How To Increase Dedicated VRAM On Windows 10/11

Many of today’s most basic tasks on a computer require some type of graphics card. These include watching or editing videos, playing games, and even using a word processor.

However, some tasks are more demanding than others, and integrated GPUs can struggle to keep up. This is especially true for iGPUs that lack enough VRAM (Video Random Access Memory).

Fortunately, there is a way to increase VRAM on Windows 10 or 11.

Here’s how to do that.

What Is VRAM, And Why Do You Need More Of It?

It is crucial to comprehend what VRAM is to ascertain whether or not it is worth enhancing it on your system.

Video Random Access Memory is memory dedicated to the graphics card used to store and process visual data. This makes graphics processing considerably smoother and more responsive, resulting in an improved average framerate in video games and reducing stuttering.

This also means the GPU won’t occupy too much system RAM, which can further improve your experience when watching videos or gaming.

Today, the majority of video games have a minimum VRAM requirement. This means that if you don’t have enough VRAM, it won’t start, even if your GPU is otherwise powerful enough to run it.

Insufficient VRAM can also cause stuttering and frequent framerate drops.

Check How Much VRAM You Have

Before proceeding, let’s check exactly how much VRAM you have and by how much you might need to increase it.

1. Right-click on your desktop and select Display settings
   
2. Scroll down to the bottom to find Advanced display settings.
   
3. From here, go to Display adapter properties for Display #.
4. This should open a new window where you can see exactly how much VRAM you have under Total Available Graphics Memory.
   

Increasing VRAM

There are a couple of ways you can increase your VRAM. You can trick the game into thinking your GPU has more VRAM than it actually does, which will allow you to start the game. Alternatively, you can allocate part of your system’s memory (RAM) to VRAM.

Increasing Dedicated VRAM Through BIOS

The only way you can truly increase your GPU’s VRAM is via your computer’s BIOS.

Different hardware brands have different BIOS. It’s possible that your specific model does not have the option to allocate system RAM to VRAM. If the option is available, here’s what you need to do.

1. Restart your computer.
2. To enter BIOS, you need to press the appropriate button during the boot-up sequence. The most common keys used to enter BIOS are Delete, F2, F9, or F10.
3. Once you’ve entered the BIOS, look for Video (or Graphics) settings. Under this category, you should be able to find the option VGA Share Memory Size or DVMT (Dynamic video memory technology).
4. There should be a couple of choices under this option. Choose the amount of RAM you want to allocate to VRAM. The options usually range between 32MB and 512MB.
5. Save your BIOS changes and restart the computer.

That’s all you need to do. When you next boot your computer, your GPU should have more VRAM available. Try launching the game that previously gave you trouble to find out how it performs.

If you still encounter the same problem, you can try tricking it.

Increasing Dedicated VRAM With Regedit

To force Windows 10 or 11 to report more VRAM than it really has, you will need to use the Registry Editor or regedit.

1. To access regedit, you can either use the Windows key + R shortcut or right-click Start and click Run.
2. Type regedit and press OK.
   
3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREIntel.
4. Right-click the Intel folder, click New, then Key, and name the new folder GMM.
   
5. Select the new GMM folder, right-click on the empty space on the right side of Registry Editor, click New, then DWORD (32-bit) Value.
6. Right-click the newly created value and rename it as DedicatedSegmentSize.
7. Double-click the value to edit it. Under Value data, enter a value between 0 and 512. The value you enter is how much VRAM Windows 10 or 11 will report. You should also make sure that the Decimal option is selected under Base.
   

To save these modifications, you might need to restart your computer. After the restart, try relaunching the game, and it should run. You will probably need to optimize the game’s settings for improved performance. To decrease VRAM usage, we suggest decreasing the in-game resolution.

Upgrade Your Dedicated GPU

If you’re still experiencing performance issues with your game, there is, unfortunately, no other way of attempting to trick the system.

The only other solution is to physically increase your VRAM, and the only way to do that is by upgrading your hardware. Specifically, this means upgrading your GPU. Unfortunately, purchasing and installing a GPU is neither cheap nor easy. However, it is your only remaining option.

We trust this article was informative to assist you in boosting your dedicated VRAM on Windows 10 or 11.