13. How Much And Which Video RAM Is Better?

Naturally, we were interested in how the hybrid use of shared and dedicated graphics memory (explained in the previous section) would affect the system's 3D performance. To get a ballpark reading on this, we performed various tests using 3D Mark 2005 with different memory configurations.

As the results clearly show, performance tanks as additional segments of system RAM are used in place of dedicated video RAM for the frame buffer. The same effects also manifest when total memory requirements begin to exceed the maximum 256 MB of RAM available to the graphics subsystem, counting 128 MB from the dedicated video RAM and another 128 MB of shared memory from the system RAM. This scenario might occur, for example, when playing a state-of-the-art 3D game at high-display resolutions with detail or shading levels also set high.

That last scenario is only of academic interest, however, because the performance of this notebook's integrated graphics core isn't adequate to deliver smooth, fluid play under such conditions anyway.

But for those who are not 3D gamers and who occasionally play a strategy game or may enjoy an older 3D game with somewhat lesser FPS requirements, the performance of the integrated graphics subsystem will likely suffice. For normal office work or watching videos, the Pavilion dv8000z's performance is completely adequate. Even smooth delivery of HD 1080p videos is no problem, when the system is configured to use system RAM as well as video RAM to meet frame buffer requirements. For these applications, the combination of an AMD Turion and the integrated ATI Radeon Express X200M graphics chipset outperforms the similar combination of Intel's GMA900 graphics chipset and a Pentium M processor.