Ram question

If a laptop has 16gb of onboard ram but only shows 7.20 gb available. Why would that be? It's not my laptop - it was one I was considering buying but one of the screenshots about the laptop details shows this. It has integrated graphics. Is it possible that half the integrated ram could stop working?

Edit. It has Intel Iris Plus G7 graphics if that helps. Could the system be allocating half the ram to the graphics?

The word integrated suggests to me that the device is soldered onto the motherboard and it's possible to also have a socket to add in a module so Yes, the added 8GB could have a problem.

Most Notebooks have a way to enter the BIOS Setup, could be F2 or Esc key immediately upon turning it on. Different brands use a different method, my HP uses Esc and my Dells use F2. Once in the BIOS check for how much memory is available. The BIOS is Basic Input Output System and the Operating System reads so as to know what resources are available when it starts loading.

None of my Notebooks have integrated memory but my only HP [cheap-o] has an eMMC storage drive soldered on the motherboard and not easily changeable, if at all.

Thanks. I can't do that as don't physically have the laptop, so I think I'll give it a miss. I did read somewhere that that particular integrated graphics card might have half the onboard ram dedicated to it though. Which isn't great.

This is the dxdiag report on my Dell Vostro 14" Notebook with 12GB RAM:

Hazel123 said:

If a laptop has 16gb of onboard ram but only shows 7.20 gb available. Why would that be? It's not my laptop - it was one I was considering buying but one of the screenshots about the laptop details shows this. It has integrated graphics. Is it possible that half the integrated ram could stop working?

Edit. It has Intel Iris Plus G7 graphics if that helps. Could the system be allocating half the ram to the graphics?

Click to expand...

I checked. In Task Manager, my cheap Lenovo laptop with Intel HD 520 integrated graphics claims half of its RAM is shared by the iGPU. However, t also shows more than half the RAM as available. (?)

With Intel integrated graphics the VRAM is dynamically allocated from main RAM so that it varies depending on requirements at the time.

You can display that in the Task Manager. e.g. my Laptop now is running with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, at this moment 700-800 MB is being allocated/shared.
Whilst this could be up to 8 GB (half installed RAM) very rare to see that.

In numbers the Task Manager displays "shared GPU memory 0.7/7.9 GB"

DirectX Diagnostic Tool does not show what the dynamic situation actually is. It just says shared memory 8 GB.

View attachment 126818

You can be doing absolutely nothing on the computer and easily be using 8-9 gb ram, depending on your background processes,browser extensions, and startup apps. Maybe this example of mine will help to make it clearer. The only window I had actively open when I made this screenshot was task manager. This is why as Windows 11 has evolved, IMO for folks with 8gb of ram is no longer sufficient for anyone to get any performance at all.

My laptop with only Firefox running with 12 tabs

System RAM
Total: 32GB
Available: 16.8 GB

GPU0 (integrated): Radeon 680M
RAM (dedicated): 407/448 MB
RAM (shared): 0.9/15.6 GB

GPU1 (discrete): Nvidia RTX 3060 Laptop
RAM (dedicated): 0.0/6 GB
RAM (shared): 0.0/15.6 GB

Click to expand...

bobkn said:

I checked. In Task Manager, my cheap Lenovo laptop with Intel HD 520 integrated graphics claims half of its RAM is shared by the iGPU. However, t also shows more than half the RAM as available. (?)

Click to expand...

So half the ram can be designated for graphics then?

MisterEd said:

My laptop with only Firefox running with 12 tabs

Click to expand...

I can understand that with dedicated graphics but was surprised with Intel integrated graphics.

So basically then it's only an 8gb ram machine - except graphics won't affect that 8gb.

In newest versions of Microsoft Edge you can limit RAM usage from 1GB up to no limit. I have set mine to 2.5GB to improve performance.

"So basically then it's only an 8gb ram machine - except graphics won't affect that 8gb."

Not really, as I said the VRAM allocation is dynamic. Most of the time there will be say 15 GB RAM available.
It is the same with AMD integrated graphics.

Just because the RAM is available for the integrated graphics, it doesn't mean it can't be used by the CPU while not needed by the graphics card. This means "dynamic", otherwise it would be "static".

Thanks. So 8gb is designated for the graphics but if it's not being used for graphics it can be used for other processes - is that right? It just seems odd to only say 7.2gb available.

The 800MB are allocated to the graphics card leaving 7.2GB available to the system. There is some RAM dedicated to the GPU and some dynamically shared.

Hazel123 said:

Thanks. So 8gb is designated for the graphics but if it's not being used for graphics it can be used for other processes - is that right? It just seems odd to only say 7.2gb available.

Click to expand...

Windows 11 has some enhancements in how it handles shared graphics memory compared to Windows 10. Shared GPU memory is used when your GPU runs out of its dedicated video memory, and it typically amounts to 50% of the available RAM. The Intel Iris Plus G7 integrated graphics does not have dedicated graphics memory, though. Instead, it only uses shared memory from the system's RAM. By default, the Intel graphics driver reports 128 MB of fictitious dedicated video memory for compatibility with applications that don't fully understand a unified memory architecture. The actual amount of memory used by the GPU can vary depending on the system's RAM and the workload.

In Windows 11, the system continues to reserve half of your RAM for the video card, similar to Windows 10. However, compared to Windows 10, Windows 11 has some improvements in how the system manages this memory to provide better performance and stability. For example, Windows 11 has better memory management techniques that can help reduce the performance bottlenecks caused by shared GPU memory. The Intel Iris Plus G7 is compatible with Windows 11, and you can expect it to benefit from these enhancements in memory management. However, it's important to note that tweaking shared GPU memory settings should be avoided, as it can cause system instability.

The improved management of shared graphics memory in Windows 11 is related to the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version of the graphics driver. Starting with Windows 11 version 22H2, WDDM 3.1 introduced enhancements that allow better access to a graphics allocation backing store from the kernel-mode driver (KMD). This backing store is a committed memory buffer that holds the contents of a graphics allocation when it's not resident in video memory.

These improvements in WDDM 3.1 contribute to more efficient memory management and better performance when handling shared graphics memory. This means that integrated GPUs, like the Intel Iris Plus G7, can benefit from these enhancements, leading to a smoother and more stable experience.

So, yes. The graphics memory allocation is dynamic and enhanced in such a specific way that, by design, Windows 11 and the [WDDM driver of the] iGPU will work in tandem to quasi-continuously strike some kind of near-optimal balance. I.e., between the iGPU and other processes in terms of memory management and the performance that results as the system constantly tries to adapt to changes that can continuously occur in the magnitude and in various other characteristics of the workload.

I remember old desktop motherboards with integrated graphics in the CHIPSET (not on the CPU), would allow you to set 32MB, 64MB, 128MB or 256MB for the graphics RAM. Most systems had 1-2GB RAM back then, so setting more would seriously slow down the system. I was setting the RAM to 64MB to balance between graphics performance and system overall performance. Besides I hardly played any demanding games, only casual games similar to today's online games.

Hazel123 said:

Thanks. So 8gb is designated for the graphics but if it's not being used for graphics it can be used for other processes - is that right? It just seems odd to only say 7.2gb available.

Click to expand...

Can you make TaskManger printscreens / Rammap64 printscreen of the memory use?

available usually means empty/free memory to use.