laptop Does reducing integrated GPU on laptop bad even tho I got discrete GPU?

[Krueger]

Greetings community, I'm kinda new here and also a newbie in the "PC" world, so pls hear me out.

 

I'm using a laptop, MSI Alpha 15 A3DDK, released on Q4 2019 I think. Next or maybe next NEXT month I wanna upgrade my RAM for a dual channel, but for the time being, I'm trying to reduce my RAM usage for my integrated GPU as I'm using my laptop always on plug so my discrete could perform a lil bit better, so I don't really care about power saving. CPU on my laptop is AMD Ryzen 7 3750H, with Radeon RX Vega 10, consuming 2,1 gigs of RAM with 8 gigs onboard RAM 2666 MHz single channel but read as 2400 MHz (is it fine? why only 2400?) so the available RAM is only 5,9 gigs. Two days ago, I found a tips on the net how to reduce RAM usage from BIOS on the iGPU and tried it. I could reduce iGPU RAM usage as small as 64 MB only and available RAM for 7,9 gigs, and after save and reset, I think there is no problem for a while while using it for gaming or working on light 3d modeling. Then I got greedy and think, how if I disable the iGPU, would the performance goin kinda crazy?

 

And as I tried, my greedy ass got whooped. After save and reset, BAM, the display goin black while the keyboard backlight still lighting up. Hard restart, nothing. Hard restart but make it 15x, still NOTHING. Goosebumps creeping on my neck. Head kinda felt spinning. Hands trembling and armpits got sweaty. "Fck! My only device that I'm using to work and gaming is dead! I fcked up big time!" Confused as fck, of course the net is the first one that I'm reachin to. Net says, just remove the CMOS battery to factory reset. I think ah I'm saved. But then I wonder, how if the CMOS battery under the set inside and I cant find it? Sh*t goin crazy in my head. Then I say fck it, give it to the pro. Driving to my friend's go-to regular pc mechanic. Mechanic says came back tomorrow. Okay, I think I'm saved. Next day, I picked up my laptop. Checking RAM on board, back to 5,9 gigs. Damn! All that crazy stuff just for NOTHIN!

 

So, long story short, I'm still not satisfied. I wanna change it again to 64 MB. But this time, I just wanna ask for input from y'all. Is it fine to change it that much? Or maybe I should tone it down to like 512 MB or 1 gigs only? Also is my 2666 MHz RAM read as 2400 MHz caused by the limitation of my CPU? If I'm gonna upgrade to dual channel, which one should I buy? 2666 or 2400?

 

Thanks! Good day y'all!

[Zagna]

64MB is fine. It is what is reserved for only the iGPU. If the iGPU needs more memory, it'll use as much of the 8GB that it needs.

[thekingofmonks]

If your Dragon Center shows a GPU switch option in the general settings section and since you don't mind it consuming more power, you can switch it to the discrete GPU so it renders everything including your desktop with the dGPU and not the iGP, which usually bottlenecks the dGPU if it uses iGP passthrough. This way you can also go to the BIOS and give it a minimal amount of vram. As for disabling it, I'm not sure whether it'll work or not. I guess it's up to you to try it on your own.

 

However, if your laptop does not support display output from a single GPU, then you can't do anything at this point. You can always limit the iGP's vram to the minimum since you're gaming with the dGPU, but that might impact on video streaming performance, depending on your browser or media player settings.

 

Btw, next time when you say "let's cut to the chase", please do "cut to the chase" and not add figures, which make the text way too long to read.

[Krueger]

29 minutes ago, Zagna said:

64MB is fine. It is what is reserved for only the iGPU. If the iGPU needs more memory, it'll use as much of the 8GB that it needs.

Ah okay, thanks Zagna! Imma think about it then.

[Krueger]

27 minutes ago, thekingofmonks said:

If your Dragon Center shows a GPU switch option in the general settings section and since you don't mind it consuming more power, you can switch it to the discrete GPU so it renders everything including your desktop with the dGPU and not the iGP, which usually bottlenecks the dGPU if it uses iGP passthrough. This way you can also go to the BIOS and give it a minimal amount of vram. As for disabling it, I'm not sure whether it'll work or not. I guess it's up to you to try it on your own.

 

However, if your laptop does not support display output from a single GPU, then you can't do anything at this point. You can always limit the iGP's vram to the minimum since you're gaming with the dGPU, but that might impact on video streaming performance, depending on your browser or media player settings.

 

Btw, next time when you say "let's cut to the chase", please do "cut to the chase" and not add figures, which make the text way too long to read.

Ahh okay and sorry if that taking too long mate. Thought I needed to provide some background and data about my problem. So my dragon center when I buy it first, there is this switchable graphics option. But along the way when the dragon center updated, the option is gone. So I must set it up in the BIOS, which now just got me thinking why they don't allow to switch it anymore cuz that causing problem or smth.

 

32 minutes ago, thekingofmonks said:

However, if your laptop does not support display output from a single GPU, then you can't do anything at this point. You can always limit the iGP's vram to the minimum since you're gaming with the dGPU, but that might impact on video streaming performance, depending on your browser or media player settings.

Now this part right here is making me scared to reduce the RAM usage cuz I dont know if this laptop gonna support display output to single gpu only or not. Guess we will never know.

 

Thanks mate! Have a good day!

[thekingofmonks]

6 hours ago, Krueger said:

Ahh okay and sorry if that taking too long mate. Thought I needed to provide some background and data about my problem. So my dragon center when I buy it first, there is this switchable graphics option. But along the way when the dragon center updated, the option is gone. So I must set it up in the BIOS, which now just got me thinking why they don't allow to switch it anymore cuz that causing problem or smth.

 

Now this part right here is making me scared to reduce the RAM usage cuz I dont know if this laptop gonna support display output to single gpu only or not. Guess we will never know.

 

Thanks mate! Have a good day!

It's alright, I get that you were frustrated.

 

The reason why it became 6GB once you turned it on is because all BIOS settings were set to factory default when you did the cmos clearing process. I assume you already knew this, just wanted to point that out.