256mb video ram not enough glass

I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?

"Byron Watson" wrote in message

I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?

1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

I think there is a serious problem with the nVidia drivers. They appear to install on some systems, but not on others. On my MSI K8T800 Neo2-F the nVidia drivers will not load correctly for either x86 or x64. I get Glass at 1024 x 760 with 32-bit color on a 15 inch LCD with the drivers included in Vista.
My guess is the drivers need to be updated, but I can't find where on the nVidia site to post feedback. I did on one page and received a response that was the wrong place, but no info about where the right place was.
Tom Lake wrote:

"Byron Watson" wrote in message I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?
1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

Did you download the video drivers for Vista? I have no problems with mine, runnign SLI with 2 7800GTX's on a 20" ACD HD, @ 1680x1050@32-bit
"Rick" wrote:

I think there is a serious problem with the nVidia drivers. They appear to install on some systems, but not on others. On my MSI K8T800 Neo2-F the nVidia drivers will not load correctly for either x86 or x64. I get Glass at 1024 x 760 with 32-bit color on a 15 inch LCD with the drivers included in Vista.
My guess is the drivers need to be updated, but I can't find where on the nVidia site to post feedback. I did on one page and received a response that was the wrong place, but no info about where the right place was.
Tom Lake wrote: "Byron Watson" wrote in message I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?
1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

Yes. I downloaded the ones directly from the nVidia web site, Version: 88.61. I acknowledged that not all people are experiencing problems, and some of the problem may lie with Vista, too.
JacKSProuT wrote:

Did you download the video drivers for Vista? I have no problems with mine, runnign SLI with 2 7800GTX's on a 20" ACD HD, @ 1680x1050@32-bit
"Rick" wrote:
I think there is a serious problem with the nVidia drivers. They appear to install on some systems, but not on others. On my MSI K8T800 Neo2-F the nVidia drivers will not load correctly for either x86 or x64. I get Glass at 1024 x 760 with 32-bit color on a 15 inch LCD with the drivers included in Vista.
My guess is the drivers need to be updated, but I can't find where on the nVidia site to post feedback. I did on one page and received a response that was the wrong place, but no info about where the right place was.
Tom Lake wrote: "Byron Watson" wrote in message I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)? 1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

"Byron Watson" wrote in message

I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?

It's not the amount of RAM as much as whether or not the card supports DirectX 9.
-- Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, OE/WM Please reply in newsgroup.

I agree with you. I have an ATI 9800 Pro 128meg card, and the glass works fairly well, and sometimes it disappears, but this beta too. If I use Firefox, it turns off for some reason, and I get a prompt as to that happening.
"Rick" wrote in message

I think there is a serious problem with the nVidia drivers. They appear to install on some systems, but not on others. On my MSI K8T800 Neo2-F the nVidia drivers will not load correctly for either x86 or x64. I get Glass at 1024 x 760 with 32-bit color on a 15 inch LCD with the drivers included in Vista.
My guess is the drivers need to be updated, but I can't find where on the nVidia site to post feedback. I did on one page and received a response that was the wrong place, but no info about where the right place was.
Tom Lake wrote: "Byron Watson" wrote in message I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?
1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

A number of programs will cause Glass to turn off when it detects an issue caused by the program.
"Tom" wrote in message

I agree with you. I have an ATI 9800 Pro 128meg card, and the glass works fairly well, and sometimes it disappears, but this beta too. If I use Firefox, it turns off for some reason, and I get a prompt as to that happening.
"Rick" wrote in message I think there is a serious problem with the nVidia drivers. They appear to install on some systems, but not on others. On my MSI K8T800 Neo2-F the nVidia drivers will not load correctly for either x86 or x64. I get Glass at 1024 x 760 with 32-bit color on a 15 inch LCD with the drivers included in Vista.
My guess is the drivers need to be updated, but I can't find where on the nVidia site to post feedback. I did on one page and received a response that was the wrong place, but no info about where the right place was.
Tom Lake wrote: "Byron Watson" wrote in message I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?
1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?
It's not the amount of RAM as much as whether or not the card supports DirectX 9. Frank his card should support DirectX 9 after all his is a GF6 (6200) not 2600 he just got the number backwards.

It is the Nvidia drivers. I had to re-install Vista because of those drivers. I am running on the MS drivers and I now have Glass running just fine.
"Byron Watson" wrote in message

I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?

Although 256MB should be enough, the VRAM requirements are more extensive than what you illustrate. Not taking into account any texture compression being done by the hardware, you would potentially need that 8.7MB of VRAM for every maximized application window plus some for the glass (presumably shared among windows) and other incidentals. Then you need that much again for the final composited scene.
Here's a great series of articles on how it works: http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/archive/2006/03/25/561167.aspx
"Tom Lake" wrote in message

1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

I found that, for whatever reason, rerunning the performance rating program caused the aero to turn on.
"Neal" wrote in message

It is the Nvidia drivers. I had to re-install Vista because of those drivers. I am running on the MS drivers and I now have Glass running just fine.
"Byron Watson" wrote in message I have a curious problem that I thought I'd share.
I have a PC (3Ghz CPU, 1 GB RAM), clean 8384.4 install, nVidia 2600 256 MB RAM video card, and an Apple 23" monitor. Resolution is 1920x1200.
At that resolution, I can't get aero glass to turn on. At a lower resolution, I can.
Does this mean that 256MB video RAM is not enough for 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit color)?

"Chris Altmann" wrote in message

Although 256MB should be enough, the VRAM requirements are more extensive than what you illustrate. Not taking into account any texture compression being done by the hardware, you would potentially need that 8.7MB of VRAM for every maximized application window plus some for the glass (presumably shared among windows) and other incidentals. Then you need that much again for the final composited scene.

Vista is still windows95 like... allot of 'cheap' tricks and workaround to make old/ 'legacy' application works.
For the vram consumption, the wddm take care of swapping in/out of video memory resources, also AGP/PCI-Express allot texturing from system memory. Even so phisical video memory is good for performance, but shouldn't be needed for functionality. To be noted, ATI dont have optimized driver yet for this usage on AGP system (maybe even PCI-exp)
But its no wonder that opening a few windows take 100+ meg of system memory.
Micrososft could surely put a coupon for a 1gigabyte memory stick in their Vista OS upgrade box.
In short, my view is that it will take a miracle for Vista to run as well with 1gig as XP does with 512 meg. And most people I know use 1 gig under XP... For the people that use 2 gig, they have to cross over and get a 64bit CPU.. hummm...
Stephan

Here's a great series of articles on how it works: http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/archive/2006/03/25/561167.aspx
"Tom Lake" wrote in message
1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake

I have no idea what you are saying at the end, "For the people that use 2 gig, they have to cross over and get a 64bit CPU.. hummm..."
I use 2GB of ram on all my XP x86 systems. They do not have 64bit cpu's.
"Stephan Schaem" wrote in message

"Chris Altmann" wrote in message Although 256MB should be enough, the VRAM requirements are more extensive than what you illustrate. Not taking into account any texture compression being done by the hardware, you would potentially need that 8.7MB of VRAM for every maximized application window plus some for the glass (presumably shared among windows) and other incidentals. Then you need that much again for the final composited scene.
Vista is still windows95 like... allot of 'cheap' tricks and workaround to make old/ 'legacy' application works.
For the vram consumption, the wddm take care of swapping in/out of video memory resources, also AGP/PCI-Express allot texturing from system memory. Even so phisical video memory is good for performance, but shouldn't be needed for functionality. To be noted, ATI dont have optimized driver yet for this usage on AGP system (maybe even PCI-exp)
But its no wonder that opening a few windows take 100+ meg of system memory.
Micrososft could surely put a coupon for a 1gigabyte memory stick in their Vista OS upgrade box.
In short, my view is that it will take a miracle for Vista to run as well with 1gig as XP does with 512 meg. And most people I know use 1 gig under XP... For the people that use 2 gig, they have to cross over and get a 64bit CPU.. hummm...
Stephan

Here's a great series of articles on how it works: http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/archive/2006/03/25/561167.aspx
"Tom Lake" wrote in message
1920*1200*32/8 = 9216000 bytes needed. Clearly (no pun intended!) 256MB is plenty.
There must be a driver issue involved.
Tom Lake