Nvidia 7300 memory issue

KTRIC

I'm hoping someone can clear this up. I received an Nvidia 7300 in my dell E521 machine recently and its only being detected as a 128 card instead of a 256 which dell have insisted they sent me.

I popped the heat sink off the card this evening to expose the ram chips and found four of these babies underneath:

http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/GraphicsMemory/GDDR2SDRAM/256Mbit/K4N56163QG/K4N56163QG.htm

Can someone clarify if four of these actually amount up to 256 ?

Thanks

8T8

To be honest it doesn't make that much of a difference on such a low end card. The graphics card can access system RAM and borrow from the main memory pool to make it works as a 256MB card if it needs it.

The card will always display the correct amount of RAM in the NVIDIA control panel click on help then go to system information it will list the amount of RAM on-board. If you don't have recent NVIDIA display drivers installed which have the control panel you can get them here.

KTRIC

The thing is they are selling this as a 256mb card , I checked the system properties and its showing as a 128mb card !!!.

The motherboard in the system has a Nvidia chipset and onboard gpu which also has 128 (i think). When the PCIe 7300 is inserted it overides it.

KTRIC

Just booted the machine up with the PCIe card out and found that the onboard card is an Nvidia 6150 (128mb), surely Dell aren't trying to say that the 7300 has 256mb of ram because of the onboard video as well ??

TerrorFirmer

No, the 7300 is a 256mb model card as well, even the LE versions. It's strange that it's coming up as only 128mb. It's a turbocache card, it has 128mb of it's own memory and uses 128 of your system, but it should still come up in display properties as a 256mb card. Are you using Vista? I'm not familiar with Vista at all, so unless the issue lies within there....

astrofool

The amount of system memory it uses is usually configurable somewhere.

And they shouldn't be allowed to advertise something as having X amount of RAM if half that X is taken from system memory. Thats for another day anyway.

And those chips are 32MB each (256Mb/8) so 4 of them equals 128MB Ram, is there any on the front of the card as well? (I doubt it).

KTRIC

Just four of those chips on the card itself. I had a look in the bios and it has an option to change the amount of video memory , but it only goes up to 128mb.

KTRIC

Got into work this morning and realised that I have a 7300 in my work machine (i'd completely forgot about it). I wipped it out and it actually says 256mb real memory on it. When I put in my Dell one into the work machine (running XP) it comes up with 512mb usable memory and 128mb physical memory.


Completely f**king confustimacated now

TerrorFirmer

KTRIC wrote:

Just four of those chips on the card itself. I had a look in the bios and it has an option to change the amount of video memory , but it only goes up to 128mb.

No that would be just for the 6150..

So far it just seems like it's a TC card - 128mb Physical memory and the rest turbocache. Although again, it should come up regardless as 256mb in the display properties. In the Nvidia control panel, does it say 128mb in the graphics card info under the main heading?

8T8

NVIDIA only report the physical on-board memory in the card though it should list the Turbocache amount as well.

Probably what happened was that Dell sell the card as a 7300LE 256MB Turbocache in the fine print it will say 128MB RAM on the card the other is dynamically allocated from main RAM.

You can see an example of this here for this 6200 card it says "supports 256MB" but if you look in the tech specs at the bottom it comes with only 64MB of RAM on the card.

KTRIC

8T8 wrote:

NVIDIA only report the physical on-board memory in the card though it should list the Turbocache amount as well.

Probably what happened was that Dell sell the card as a 7300LE 256MB Turbocache in the fine print it will say 128MB RAM on the card the other is dynamically allocated from main RAM.

You can see an example of this here for this 6200 card it says "supports 256MB" but if you look in the tech specs at the bottom it comes with only 64MB of RAM on the card.

It lists the physical memory as 128mb, surely they can't sell this as the 256mb version just because it uses turbocache.

I have the 256mb version in another pc and it lists the physical memory as 256mb, that card also supports turbocache.

8T8

KTRIC wrote:

It lists the physical memory as 128mb, surely they can't sell this as the 256mb version just because it uses turbocache.

I have the 256mb version in another pc and it lists the physical memory as 256mb, that card also supports turbocache.

They can if it was advertised or stated as a Turbocache model somewhere in the fine print.

swaroberts

Funnily enough I have just been through the exact same tiresome process as some of you.
For what it's worth:
1) Some of the graphics processors on Dell's site do say that they use shared memory but not the Go7300
2) Go into the bios on your Dell and if definitely confirms only 128Mb
3) It's impossible to get anyone at Dell to acknowlege that this is the case.

Sooo I'd have thought that it's a pretty clear-cut case of them having delivered something different to what is advertised.
Besides, using Dell's math I don't have a 256Mb card anyway - mine is 383 Mb (255 System and 128 Card Mb) so even using Dell's twisted logic you don't get what you paid for.

Anyway I've asked for a replacement card so I'll let you know what happens.

Sio

KTRIC

swaroberts wrote:

Funnily enough I have just been through the exact same tiresome process as some of you.
For what it's worth:
1) Some of the graphics processors on Dell's site do say that they use shared memory but not the Go7300
2) Go into the bios on your Dell and if definitely confirms only 128Mb
3) It's impossible to get anyone at Dell to acknowlege that this is the case.

Sooo I'd have thought that it's a pretty clear-cut case of them having delivered something different to what is advertised.
Besides, using Dell's math I don't have a 256Mb card anyway - mine is 383 Mb (255 System and 128 Card Mb) so even using Dell's twisted logic you don't get what you paid for.

Anyway I've asked for a replacement card so I'll let you know what happens.

Sio

You'll get the same card again. I did and now I have 2. They don't actually have the 256mb verson to send you.

8T8

I know this may be on principal for you guys but it really isn't worth it a 7300LE is an absolute bottom of the barrel GPU & whether is has 128MB or 256MB makes practically no difference to it's performance.

Your better off chucking a 7300LE in the bin and getting something even half decent for under €90.

swaroberts

KTRIC wrote:

You'll get the same card again. I did and now I have 2. They don't actually have the 256mb verson to send you.

Yes, I finally got to speak to someone at Dell who appears to know what he's on about and he said just that. He offered to give me a refund on the laptop but to be honest that's more trouble than it's worth, along with the fact that I won't get my original shipping costs refunded I've decided to give up on this and will just remember never to buy Dell in future.

In response to 8T8, it's true that the 7300 isn't particularly powerful but it's the fact that Dell advertised it as a 256 Mb card that is the problem, not that the card is underpowered.