T420 NVIDIA VS INTEL (ram) question???

[SchlageR]

I am thinking of updating my system to 16GB ram [if possible]. According to intel the maximum memory that intel 3000 hd can handle is 1.7GB ram. The NVIDIA NVS 4200M is 1GB ram that is not shared.. Does that mean that the intel 3000 is better if I assign 1.7GB Ram to it? Please let me know! I feel like I got the NVIDIA graphics chip for nothing :[

[lead_org]

well the performance of the graphics card is not entirely ram dependent, by having more vram then it is necessary won't help to boost the speed of the overall graphics card processing speed, which is where the real bottleneck likes.

[blackomegax]

In a game with 1.7gb worth of textures, you might notice improvements in stuttering/access time.

BUUUUT.

GTA4 on high textures does not even get near 1gb.
I doubt even crysis does.

It doesnt really matter unless you're running a huge framebuffer with huge anti-aliasing settings, which neither chip can drive, making it moot.

[craigmontHunter]

And with windows vista/7, they will allocate more system memory to the gpu, on top of the dedicated memory (my very cheap 1gb geforce gt 430 has 1gb built in, 1.5 gb allocated on top of that - don't worry the dedicated gpu will perform better, regardless of the amount of ram).

[SchlageR]

Thank you all for the prompt replies and information!!