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My machine has a Mobile Intel® GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics chipset.

The machine is currently running 64 bit windows 7 premium with 3GB of ram (1x1gb and 1x2gb).

I note that the Mobile Intel® GMA 4500MHD shares the physical memory to process the graphics.

now, the total available graphics memory can be up to 1,340 MB with a 32-bit operating system and 3 GB system memory or 1,759 MB with a 64-bit operating system and 4 GB system memory.

I am considering investing in a 4GB stick to replace the 1gb stick bringing the total up to 6gb, mainly for an increase in graphics processing ability.

Can anyone let me know what sort of power (if any over the 4gb) I could expect by upgrading to 6GB?

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I highly doubt that the graphics card is bottlenecked by the available memory. It is more likely that it is bottlenecked by the gpu itself or the speed of the available memory. By upgrading it to 6gb, you will get little if any improvement in graphics processing. However you will get a minor boost in overall performance.

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  • The memory of the integrated GMA 4500MHD GPU is shared with the system memory (hence the jump from 1340mb with 3GB and 32 bit operating system to 1759mb with 4 GB and 64 bit operating system)
    – Andy Smith
    Jun 24, 2013 at 21:54
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Memory isn't everything that affects video performance. Intel's graphics cards are just poor by design, no matter how much VRAM you give them.

Here are two screenshots from GPU-Z taken on my laptop. First one shows Intel graphics and the second one is hybrid NVIDIA graphics.

GPU-Z showing Intel graphics

GPU-Z showing NVIDIA graphics

You can see some differences.

  • NVIDIA has more shaders (and it's an old card, far from current NVIDIA models), it supports newer versions of DirectX and Shader Model (SM), it also has better Fillrate scores.
  • Intel, on the other hand, has wider bus with better bandwidth and more memory according to your information (my laptop has 6 GB of DDR3 RAM).

Still, Intel's performance is very poor compared to NVIDIA, despite the fact that Intel doesn't support antialiasing and anisotropic filtering (which make visuals on NVIDIA look better, but also degrade performance).

NVIDIA wins this round, because it's designed for handling heavier graphics: it has more high-performance graphics processing units and higher clock frequencies. Intel is dedicated for desktop use and generally provides performance comparable to 10 year old desktop graphics, but it has some extra features like accelerated video decoding.

I have never checked it, but I'm suspecting NVIDIA graphics in my laptop never uses more than 60% of its memory (1 GB total). Intel won't need even half of that amount.

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Look at this:

Can I replace my laptop's Intel GMA 4500M with Nvidia 8400M card?

No you cant since Intel GMA 4500m is an Integrated Graphics Card and 8400m Card Wont fit but you can upgrade your processor with an i3 Processor then the integrated graphics card will change and become Intel HD 3000 thus you will have a better graphics card by just upgrading your laptop's processor

Try to upgrade your CPU to i3 and graphics should be upgraded to intel hd 3000. (skyrim 30 fps)

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