable. Integrated is the only way to go if you need basic graphics and need to save money. Heck, even the cheapest Radeon 7K is $30-35, that's like half the motherboard price with an Intel 845G integrated video, and the speed is the same. The 845G supports 32-bit color and is blazing fast under XP so I guess the choice is clear.

 

[Peter]

Well, with Intel 81x, you got just about the worst possible integrated-VGA solution. Those from SiS and VIA are quite a bit more advanced ... except for said ancient Trident engine found in PLE133 and KLE133 chipsets.

 

[modedepe]

Either shared or an extremely cheap video card would work. A tnt2 for about $10 would be fine.

 

[daveymark]

Another reason I figured 32mb is the minimum is because I had a 16mb card in there and some apps wouldn't run because "the video memory is too low"...and I'm talking about simple apps like microsoft plus(not that I'll be putting that on there.) Well, actually that was the only app I tried a while back that I got that message with. So I don't want the user to install some simple program and not be able to. I planned on spending 25 bucks for a used card like a Geforce mx 400 with 32 or 64mb for $25 or less on these boards.

EDIT: some of the boards have integrated video, so in that case I won't use a card. I'm interested in what kind of card to use for the boards without integrated video.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: TheAudit
Just being used for the net and MS Office you can get away with 4MB.

What he said...