Question about Latitude & NVIDIA Graphics card memory

I just received a new Latitude D820 laptop.

When I placed my order for this computer, I ordered it with the 512mb
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M [320-4613].

When I checked the computer in Setup, it showed the Video memory to be
256mb. Checking further - via the NVIDIA utility it shipped with - it
identified my card as being the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M and showed TOTAL
memory of 512mb with 256mb being SHARED memory.

I looked at the NVIDIA site and found that this particular card comes in
a number of configs including 128, 256 and 512mb but is mute on whether
it's comprised of shared memory with on board or just onboard.

This might be a dumb question but is the memory listed for these high
end cards ALWAYS comprised of both on board & shared memory or did
somebody slip me the wrong card, i.e. I should have a card with 512mb on
board?

"Unquestionably Confused" <puzzled2@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:XVQUh.3865$2v1.369@newssvr14.news.prodigy.net ...
>I just received a new Latitude D820 laptop.
>
> When I placed my order for this computer, I ordered it with the 512mb
> NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M [320-4613].
>
> When I checked the computer in Setup, it showed the Video memory to be
> 256mb. Checking further - via the NVIDIA utility it shipped with - it
> identified my card as being the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M and showed TOTAL
> memory of 512mb with 256mb being SHARED memory.
>
> I looked at the NVIDIA site and found that this particular card comes in a
> number of configs including 128, 256 and 512mb but is mute on whether it's
> comprised of shared memory with on board or just onboard.
>
> This might be a dumb question but is the memory listed for these high end
> cards ALWAYS comprised of both on board & shared memory or did somebody
> slip me the wrong card, i.e. I should have a card with 512mb on board?


Only by Dell. This is an area where Dell is deceitful. Dell publishes the
total of dedicated and system memory. The other major OEMs publish the
figure just for dedicated memory.