Windows 11 will let you manually allocate memory to graphics. This will be useful for gamers and AI

As long as computers had a graphics card with its own memory, everything was clear: so many gigabytes for the system, so many for graphics. However, with newer chips where the processor and graphics share a single common pool, the lines have blurred – and Microsoft is apparently preparing a feature that will give you control over that division.

What was found in the system

The discovery comes from a test build of Windows 11 with the number 29648.1000, which was released on August 17. It hides an unfinished feature called IntelligentCarveout and its associated component for unified memory settings.

The description in the system is clear: Windows should be able to reserve additional unified memory for graphically and computationally demanding games and applications, with such reserved memory no longer being available to other programs. The interface specifically mentions memory for accelerators and separate settings for graphics and artificial intelligence acceleration.

Why it makes sense

Today, Windows dynamically allocates shared memory – applications take what they need, and the system continuously rebalances it. This is ideal for everyday work. The problem arises when both a game and a locally running language model want a large chunk of memory simultaneously, or when a background application takes up so much that the game stutters.

A fixed reserved portion eliminates this resource contention. Interestingly, AMD already offers a similar option in its drivers – with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 setup with 128 GB of memory, up to 96 GB can be reserved for graphics, naturally at the expense of the processor. Microsoft would bring the same functionality directly into the system.

The main reason is likely new hardware

The timing does not seem coincidental. Nvidia is preparing the RTX Spark platform, which combines Arm architecture CPU cores with Blackwell graphics and up to 128 GB of unified memory. Microsoft has previously publicly stated that it is raising the memory ceiling available to the graphics chip because of this, to allow larger local AI models to be loaded. Incidentally, the concept of unified memory was largely popularized by Apple with its M-series chips.

Temper your enthusiasm

Several things need to be said aloud. The feature is hidden and cannot be enabled through normal settings. Build 29648 belongs to an experimental channel that Microsoft uses to test changes long before they reach the public – and the company itself warns that features there may change, disappear, or never make it out of testing.

And one more note for those who want to calculate that 128 GB of unified memory will outperform a graphics card with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory. More memory does not mean faster memory. A larger space can accommodate a larger model or a more voluminous project, but the dedicated memory of a discrete graphics card operates with significantly higher throughput. The two numbers simply cannot be compared side by side.

Would you manually set how much memory the graphics get, or would you rather leave it to the system?

Sources: Windows Central, VideoCardz, Notebookcheck, TechPowerUp