Ram usage with external monitor

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Level 1

95 points

Ram usage with external monitor

Hey all, I noticed something interesting yesterday while using my macbook connected to my 37 Inch LCD. The ram usage was much higher while plugged into the monitor. Could this be attributed to the embedded graphics having to work harder because the screen is bigger?? I just noticed the usage was about 300 MB more when hooked up the the external.. What do ya'll think?

Macbook/ Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHZ / 2 GIG/ 120 GIG HD - 80 GIG IPOD, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Feb 28, 2007 7:07 AM

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Answer 1

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Feb 28, 2007 7:21 AM in response to rynojoy

That would be the reason exactly. The MacBook has no dedicated memory, so any memory used for the display is taken from your system memory. I would imagine with a 37" LCD, you are using a resolution which is higher than the default for the built in display... so it is going to use more memory. The system will not allocate as much as 300MB though... it is likely a bit of that memory is being used by something else.

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Answer 2

Feb 28, 2007 10:00 AM in response to rynojoy

Hi rynojoy,

On paper, intel GMA 950 could "dinamically" use shared memory up to 224 mb, if needed.

So, I also think, the 300 mb could be used for that (including the buffer memory).

But since you already have 2GB ram, not to worry about it, since you have plenty extra ram to share and use.

Good Luck.

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Answer 3

rynojoy Author

Level 1

95 points

Feb 28, 2007 7:25 AM in response to rynojoy

I was thinking the same thing but when i unplugged it i had the exact programs running and it shows 1.07 GB available and when plugged in it says 700 MB. Kinda weird.

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