Question on BIOS Settings for AGP Video Card, etc

[outrun]

On my BIOS settings I can set the AGP slot for a maximum of 256MB.

My installed card is 512MB on an XP SP3 machine. Does that mean half the cards memory capacity is not used or ignored by the computer?

Also, my readings on Vista say that OS locks in 128MB of video memory. Assuming a video card PCI Express interface does Vista still lock out that memory when running a game or graphics intensive application? In other words is Vista smart enough to free that memory allocation when certain demanding apps are run.

Finally, on newer motherboards & BIOS do they allow for Video Card settings of up to 1GB - 2GB to match the highest end newer video cards by Nvidia and ATI?

Thanks

Thanks

 

[LC]

Set your BIOS to 256MB and you will be fine. Your system will use all of the 512MB.
As for Vista it will use what is available to run applications.
The new high end MB have unlimited settings for Video cards. Some of the lower end MB just read the card and auto set to the cards default.

 

[OVERKILL]

The setting you are looking at is AGP Aperature size; it is the amount of memory that the video card can use of the system memory if it runs out of video memory.

I'd just set it at 256 and not worry about it, your system will likely never touch it anyways.