[Discuss] Conflicting Information Regarding Video Memory

[shankar.viswan at gmail.com (Shankar Viswanathan)]

On 10/11/20 12:32 PM, epp at mcom.com wrote:
> Thanks for the reply.
>
> It's an HP (Compaq) CQ5826, it only has two open x1 slots on the
> motherboard. There are no memory settings in the BIOS.
>
> https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03054469
>
> A Radeon 5450 is what I bought for the other desktop (also an
> HP/Compaq), which has x1, x16 and legacy PCI slots, despite
> being two years /older/ than the CQ5826. That has an on-board NVIDIA
> GPU which has caused issues with Linux, it would crash if I used
> certain desktop environments. With the new Radeon card in that, it now
> runs like a brand new machine.

OEMs often restrict the number and width of PCIe ports to fit size and 
cost of the motherboards & chassis - although this is the first time I 
have heard of a motherboard not having at least a x8 slot (if not a 
x16). The RS780 chipset certainly supports more than 2 x1 lanes of PCIe 
- I think it goes up to 20 or 22 lanes of PCIe Gen2 (if memory serves? 
me right).

As Dan pointed out, typically there is a BIOS setting to adjust the 
amount of memory allocated to the integrated graphics - this is called 
"UMA memory", "Shared Graphics Memory" or "Video Memory" in various BIOS 
vendor terminology. In some really old motherboards, there even was a 
jumper to choose between two different settings for this memory. 
Increasing this pool allows for higher resolutions (assuming rest of the 
system supports that), greater details to be rendered etc.

To go back to your original question: what do you use this machine for? 
How is the 256MB video memory limiting you?

-Shankar