can i change an integrated-share graphic card on my desktop ?

[jevo28]

Hi, the question is ?can i change an integrated-share graphic card on my desktop ? this is my situation i dont know if the memory is integrated on the motherboard i plan to buy this computer but im guessing it is because it says , the radeon hd 4350,250 shared memory so im guessing is in the motherboard.
( sorry for any grammar mistake) :

• Procesador:
- Intel® Core 2 Quad Q9300
- Velocidad procesador: 2.5 Ghz
- Memoria procesador: 6 MB
- Chipset: Nvidia MCP73PV

• Memoria:
- Tamaño: 4 GB
- Distribución de memoria: 2 x 2 GB
- Tipo: RAM DDR II 667/800

• Tarjeta gráfica:
- ATI Radeon HD 3650
- 512 MB dedicados hasta 1919 MB DVI, VGA, HDMI, SVHS

- Audio: Realtek ALC888S, High Definition, 7.1 Channels

• Sistema operativo: Windows Vista Home Premium

And another one with the same Speqs BUt have a Ati radeon hd 4350 insted off ATI Radeon HD 3650 .
My question is ,is this computer good? im afraid de radeon hd 3600 and 4350 used shared memory and i heard of a lot of problems with shared memory playing games, can i only use the dedicaded memory of the card the 512 mg or it has to be shared with the memory ? also is it integraded in the motherboard? if so can i change the graphic card and shanged it even if its integrated?
LOTS of thanks in advance.

[bridgman]

As far as I know the shared memory is for the NVidia integrated chipset. The HD3650 and 4350 are both discrete graphics cards (ie not integrated) and neither of them use shared memory other than the shared area which all graphics drivers use to let the card and the driver exchange data and commands.

[jevo28]

It says ati radeon hd 4350 with 256 shared memory, i tought to share the memory the card has to be on the motherboard and that what im afraid , if its on the motherboard can i later changed it or i have to changed the whole motherboard?
Thanks in advance.

[bridgman]

That doesn't sound right. Can you post a link to the mobo ?

I don't think we support using any of the discrete GPUs with shared memory. Even if they are on the motherboard they would normally have dedicated video memory.

[Hephasteus]

Hi there. No the shared memory doesn't physically mess with the motherboard memory. It justs asks the bios to take off 256mb for it's use and then addresses it through DMA. PCI-E cards are what is called a bus master and bus masters are able to directly access the system ram using DMA. I don't know if you can yank the usage of the ram away from the card or not but bios might have setup features to do this. If you simply upgrade card with new card that has 512mb or more it won't share ram on motherboard. Otherwise it's only 256mb and you have 4 gb of ram so why not let it do what it does?

[jevo28]

Hi, now i understand i was very confused about it, lots of thanks

[ingridseynhaeve]

Hi jevo28,

What is integrated-share graphic card? I don't know about this. Can you explain me about it? If you don't mind, can you give me the manual to find out the more information about it? If you can, thank you in advance.

[Kano]

You have got Nvidia onboard if you remove your ATI PCI-E card. If you want something faster just buy a new PCI-E card - perferred would be Nvidia however.

[nanonyme]

What is integrated-share graphic card? I don't know about this. Can you explain me about it? If you don't mind, can you give me the manual to find out the more information about it? If you can, thank you in advance.)

Educated guess: IGP that uses RAM as shared memory?

[nanonyme]

I don't think we support using any of the discrete GPUs with shared memory. Even if they are on the motherboard they would normally have dedicated video memory.

Good point, only heard of nVidia doing that kind of stuff... (as in, you make a cheaper discrete card by taking away some of the card onboard memory and letting it use RAM instead; slow as heck but looks good in marketing)