DXDIAG Approx Total Memory question

[LudwikK]

What is the Approx. Total Memory in DXDIAG and why does it shows my 970 Strix to have 12170MB of memory? 

 

My specs: 

CPU				Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.62GHz
Motherboard				ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77
Memory				Corsair Vengeance 8Gb 1600MHz (Black)
Memory #2				Corsair Vengeance 8Gb 1600MHz (Blue)
Video Card				ASUS STRIX-GTX970
Power Supply				Corsair HX1050
Storage				Intel 520 Series SSD (240Gb)

[C2dan88]

For me it is reporting 8102MB for my GTX970

 

From googling the approx memory reported by DXDiag includes both VRAM and System Shared Memory.

[LudwikK]

I'm asking because a friend of mine wants to get 32gb of ram to.. have more graphic memory and I feel like it's not how it works.

[C2dan88]

If they are using a dedicated GPU (PCI-Express) it can use System RAM but with reduced performance, so no benefit.

 

What will benefit is if they have an AMD APU (or integrated graphics) and it is fast memory then that can help with performance.