Graphics card adequate?

[Fiodis]

My laptop's graphics card is an Intel HD 3000. In the Intel control panel, it says it supports DirectX 10.1, though other utilities tell me it only supports 9.0c. Still, a lot of games have 9.0c compatibility, even if they try to take advantage of DX10/11, so I'm not that worried about those conflicting results.

What I'm a bit confused about is video card RAM. Games like Skyrim or Dark Souls require at minimum 512MB video card RAM. Systemrequirementslab.com scans my system and tells me I only have 64. I look at the Intel panel, and it tells me I have a "Minimum Graphics Memory" of 64MB, and a "Maximum Graphics Memory" of 1696MB.

Which do I go with? One's well above the minimum requirements, one's not. Is there a way to enable the higher one? How does a graphics card have different possible RAM capacities?

[Teancum]

Intel HD 3000, huh? I assume this is a laptop? I dunno that I can help you, but in my experience Systemrequirementslab.com (aka Can You Run It?) quite often gets laptop specs wrong as GPUs are more integrated with the rest of the hardware instead of being a change-out card like a desktop.

In regards to Skyrim, this first Google result of "Intel HD 3000 Skyrim" seemed quite helpful: http://communities.intel.com/thread/26239

[the best]

In my understanding of the Intel HD Graphics line, these Integrated cards will use a certain portion of your system's memory dynamically based on your needs. My laptop has an Intel HD 4000 which reserves 384 MB to 768 MB of my system memory to the Integrated GPU, this number is fixed and does not change based on the amount of RAM I have, if I instead had a 3000 model on my laptop, the maximum amount of system memory that can be allocated to the GPU will depend on how much system memory I have installed. In the BIOS, depending on your model, there could be an option to set the max allocation amount, it's usually like 64mb, 128mb, etc. It maxes out at the Max DVMT which is Dynamic Video Memory Technology, something those GPUs use to figure out how much memory needs to be allocated to itself from your RAM. The max number you are seeing is, I believe, the Max DVMT for the 3000. The amount of memory your GPU is currently using between the min/max numbers is dynamic, though sense it is integrated and thus uses your system memory, the more it feeds, the greater performance risk you get when playing games. I don't know how much RAM you have currently, but I think 8GB is plenty to avoid that risk if it ends up using all 1696MB on a regular basis for games, that parts just my opinion though, 4GB might be perfect for someone else. I hope that that lengthy explanation helps somewhat.

Remember though, the amount of memory allocated to a GPU does not necessarily mean it will be much faster/compete with dedicated GPUs, though the 4000 has a fixed amount of memory that can be allocated to it for my computer, if the amount allocated to the 3000 was higher, the 4000 could still very easily outperform the 3000. Here's a simple performance benchmark if you're curious:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Preliminar ... 658.0.html

As for the DirectX compatibility, I'm not sure why your 'other utilities' would say it's incompatible, are they 3rd party? This here is by Intel that lists their cards and DirectX version compatibility (3000 supports 10.1):

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-033757.htm

I did a similar search as Teancum for Skyrim, I didn't want to repeat him though, and if you haven't tried it yet on your laptop, I found this video from youtube which I think is gameplay of the Intel 3000 (that's what it says anyway):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaehyUfW ... e=youtu.be

EDIT:

Found this mod and though Skyrim should be fine it still looks really funny:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/17137//?

Here's a screenshot:

Hidden/Spoiler:

[Fiodis]

That makes sense. Why, though, does my Intel Graphics control panel claim my DirectX version is 11.0?

I installed Skyrim with a mod called HighAlgo Boost that renders 3x less pixels when the camera's moving. Skyrim still looks beautiful, and there's no lag at all in combat.

[the best]

Well I'd suggest the token every day "update your drivers", but I know that other people have had problems with their hardware displaying the incorrect information about DirectX with the latest versions, though it doesn't negatively affect the performance. For example, running dxdiag from the start menu alongside the Performance Information and Tools program in the Control Panel could potentially show different results, dxdiag will show the actual version, and Performance Information and Tools might show something different, which I'm betting your computer might do if you checked. The only real problem is incorrect reporting by one tool, Intel's site says 3000 only goes up to 10.1, if it is saying something higher it's incorrect. I would start worrying if applications claimed you didn't have a high enough version to run when you do have the right one, but if you're not having that problem I wouldn't worry a whole lot. If you're looking for an aesthetically pleasing Intel Graphics Control Panel you could also perform the Best Buy fix by reinstalling the OS along with the most up to date DirectX drivers and hope it might show the right thing, but that'd be a waste of time and it might not work.