How to Change Your Video RAM

This article goes hand and hand with the upgrading of RAM. If you upgraded your RAM you may want to change your video settings, as they don't change automatically. This is also useful for someone who has a little bit of RAM, and needs to drop down the settings of their video RAM. Video RAM settings are best at 128MBs, however you can drop it as low as 16MBs in most cases.

Sometimes certain software requires you upgrade to 128MBs of Video RAM like Vista, this often isn't possible if your motherboard isn't compatible. You may also have to upgrade your RAM in order to achieve the highest performance of your RAM. You can tell if your system is upgradeable to more Video RAM by looking at your computers specs.

Video RAM isn't a chip like memory RAM. You can easily change your Video RAM as it is located in your systems bios. You can get into your systems bios by way of restarting or simply starting up your computer. When you see the little text in the corner that says press "F* for set up", that is the F key you will want to press, only once though as multiple times isn't necessary. Be sure you press the correct F key it asks for as it will mention several different ones such as F8 for safe mode, which is not what you need at this time.

It can be a bit scary for people who don't know much about computers to enter their own bios. I remember when I use to freak out every time I entered the bios. Your systems bios does not look like any other aspects of your computer, so be prepared. I have attached pictures of mine, so you can at least have an idea of what you will meet when you enter your bios. Please keep in mind, not everyone's bios is the same.

Now that you have entered your system's bios, at the top you will see, Main - Security - Advanced - Tools - Exit. At the bottom you will see a menu full of directions. Your mouse is pointless in bios, only your keyboard is of use here. The menu at the bottom of your bios screen should read F1 is help, F5/F6 is change values, Esc is Exit, Enter is Select, F9 is Set Defaults, and F10 Save and Exit.

We will want to pay extra special attention to the "Advanced" tab. You can achieve this by pressing your arrow keys to move left and right and up and down.

Under the "Advanced" menu scroll down to the "Video Memory" press F5 to change from 16, 32, 64, 128. Then press F10 to save and exit after you have picked the choice you desire. Confirm yes by pressing enter, your computer will now boot as usual.

You will notice a difference in your computers booting time and loading of programs because you are taking your computers RAM and shifting it to another location. This is why you have the ability to adjust it for smoother loading of programs and regular computer operations.