Not able to use all my vid memory

I've been out of the game for a couple months now and just recently reinstalled the game. When I went to adjust my vid settings, SL is only allowing me to choose 32mb of memory... My card has 128...

I've got a second vid card in my machine that is used for code debugging, THAT card has 32 megs but is PCI. SL is using the AGP card, but seems to think it only has 32 megs...

This is driving me bonkers, any help?

Hmm, that's really strange. Out of curiousity, what happens if you were to temporarily remove your PCI video card? Yes, I know you don't want to do that, but hear me out.

If it is the PCI card that's doing that, perhaps the Lindens can provide you with a command line switch to let you to specify a greater amount of memory? If removing the PCI card helps, it's obviously their method of VRAM detection code that's screwing up.

If they can't help you, or just make embarassed noises, while adding it to the list, you might consider leaving the PCI card out. What kind of AGP video card do you have? I assume it has two video ports, right? Why not just plug both monitors into it? That's what I do.

If you're already doing that, and your PCI card powers a third monitor, or your card doesn't have a second DVI or VGA port, then I'm not really sure what to suggest... appeal to the Lindens, I guess. You really need 128MB of video memory to enjoy SL.

You could try hunting down the SecondLife preferences file and changing the AGP memory settings in it.

I have this exact same problem. I use a dinky Dell Dimension 2400, which doesn't have an AGP card. Other than SL, I don't really play computer games, so Graphics card was not a priority in my choices of computers....price was. I was blown away by Second Life, even though it was crashing after about every 10 mins of running on my computer using the onboard memory.

I went out and bought an ATI Radeon 9200, PCI graphics card, 128megs. Big improvement, but under Preferences, my client only allows me to choose up to 64megs. Any idea on this?

Yeah, it's probably the method of hardware detection the Lindens are using. You should contact them and ask if there's some way you could extend it manually.

Also, I'm assuming you have onboard video on that AGP-less system? Is it disabled in BIOS?

Yes, it came with on-board video/graphics.....I have no idea how to disable it in the BIOS....does that mean that my ATI card isn't even being used? Oi, I think I know just enough about computers to know how little I know about them.....May I try to track you down in-world to discuss this further, Cath?

<edit> Got into the control panel and I think I've managed to turn off my onboard memory.....not only was it maxed out at 64megs of memory, it was shared memory, rather than dedicated. Managed also to get my SL client to recognize the 128megs of memory on my vid card and am now pulling 15-20 fps instead of 1-5 fps. Will continue to tweak with 'puter to see if I can improve it further.

A Lag-clinic would be a great in-world class.