spencer2361 wrote: »Just purchased a laptop for the wife that has an AMD Radeon R7 for a graphics card, will it run this game?
spencer2361 wrote: »Just purchased a laptop for the wife that has an AMD Radeon R7 for a graphics card, will it run this game?
What does it even mean?! I see this kind of description all the time in advertisments and I don't understand what's the point. You can have widely different GPUs with the same memory.1gb dedicated video.
Thank you for the explanation, but that wasn't quite my point. "1 GB GPU" without specifying the model doesn't tell me what I need to know when I'm buying a PC.
It means that there should be 1GB video RAM (vRAM) that is (on most system) faster memory modules then normal system RAM for GPU to access. On integrated GPU there is only a very small amount dedicated memory (less then 1GB) which work more like a buffer between GPU and system RAM.
As an example: On stationary desktop will have maybe 8GB or even 16 GB DDR4 RAM for system memory and a GTX 1080 which have its own 8 GB GDDR5 (5 here means it is one generation after DDR4; newer and more costly RAM technology then DDR4). This have an impact when you push up resolution to above 1920 x 1080 pixels which more calculation can be done on the faster memory section instead of going the long patch between GPU, GDDR5 and system memory (DDR4).
OS allocate all available space in system memory from the moment you turn on your computer, so there is no "free space" in that sense when we talk about RAM. (You can look in Windows Task Manager for how memory is being allocated and for type of task). When system RAM is being used for video processing it means that something else need to be moved around in system RAM, until that task have been finished, which takes time (even milliseconds are still time).
On discrete video cards, you will see memory chips allocated around GPU. Anything that must travel through PCI express lane will have a short delay until it is in system RAM and back to GPU. Fastest connection is between GPU and lanes connecting memory chips around GPU.
It is more complex then this in reality, but should give you enough understanding to why it is marketing the way it is and what impact it might have on a laptop.