technical question

[hot dog]

My question is regarding the general use of graphics cards.  If a graphics card does not have enough video RAM when playing a game, does it utilize the RAM on the motherboard to compensate, or use the page file on the hard drive, like virtual memory?

[Calum]

I believe will use system RAM as a sort of paging file, in the same way that when system RAM is used up, the hard drive's paging file is used.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but data being processed by the Video Card will be temporarily stored in the Video Card's memory.
When the data is being used for an application or program, it is stored in the RAM.
If the data is being used, but no very often, it will be in the computers Virtual Memory.

[Calum]

I took the question to mean textures and objects within the game, which are stored within the video card's onboard memory.
So, if the card has 512MB of VRAM, and the buffer fills up with objects and the game needs to load some more textures, what happens then?
As far as I am aware, the files are loaded form system RAM into the VRAM, which is one of the causes of stuttering in some games.
I could be wrong though, I'm no expert.