oldman1944 Posted June 5, 2006 Share Posted June 5, 2006 Mac mini defaults to 64mb vram which is "Fixed" and allocated from on-board memory. However, with the MAc mini running WindowsXP, the default vram is 124mb (tested and confirmed). From the research that I have done on the GMA950 video there is a setting (software) in the driver (AppleIntelGMA950.kext???) that will allow you to have memory allocated based on overall memory installed. The whole operation is controlled by DVMT (Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) 3.0 White Paper from Intel) where both "FIXED + DVMT" are set. Beyond this I don't have a clue. My System Machine Name: Mac mini Machine Model: Macmini1,1 CPU Type: Intel Core Duo Number Of Cores: 2 CPU Speed: 1.66 GHz L2 Cache (shared): 2 MB Memory: 1 GB Bus Speed: 667 MHz Boot ROM Version: MM11.0055.B03 Thanks Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
antic Posted June 5, 2006 Share Posted June 5, 2006 I think there's a bit of kidology going on here from apple. I tried the system profiler from 10.4.3 on my mac mini and it shows there is 256 mg vram available. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-125303 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigboss Posted June 5, 2006 Share Posted June 5, 2006 I think there's a bit of kidology going on here from apple. I tried the system profiler from 10.4.3 on my mac mini and it shows there is 256 mg vram available. how could you try the system profiler from 10.4.3 on a mini? the first retail version of the intel tiger was 10.4.4 that is unless you are referring to your "hac mini"* and not your "mac mini" or you somehow got 10.4.3 to work on your mac (HOW?) *hac not hack!!! - it was deliberate Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-125309 Share on other sites More sharing options...
antic Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 I too had been trying to find out what the situation was with the graphics memory, and like most got nothing but confusion. Someone on the forum suggested I tried loading the profiler from 10.4.3 to see if there was any difference. So thats what I did and hey presto 256 meg vram! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-125828 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldman1944 Posted June 6, 2006 Author Share Posted June 6, 2006 The info shown with 10.4.3 profile is not correct as there is no GMA950 driver with that version. The way the vram works is discribed in http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/applnots/302623.htm Still looking Thanks Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-125887 Share on other sites More sharing options...
antic Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 To be honest I don't care whether its correct or not. Its just something I tried out. It doesn't make my system run any better and to be honest I,ve stopped worring about it. Make the most of what you've got. If you dont like it get an imac. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-125982 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shimms Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 But it also applies to the Macbook, which only has 64Mb of shared memory available. I'd personally like to bump that up to 128Mb. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-126029 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bofors Posted June 6, 2006 Share Posted June 6, 2006 I think this would require a simple hack to the EFI firmware, that is changing the amount of memory available to the GMA 950 from 64 MB to whatever is desired up to the limit of 224 MB. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-126030 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldman1944 Posted June 7, 2006 Author Share Posted June 7, 2006 If the change in vram shows up under windows driver as 124mb, through software, I would think it would be the same by changing the Mac driver. But I just don't know enough to dissassemble the appleintelGMA950 Driver Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-126118 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Did anyone ever find an answer to this? I, too, would love to allocate more vram. Surely it's a simple process. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-170982 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldman1944 Posted August 21, 2006 Author Share Posted August 21, 2006 still looking and hopeing. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-171191 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogabean Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Myself and Munky were just somewhat discussing this. I'm pretty sure that the limitation is in the driver itself as Windows reports 224MB RAM for the card (the shared limit of the GMA950) on a Mac Book per Munky's test. The question I would have here is what exactly is boot camp passing as info for the card and what is EFi passing? Compared with what information is present in the GMA's driver in OS X? It certainly has to be possible to get the card to 224MB in OS X, as it is a software limitation imposed by Apple in OS X that makes it 64MB. I would guess that Apple had a reason though... The other question here is whether or not Apple has made fixed at 64 or whether or not it will dynamically allocate more RAM if an application requests it? Has anyone tried to load something under OS X that requires say 128MB RAM to run? If so, what was the result? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-171240 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldman1944 Posted August 22, 2006 Author Share Posted August 22, 2006 Bootcamp (apple) does not supply driver, driver is the intel version from intel. http://downloadmirror.intel.com/df-support...NG/relnotes.htm I have installed both drivers without any difference, both installs show 224mb vram. I have run unreal tournament 2004 on both systems with the same graphics settings and the windows version is 2 to 4 times faster depending on arena selected. I found a dissassembler called "otx" http://rapidshare.de/files/29248924/otx.zip which seemed to work on the GMA950 driver, but I don't know what I am looking at or for. Hope this helps. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-172020 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kneeslasher Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Uncapping the GMA950 would indeed help bump the Mac Mini up in users' estimations, especially for those with 2GB of RAM. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/19125-any-way-to-change-vram-allocation-in-a-mac-mini/#findComment-295450 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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