A game asks for 6 GB of VRAM. DxDiag proudly shows your PC has 16 GB of display memory. Both numbers came from your own machine — but only one of them is your graphics card's real memory, and picking the wrong one is an expensive mistake.
The Display tab of dxdiag is where most people check their graphics card — and it contains the most misunderstood number in all of PC specifications: Approx. Total Memory. This page explains what that figure actually adds together, where Windows shows the real, dedicated VRAM (Task Manager), and how the video's tool, CPU-Z, confirms it — so the next time a game or an editing app states a VRAM requirement, you compare it against the truth.
One machine, two very different memory figures. The Approx. Total line adds shared system RAM; the dedicated line is the card's own VRAM. Example values — yours will differ.
dxdiag and press Enter. If Windows asks about checking driver signatures, you can safely say NoThat number is not your card's VRAM. It is your card's dedicated memory plus a share of normal system RAM that Windows is allowed to lend to graphics work. An 8 GB card in a 16 GB PC can easily show 16 GB here.
Shared memory is real and useful as an overflow — but it is ordinary RAM reached through the system, far slower than the memory chips soldered onto the graphics card. Games and editing software feel the dedicated memory first. Comparing a game's "6 GB VRAM required" against the Approx. Total figure is the single most common way people talk themselves into a purchase that will stutter.
The dedicated figure here is the number to write down. It matches what the card maker printed on the box.
The video's tool agrees with Task Manager — which is how a cross-check should end. In CPU-Z, open the Graphics tab: Name gives the exact GPU model, Memory Size gives the VRAM fitted on the card itself, and Memory Type (such as GDDR6) and Bus Width complete the picture. On a dual-graphics laptop, use the Display Device Selection dropdown to inspect each GPU in turn — the small integrated one will honestly show little or no memory of its own, because it borrows system RAM by design.
Always the dedicated number. If a game asks for 6 GB VRAM and your card has 4 GB dedicated — whatever the shared total says — expect textures to drop, stutter in heavy scenes, or settings to be capped. If your dedicated memory meets the requirement, the shared pool is just a safety net you will rarely touch. One sentence to remember: buy and compare on dedicated, treat shared as a bonus.
GPU name, memory size and memory type read in CPU-Z, plus the CPU, board and RAM tabs — the complete check is in the full video.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBecause Approx. Total Memory is a sum: your card's dedicated VRAM plus the shared system memory Windows can lend to graphics tasks. The box states only the dedicated memory fitted on the card. Both figures are honest — they are just measuring different things, and requirements should always be compared with the dedicated figure.
Your laptop has two graphics processors: an integrated GPU inside the processor (used for light work to save battery) and a dedicated graphics card (used for games and heavy apps). Each gets its own tab. If a game feels slow, check in Windows graphics settings that it is assigned to the high-performance dedicated GPU.
No — that is a known reporting limit. The AdapterRAM value returned by Get-CimInstance Win32_VideoController is a 32-bit number and cannot report more than about 4 GB, so larger cards are shown capped. For the true VRAM figure, use the Dedicated GPU memory line on Task Manager's GPU page or the Memory Size in CPU-Z's Graphics tab.