On 10/05/2014 04:58 AM ken wrote:
On 10/05/2014 04:02 AM John R Pierce wrote:
On 10/5/2014 12:48 AM, ken wrote:
I sincerely *hope* that it isn't some kind of trend that video cards are using shared memory instead of dedicated memory on the card itself. All machines I've bought or built since the late '90s have had video cards with a .5G of dedicated memory. This is mostly because video memory is physically different, using static RAM rather than dynamic RAM. The former is something like ten times faster than the latter.
NO video card uses static ram, at least not since the early 1980s.
Perhaps you're intimately familiar with each and every video card manufactured since the early '80s except for the ones I bought with my machines, because I've always insisted on video cards with static RAM. Or perhaps your understanding of static RAM is different from what I'm talking about.
the modern CPUs with integrated graphcis controllers such as the Intel HD4500 stuff is excellent, at least on MS Windows systems. the main memory controller on these CPUs has HUGE bandwidth, the video display overhead is lost in the noise unless maybe you're running dual huge screens. a dedicated controller might be 2-3X faster or more at 3D gaming graphics, but its not usefully faster at normal desktop graphics. dedicated controllers use significantly more battery power than integrated ones, a consideration on a portable laptop.
It would be nice to have authoritative sources for these opinions.
Also, the speed of a video card is going to depend a lot on the instruction set provided by the particular card and and then also very much on how well the software/drivers make use of that instruction set. Those factors are going to vary widely, which is why I spoke only to the speed of the *memory*. So saying "a dedicated controller might be 2-3X faster or more at 3D" is meaningless, like saying 'a car with ABC tires might be faster....'
Dynamic RAM actually uses *more* electricity than static RAM.
Here are some sources which support the statement above that dynamic RAM uses more electricity than static RAM, making static RAM more suitable for use in laptops and other situations where power consumption is an important consideration:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question452.htm
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-difference-between-static-ram-and-dynamic-ram.htm#didyouknowout