Graphics problems in Ubuntu

[Colombo]

thanks, Ill try it.

 

[Colombo]

Thanks a lot, it worked. Game running slow, but it worked.

 

[raw]

Ok, well you only have 256mb of video memory and the game requires 1gb on Linux and Mac.

That 256M doesn't represent all the card's RAM, it represents a range of memory addresses used for transferring data to and from the card through the PCI bus. The video card has its own processor running its own software, so it can move data between that area and other areas of its RAM that aren't exposed through PCI.

A modern video card isn't just a dumb display device that depends on the main system to write pictures into its memory. It's really a whole separate (specialized) computer that manages its own resources for the most part.

 

[AndrewT]

Then I'd be grateful if you could tell me how to determine how much video memory a card actually has under Linux. I was just relying on what I found via Google.

 

[bucaneer]

/var/log/Xorg.0.log may contain video memory size. However, the problem is that the reporting is done by the video driver itself, and different drivers have different output formats. This hastily cobbled together command should find video memory for most cards/drivers:

grep -E 'Memory:|RAM:|VideoRam:|vram size:' /var/log/Xorg.0.log

For Nvidia proprietary drivers, the output should look like this:

(--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 1048576 kBytes

For ATI proprietary drivers:

(--) fglrx(0): Video RAM: 1048576 kByte, Type: DDR3

For ATI open source drivers (we want the number following "vram size: s:" - it's the size in bytes, in hexadecimal. In this case, it's the same 1GB as in previous examples):

(II) RADEON(0): mem size init: gart size :1fbde000 vram size: s:40000000 visible:3f1b0000

For Intel drivers:

(==) intel(0): VideoRam: 262144 KB

No output for open source Nvidia drivers (nouveau), but then again, Nvidia owners should be directed to the proprietary drivers anyway.

 

[raw]

Then I'd be grateful if you could tell me how to determine how much video memory a card actually has under Linux. I was just relying on what I found via Google.

As bucaneer already posted, that's not easily done as the only place where that information is held is in the firmware/driver of the card and it's up to the firmware/driver if and how it reports these things.
The best strategy is to simply look up the card on the internet presence of its manufacturer.

 

[AndrewT]

As bucaneer already posted, that's not easily done as the only place where that information is held is in the firmware/driver of the card and it's up to the firmware/driver if and how it reports these things.
The best strategy is to simply look up the card on the internet presence of its manufacturer.

But that only tells us how much physical video memory it has, not taking into account shared system memory. Many Intel chipsets have no Vram of their own , or only 64mb. What the game cares about is how much available Vram there is, not just the dedicated Vram.