text: Eyonic Systems: How Much RAM is Really Available to your Video Card?
  How Much RAM is Really Available to your Video Card?
  Video cards come with onboard RAM, or memory. In addition to their built-in memory, they also access memory from the device they are installed in. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to tell how much RAM a video card has access to until trying to install additional software. Sometimes programs will fail to install due to insufficient video RAM while other times the program will install but does not run correctly.
  If you are looking to purchase or install new software, be sure the device meets the existing requirements, including video card RAM. To find out if the existing video card on your device is sufficient, check the information for the video card to find out how much RAM it has available for use. With this information you can determine if the device needs additional RAM, a higher end video card, or if there is another type of software with lower requirements that can fulfill the same needs.
  Finding out how much RAM is available to your video card will help you make a decision when it comes to adding new software. When there is not enough RAM available for the video card, these are some options:
  Choose a comparable software with lower requirements
  Add additional RAM to the device which is cheaper than upgrading the video card
  First, find out how much RAM is available to the video card to find out if it is enough.
  In category view, select "Appearance and Personalization".
  In the Display menu, click "Change display settings" in the left menu. This will bring up the Settings menu.
  In the Settings menu, scroll down on the right and click "Advanced display settings".
  In the Advanced display settings menu, scroll down and click "Display adapter properties".
  The statistics for the video card are displayed on the Adapter tab.
  On a Windows 7 device:
  In category view, click "Adjust screen resolution" under the Appearance and Personalization heading.
  In the display menu, click the "Advanced settings" link.
  Whether you are investigating new software or troubleshooting issues with existing software, knowing how much RAM is available to the video card helps. Equipped with this information, check the minimum and recommended specifications for any new or existing software to see if the video card meets those specifications. If the device does not have enough RAM, read this post to get more video card RAM without buying a new video card as video cards can cost hundreds of dollars.
  It is also important to check the requirements for the CPU, storage and system RAM as listed by the software. These settings are more common to find than video specifications meaning video specifications often get overlooked until they cause issues.
  As always, having the right information can save time, money and frustration while knowing how to access that information is key!