Increasing allocated video RAM?

[Twilight Wolf]

After struggling for several nights in a row to get "Team Fortress 2" running on my laptop and then seeing my sister's laptop, which is a similar model a year or so older than mine and has what I'm fairly sure is the same integrated graphics card, running it almost perfectly with merely a custom config, I've reached the undeniable conclusion that my video RAM, or lack thereof, is causing my problems. Since it's an integrated card, I wondered if it could utilize my system RAM, and a quick Google search confirmed that this is indeed the case. It's obviously not "dynamically adjusted" or whatever the phrasing was since "TF2" totally chugs, but after doing a bit more research, I determined that I could also increase the amount allocated to graphics, which should fix my problem... but, as is typical, none of my results told me how. I know it's capable of such: descriptions of this very laptop on multiple shopping websites and on Toshiba's website say it supports up to 256MB video RAM, but I can't figure out how to adjust the amount of onboard RAM allocated to graphics. There's nothing in the BIOS about it, as was the most commonly suggested solution, and no such options in Control Panel.

I'm getting highly frustrated, as you can imagine, as this is by far the best solution I've come across but so far I've discovered absolutely nothing on how to implement it... Help?

[vskid]

Are you 100% sure there isn't anything in the BIOS? Check every menu, however unlikely, and read the descriptions (if it has them). How much ram do you have? I believe that some systems will allocate more memory to the gpu if you have more system memory.

[Twilight Wolf]

I double-checked every BIOS option and read every description, and the closest thing I could find was the amount of system RAM I had installed (1.5GB, by the way). I even flashed the most recent version of the BIOS last night - it looked like more options were available, but still nothing like I needed. There was no video RAM increase when I added extra memory a couple of weeks ago...

[vskid]

Hm, could you borrow some ram from other laptops to bump it up to 2GB and see if that increases the video memory? How much ram does your sister's laptop have? Maybe there is a setting in the graphics card utility in the control panel. Remember to try running the game instead of relying on something like gpu-z to tell you what the memory is. Usually the gpu uses minimal memory, only using more when its needed, so you probably couldn't tell the difference.

[Twilight Wolf]

My sister has 1GB, I think. Aside from that, I already mentioned everything else:

After struggling for several nights in a row to get "Team Fortress 2" running on my laptop...

It's obviously not "dynamically adjusted" or whatever the phrasing was since "TF2" totally chugs...

...no such options in Control Panel.

I bet you I could double my available video RAM if I were running XP instead of Vista, but there's no way I'm going to lose everything on my HDD for a game I got for $2...

[HotDog-Cart]

You could turn all of the flashy features of vista off, and then try.

Vista is also a ramhog, which needs like 2gb of ram to function nicely.

I suggest, closing every other program, firewall, and turning off all of vista's flashy features.

[Twilight Wolf]

Did all of the above except for the firewall and nothing helped.

Also, Vista's plenty good enough on just 1GB. Adding an extra 512MB helped noticeably with speed, though. (I was hoping to have 2GB at the end of the process, but I had 2 512MB RAM cards installed instead of just one 1GB card.)

[ghosstt]

A quick google led to this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=99527" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Try running a game in windowed mode, then do it.

Also found this: (I know you said you checked, but did you look for VGA RAM?)

Enter the bios when your copmuter boots and before the OS loads, usually you hit the del or F1 or F2 or F whatever key to enter the bios.

From there increase the VGA ram and save to CMOS and exit.

YOu laptop supports upto 319MB shared Video RAM. You will only be able to max your VGA RAM if you have 2GB of system RAM installed. Any less and it will restrict it below the 319MB to say 128MB.

You have an integrated GPU, which is built-into your motherboard and cannot be upgraded. You need to buy a better laptop if you are not satisfied with its performance and want a change.

[antrock101]

As far as i know you can through on increase video ram through BIOS by setting the AGP aperature size. Some laptops wont have it. However somthing that works strangly for me in bios is to turn 1 cpu, no idea why but it works sometimes. odd world eh!

[Twilight Wolf]

I've triple-checked the BIOS and have found none of the settings people mention... I guess it can't be done manually.

However, I tried what ghosstt said, and I have no idea why it didn't occur to me before, but when I ran "Team Fortress 2," I looked at my graphics card information and saw that I was using 140-something MB of Video RAM. I guess it does adjust itself automatically after all and my computer just sucks for gaming, period.