Vram

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11-01-2003, 01:32 AM
toddiscool

I am having trouble figureing out exactly what VRAM is I checked techdictionary and got this

Quote:

Video Random Access Memory. A kind of high-speed memory used for the computer's screen display. VRAM must be fast to keep up with the speed at which the screen is scanned. The VRAM in a PC is on a display adapter card. It uses dual-ported (two separate data ports) memory allowing simultaneous reads and writes and is faster than dynamic RAM . One port is dedicated to the CRT and refreshes and updates the image. The second port is for the CPU or graphics controller and changes the image data in memory.

The problem that I am having is silent hill 3, when I start it is gives error this game requires atlease 32mb of vram. I know that I need an upgrade from my nvadia geforce 4 MX 440 64MB ddr (agp 4X) card and thought this a fine excuse. The thing that I am noticing in looking for a new card is that Vram is not something mentioned on specs, leading to beleive that this is not a new technology, so my card should have this. In the release notes the min is a geforce 3 at 32 MB vram.

I guess what I am asking is should my card be capable of this, and if not what spec category I am looking at for the Vram business?

If my card is capable what should I do, I guess I waill try and update my drivers and see if that helps, I have not in a while. I am using 4.5.2.3 and direct X 9b i am pretty sure.

I wanna play this game so bad :( I am kinda reluctant to upgrade as I have never had any problems with this card at all.

Thanks
11-01-2003, 01:37 AM
Virtualbody1234

Vram is simply video ram.

Your Nvidia geforce 4 MX 440 64MB ddr has 64 MB of Vram.
11-01-2003, 01:44 AM
toddiscool

Quote:

Originally posted by Virtualbody1234@31 October 2003 - 20:37
Vram is simply video ram.

Your Nvidia geforce 4 MX 440 64MB ddr has 64 MB of Vram.

That was kinda what I was thinking, thanks for confirming. Ok well I guess to installing/uninstalling stuff for a bit. If anyone has any suggestions appreciated.
11-01-2003, 01:58 AM
boyzeee

i would upgrade ya driver, there is an update here at nvidia, also is the game you playing dx9 compatible? see if there is a patch for it a manufacturers site ;)
11-01-2003, 02:15 AM
toddiscool

Quote:

Originally posted by boyzeee@31 October 2003 - 20:58
i would upgrade ya driver, there is an update here at nvidia, also is the game you playing dx9 compatible? see  if there is a patch for it a manufacturers site ;)

Yeah just did, same thing. Weird thing is when I had the card unistalled, I decided to try and run it, and it did start, there was no display but it did start.

The game itself is 8.1 or higher, but I cannot really get rid of 9 can I. Also the game does not come out for another month so there is no support on the website as of yet.

The exact error that I am getting is :"This game requires a video card with a minumum of 32MB of Vram and prgrammable vertex/pixel shader support. The appliaction will now close"

There is really no settings in the config section.

Edit: just reread the readme, MX series not supported :( I guess an upgrade is in order.

Thanks guys.
11-01-2003, 11:11 AM
lynx

Quote:

Originally posted by toddiscool@1 November 2003 - 01:15
The exact error that I am getting is :"This game requires a video card with a minumum of 32MB of Vram and prgrammable vertex/pixel shader support. The appliaction will now close"

The key thing here is "programmable vertex/pixel shader support". I think this is one of the new dx9 features, in which case your card doesn't support it. Features like this SHOULD be supported by software rendering, but it may be that if you've got a pre-release version of the game it hasn't been finished yet.
11-01-2003, 10:13 PM
cwctv

I take it the game uses OpenGL ? What about detonator drivers but watch out you can't always get them back off .
http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/
Oh vram was really dram in the early days but had faster nanoseconds thats all ie system ran at 80 video memory ran at 40 etc.Edo first came to video for that reason speed.