help on AGP aperture size

[boon]

My thinkpad x31 using a program called aida32 which shows your computer specifications, it said my AGP aperture size is at 256mb. The program says I will have performance penalty and somewhat in bios does not have option for me to change it.

So I wonder if this does affect my performance and how I can change the aperture size, since I only have 512mb ram on the laptop.

[JohnnyM]

The AGP aperture setting defines the amount of system memory to use for video memory when your graphic requirements are more than your video memory.

A typical example of this is a 3d shooter game. When the game loads up the textures for the scene, they are loaded into video memory (usually 4mb-32mb for a low end laptop). If the textures exceed your video memory, it begins to use your system memory, up to the limit set by AGP aperture.

If you're not running OpenGL or DirectX apps, AGP aperture will not be used. Doom 3 would probably crash my T20 from using all available memory, but short of that, there's nothing to worry about-- it probably would never be used.

A side note: your screen uses video memory. A 1024x768 24bit screen will use 2.3mb, regardless of how many windows you have open.