A question about VRAM usage.

[Deleted60576446User]

In order to make Skyrim run on my cheap Laptop, I had to dedicate a long time to tweaking and modding for performance gains, and Skyrim runs fine without the worst graphics. My video Adapter is, unfortunately, Intel HD Graphics, neither 520 nor 4000, just Intel HD Graphics... 0, and it still manages to run Skyrim with medium quality textures and even 2K textures for some weapons and armor without ANY performance loss whatsover (seriously...). I play on the resolution 800x450 (Windowed) and it runs at 30FPS most of the time, and even 60 on dark and small places or corners. But the question is: Why can't I play on full screen even if I reduce the graphics to the lowest possible if my stupid Intel HD Graphics doesn't struggle with medium textures and some 2K ones??? Is the video card unable to run a better resolutions because of limitations? because it doesn't seem like it's a VRAM problem. Does resolution make use of RAM and CPU as well?

 

My specs are:

-Intel HD Graphics

-2GB of RAM (1,89 usable)

-Intel Celeron 1.58GHz (2 CPU's)

 

And yes... this piece of CRAP runs Skyrim pretty well on a small window, maybe too well to believe, but that's thanks to a lot of tweaking and modding on Skyrim and optmizations on the Laptop itself, but I've ALWAYS had this question, why in Oblivion does my not-so-bad laptop not run Skyrim on a better resolution AT ALL? How does resolutions and video adapters really work together?

 

By the way, if you need tips for increasing performance, I'd be glad to share a bit of what I know...

[HeyYou]

Mainly because running in a small window isn't nearly as demanding on hardware as running full screen. That, and for Skyrim, your hardware flat out sucks. Celeron processors were gimped from the factory. Integrated graphics isn't helping you either, a distinct lack of ram is another nail in the coffin. You already called out your problem. A cheap laptop. There isn't really anything you can do for that machine to make it run the game decently. More Ram wouldn't hurt, but, I wouldn't even bother upgraded that machine, save your pennies and buy something better.

 

Hint: Integrated graphics are terrible for gaming, finding a laptop with a REAL discreet video card, is NOT cheap. If you want to play games, build or buy a desktop.

[Deleted60576446User]

Mainly because running in a small window isn't nearly as demanding on hardware as running full screen. That, and for Skyrim, your hardware flat out sucks. Celeron processors were gimped from the factory. Integrated graphics isn't helping you either, a distinct lack of ram is another nail in the coffin. You already called out your problem. A cheap laptop. There isn't really anything you can do for that machine to make it run the game decently. More Ram wouldn't hurt, but, I wouldn't even bother upgraded that machine, save your pennies and buy something better.

 

Hint: Integrated graphics are terrible for gaming, finding a laptop with a REAL discreet video card, is NOT cheap. If you want to play games, build or buy a desktop.

It wasn't really a problem, since Skyrim runs just as fine as I want without crashing. It was just a silly question to understand why my stupid Laptop could handle good quality textures but not full screen at all. It will take a long time for me to buy a good PC since I live in Brazil and I'm a teenager, so it's hard to get a job and everything is expensive. But anyway, thanks for the reply.

[HeyYou]

 

Mainly because running in a small window isn't nearly as demanding on hardware as running full screen. That, and for Skyrim, your hardware flat out sucks. Celeron processors were gimped from the factory. Integrated graphics isn't helping you either, a distinct lack of ram is another nail in the coffin. You already called out your problem. A cheap laptop. There isn't really anything you can do for that machine to make it run the game decently. More Ram wouldn't hurt, but, I wouldn't even bother upgraded that machine, save your pennies and buy something better.

 

Hint: Integrated graphics are terrible for gaming, finding a laptop with a REAL discreet video card, is NOT cheap. If you want to play games, build or buy a desktop.

It wasn't really a problem, since Skyrim runs just as fine as I want without crashing. It was just a silly question to understand why my stupid Laptop could handle good quality textures but not full screen at all. It will take a long time for me to buy a good PC since I live in Brazil and I'm a teenager, so it's hard to get a job and everything is expensive. But anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

I can see how that might be a problem. :)

 

Is your operating system 32 or 64 bit? You could toss in another 2gb of ram, and it sure wouldn't hurt. The integrated graphics chip shares ram with the system, it likely does not have it's own dedicated ram, so, adding some more for the entire system to play with, sure won't hurt. Shouldn't be that expensive either.

[Deleted60576446User]

 

 

Mainly because running in a small window isn't nearly as demanding on hardware as running full screen. That, and for Skyrim, your hardware flat out sucks. Celeron processors were gimped from the factory. Integrated graphics isn't helping you either, a distinct lack of ram is another nail in the coffin. You already called out your problem. A cheap laptop. There isn't really anything you can do for that machine to make it run the game decently. More Ram wouldn't hurt, but, I wouldn't even bother upgraded that machine, save your pennies and buy something better.

 

Hint: Integrated graphics are terrible for gaming, finding a laptop with a REAL discreet video card, is NOT cheap. If you want to play games, build or buy a desktop.

It wasn't really a problem, since Skyrim runs just as fine as I want without crashing. It was just a silly question to understand why my stupid Laptop could handle good quality textures but not full screen at all. It will take a long time for me to buy a good PC since I live in Brazil and I'm a teenager, so it's hard to get a job and everything is expensive. But anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

I can see how that might be a problem. :smile:

 

Is your operating system 32 or 64 bit? You could toss in another 2gb of ram, and it sure wouldn't hurt. The integrated graphics chip shares ram with the system, it likely does not have it's own dedicated ram, so, adding some more for the entire system to play with, sure won't hurt. Shouldn't be that expensive either.

 

I'll see what I can do about it, more RAM should be asy for me to buy. My system is x64, and it's running Windows 8.1 with many useless services disabled and some performance settings to give my Laptop full power. I have a lot of mods installed, including better textures for some things, and full screen is not exactly impossible, but it would meld down my CPU in no time. What difference could more RAM do in a system like mine?

[HeyYou]

 

 

 

Mainly because running in a small window isn't nearly as demanding on hardware as running full screen. That, and for Skyrim, your hardware flat out sucks. Celeron processors were gimped from the factory. Integrated graphics isn't helping you either, a distinct lack of ram is another nail in the coffin. You already called out your problem. A cheap laptop. There isn't really anything you can do for that machine to make it run the game decently. More Ram wouldn't hurt, but, I wouldn't even bother upgraded that machine, save your pennies and buy something better.

 

Hint: Integrated graphics are terrible for gaming, finding a laptop with a REAL discreet video card, is NOT cheap. If you want to play games, build or buy a desktop.

It wasn't really a problem, since Skyrim runs just as fine as I want without crashing. It was just a silly question to understand why my stupid Laptop could handle good quality textures but not full screen at all. It will take a long time for me to buy a good PC since I live in Brazil and I'm a teenager, so it's hard to get a job and everything is expensive. But anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

If you can scare up the money, expand to 8 gb. (likely two 4gb sticks, and tossing your 2gb stick you are currently using. Most laptops only have two ram slots.) Might just as well take advantage of that 64bit architecture. :D

 

I can see how that might be a problem. :smile:

 

Is your operating system 32 or 64 bit? You could toss in another 2gb of ram, and it sure wouldn't hurt. The integrated graphics chip shares ram with the system, it likely does not have it's own dedicated ram, so, adding some more for the entire system to play with, sure won't hurt. Shouldn't be that expensive either.

 

I'll see what I can do about it, more RAM should be asy for me to buy. My system is x64, and it's running Windows 8.1 with many useless services disabled and some performance settings to give my Laptop full power. I have a lot of mods installed, including better textures for some things, and full screen is not exactly impossible, but it would meld down my CPU in no time. What difference could more RAM do in a system like mine?

 

Decrease loading times, decrease sutter on cell changes, (yes, even when walking around outside) etc. As it stands, the game needs to load most of that from the disk drive, (either directly, or, from the windows page file, since you are limited on ram.) Adding more means less swapping to the disk. (which in laptops are notoriously slow.)

 

Switching to a solid state drive wouldn't hurt you either, but, that's a bit more money. :D (MUCH faster disk access times. MAJOR performance improvement.)

Edited November 2, 2018 by HeyYou

[Deleted60576446User]

 

 

 

 

Mainly because running in a small window isn't nearly as demanding on hardware as running full screen. That, and for Skyrim, your hardware flat out sucks. Celeron processors were gimped from the factory. Integrated graphics isn't helping you either, a distinct lack of ram is another nail in the coffin. You already called out your problem. A cheap laptop. There isn't really anything you can do for that machine to make it run the game decently. More Ram wouldn't hurt, but, I wouldn't even bother upgraded that machine, save your pennies and buy something better.

 

Hint: Integrated graphics are terrible for gaming, finding a laptop with a REAL discreet video card, is NOT cheap. If you want to play games, build or buy a desktop.

It wasn't really a problem, since Skyrim runs just as fine as I want without crashing. It was just a silly question to understand why my stupid Laptop could handle good quality textures but not full screen at all. It will take a long time for me to buy a good PC since I live in Brazil and I'm a teenager, so it's hard to get a job and everything is expensive. But anyway, thanks for the reply.

 

If you can scare up the money, expand to 8 gb. (likely two 4gb sticks, and tossing your 2gb stick you are currently using. Most laptops only have two ram slots.) Might just as well take advantage of that 64bit architecture. :D

 

I can see how that might be a problem. :smile:

 

Is your operating system 32 or 64 bit? You could toss in another 2gb of ram, and it sure wouldn't hurt. The integrated graphics chip shares ram with the system, it likely does not have it's own dedicated ram, so, adding some more for the entire system to play with, sure won't hurt. Shouldn't be that expensive either.

 

I'll see what I can do about it, more RAM should be asy for me to buy. My system is x64, and it's running Windows 8.1 with many useless services disabled and some performance settings to give my Laptop full power. I have a lot of mods installed, including better textures for some things, and full screen is not exactly impossible, but it would meld down my CPU in no time. What difference could more RAM do in a system like mine?

 

Decrease loading times, decrease sutter on cell changes, (yes, even when walking around outside) etc. As it stands, the game needs to load most of that from the disk drive, (either directly, or, from the windows page file, since you are limited on ram.) Adding more means less swapping to the disk. (which in laptops are notoriously slow.)

 

Switching to a solid state drive wouldn't hurt you either, but, that's a bit more money. :D (MUCH faster disk access times. MAJOR performance improvemen

Now I definetly want to buy more RAM. I didn't know it would stabilize the framerate, but since it does more than that I will look for at least 1GB of extra RAM. Thanks for the advice.