How do I find out what and how to change the Intel(R) HD Graphics Family dedicated memory?

[jmunzi]

I'm trying to raise up or rather increase the dedicated memory on the Intel(R) HD Graphics Family card to 512mb or more, cause I'm trying to play fallout new Vegas on my Ideapad Y570 laptop. I already contacted Bethsoft Support about my issue, they said my dedicated memory was 64mb and was to low on the Intel(R) HD Graphics Family card to support the game. I've already tried to download a number programs for it or tried, but they don't seem to install or something. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

[sarbin]

welcome to the community!

Intel HD graphics should share system ram for increased performance. so, how much system ram do you currently have installed? As an example my X220 runs Intel HD3000 integrated graphics. it reports 64mb of dedicated video memory. i've got  8gb of system ram and the graphics control panel is reporting ~1700mb of total video memory.

i must confess limited y-series knowledge, but a side ? for you... doesn't your system have switchable graphics? would the game you wish to play run succesfully if you switch to the nvidia gpu?

cheers.

[Afferin]

First off, let me say that you can't increase the dedicated memory for a video card/chip. You can increase the shared memory with a few methods, but that's probably not going to help a lot.

However, the main problem is that you're just not switching to your NVIDIA GPU. The Y570 comes with switchable graphics, and the intek chip set is turned on by default (probably to save battery life). I'm not entirely sure how Optimus works, but it should turn on your 555M (or whichever GPU came with the laptop model you have); if it doesn't, there should be a switch to manually switch over to your more powerful GPU which should have >= 1GB of dedicated memory.

[jmunzi]

I bought the game off of steam does it matter if I should have a CD-Rom or not? And yes I've tried switching to the nvidia Gforce 555M card but, it still crashes when I start a new game on it. Still does the same thing.

[jmunzi]

Also the GPU when I switch it, the GPU activity says (none) like its not using it. Think I should get an actual game dischot make it work?

[Afferin]

Steam doesn't ship a CD or anything; you can download the game directly from your steam library, which is linked to your account.

As for your graphical issue, there have been a few threads with similar problems:

If it's a driver issue, you may want to see this thread.

If it's something else, there are numerous of threads regarding the issue. One of which is here.

I can't tell you what's wrong, but it definitely sounds like something is wrong with switching to your more powerful GPU.