Like RAM of a computer, VRAM plays a significant role in the performance of the system. For a computer to run properly and handle heavier tasks, a minimum amount of VRAM is essential. But whereas increasing RAM only means buying more of it, we can increase the VRAM of a computer from the system itself. In this article, we’re going to discuss how to increase VRAM on Windows 10.
What is VRAM
VRAM or, Video RAM is a type of memory that stores display information given by the operating system to show them to the monitor. It differs from the traditional RAM and is responsible for displaying the graphical details. Just as RAM shortage makes the computer perform poorly, a shortage of VRAM can affect performance too. Knowing how to increase VRAM can come in handy if you’re suffering in low video memory issues.
For normal tasks like running office applications, a computer with low VRAM can perform just fine. But for more graphically intensive applications like multimedia streaming, heavy browsing, graphics design, and gaming, more VRAM is required. Modern games often require dedicated graphics cards to run properly. Beforehand, you should check your graphics card and its VRAM. But external graphics card VRAM is constant, and can’t be changed. Whereas the VRAM of integrated graphics (IGP) of computers is changeable.
How Increasing VRAM Works
Integrated graphics like Intel HD Graphics, use a portion of system memory as VRAM. This GPU comes pre-loaded with the processor. Though integrated graphics fall short on running heavy games, it is sufficient for most of the works. By following some steps, we are going to increase the amount of RAM that will be solely dedicated as VRAM, and thus the VRAM will increase.
How to Increase VRAM
There are 2 easy methods of increasing VRAM. Your graphics drivers should be updated properly. You can do it from your BIOS, or from the Registry Editor.
From Computer BIOS
There are different ways to launch the BIOS menu. Turn off your computer, then turn it on while repeatedly pressing the Delete key. You can try the F2 or F10 key too. In the BIOS menu, go to the Graphics Configuration settings, usually located in the Advanced tab.
Here, you should be able to find the DVMT pre-allocated option, or something close. In this option, you can set your VRAM in megabytes. Then save the configuration and exit. After starting the computer, you can check the Display Settings again and you should see your VRAM increased.
From the Registry Editor
If you don’t want to access your BIOS, or can’t find the proper options, you may opt to tweak with the Registry Editor built-in for Windows. Just type Windows key + R to launch Run. Here, type Regedit and hit enter. You can also search for it in the Windows search.
Inside the Registry editor, go to this location:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel
You can also copy this location in the registry search box. Here, right-click on Intel and select New> Key to create a new key. Rename this key to “GMM”. The GMM key will be visible under Intel.
Click on the GMM key, and on the right, you’ll see the “Default” value. Under that, right-click on an empty space and select New> DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Right-click on this new value, and rename it as ”DedicatedSegmentSize”. Then, double click on it and type in the new VRAM you want in megabytes as Decimal value then press ok. If you want 512MB VRAM, type 512 while selecting “Decimal”.
After that, close the Registry Editor and restart your pc to make changes. After restarting, you can check your new VRAM.
How to Check Your Existing VRAM
There are multiple ways to check VRAM. We can do it from the Display Settings. Right-click on an empty space of the desktop and select Display Settings. From the Display menu, go to Advanced Display Settings. Here select Display adapter properties for Display 1. The Display Properties window appears, where you can check your VRAM (Dedicated Video Memory) along with system memory and shared memory.
To check the VRAM of both your integrated and dedicated graphics, you can use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. Type Windows Key + R to launch Run. Here type dxdiag and hit enter. From the tool, go to the Display tab to check the VRAM of your integrated graphics, and in the Render tab, you have your dedicated graphics info. You can also go to the Task Manager, and under the Performance tab, you can see your VRAM info in GPU 0 and GPU 1 segments.
Results of Increasing VRAM
Like RAM, increasing video memory affects performance. More VRAM means a better ability to handle graphical information. It enables the user to run multimedia and graphics design applications better, and also makes more demanding games playable. It is still not even close to external graphics card performance, but the normal usage boost is worth spending this amount of RAM.
Important Considerations
While changing VRAM size, you should know that VRAM is an allocated part of the main memory itself, and changing VRAM affects available RAM. If you have low RAM (4GB or less), you should only choose to have 512MB or less size. For 8GB or more, you can choose to have 1024MB (1GB) VRAM which is more than enough. Choosing more than recommended VRAM, you can fall short on available RAM and therefore, your performance would likely hamper.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve discussed briefly how to increase VRAM on Windows 10 computers. While increasing video memory has its perks, proper cautions should be taken while changing registry values or BIOS settings, as wrong steps can cause the computer to misbehave, or even crash. Follow these procedures with caution and you should be having the required amount of VRAM in no time.
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