# TurboCache

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Technology by Nvidia

[Nvidia](/source/Nvidia)'s **TurboCache** technology is a method of allowing [video cards](/source/Video_card) more available [video memory](/source/Video_memory) by using both onboard video memory and main system memory. Main memory is accessed using the high-bandwidth [PCI-Express](/source/PCI-Express) bus.[1]

TurboCache was developed as a means to provide a better cost/performance ratio by reducing the amount of memory modules on the video card. According to Nvidia, a GeForce 6200 with TurboCache will perform about four times better than the [Intel GMA 900](/source/Intel_GMA). As with integrated graphics, the operating system may report a lower amount of main memory than is physically present when main memory is used.

When TurboCache was introduced on the [GeForce 6200](/source/GeForce_6200) with TurboCache, there was confusion over how much local memory a buyer could expect from the TurboCache enabled video card. This figure could lie between 16 and 128 [MiB](/source/Mebibyte), with Nvidia listing only total memory from both video memory and main memory. Eventually, NVIDIA included only video memory sizes on marketing and packaging.

While TC can improve 3D quality in games using a great deal of video memory for texture rendering, performance of games utilizing a large percent of system RAM (such as EA Games' Battlefield series and their mods that typically consume 512 MB-1 GB RAM) can suffer dramatically on systems with 1 GB RAM or below. Some users of such setups have attempted to disable TC.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] Such an option is not supported by NVIDIA's official drivers but can be accomplished using a registry modification for [Windows XP](/source/Windows_XP) users or a configuration file modification for [X.Org Server](/source/X.Org_Server) users.

A video card with TurboCache typically is slower in 3D benchmarks than a similar video card which has its own discrete video memory.

With the release of [Direct3D 10](/source/Direct3D#Direct3D_10) providing virtual GPU memory, TurboCache was rendered obsolete in Windows as the graphics driver subsystem could transfer VRAM data in and out of system RAM if VRAM starts to get too full.[2]

## See also

- [HyperMemory](/source/HyperMemory) - similar technology previously implemented by [ATI Technologies](/source/ATI_Technologies)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Lars Weinand (2005-02-08). ["Nvidia GeForce 6200 TurboCache: Fast Name, Slower Speed"](https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-6200-turbocache,973.html). *Tom's Hardware*. Retrieved 2025-09-30.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Shimpi, Anand. ["NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 (G80): GPUs Re-architected for DirectX 10"](https://web.archive.org/web/20100404081026/http://www.anandtech.com/show/2116/2). *AnandTech*. Archived from [the original](https://www.anandtech.com/show/2116/2) on April 4, 2010. Retrieved 11 April 2025.

## External links

- [Official website](http://www.nvidia.com/page/turbocache.html)

- [GeForce 6200 TurboCache: PCI Express Made Useful](https://web.archive.org/web/20041225171435/http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2300)

v t e Nvidia GeForce (List of GPUs) Fixed pixel pipeline Pre-GeForce NV1 NV2 RIVA 128 RIVA TNT TNT2 GeForce 256 2 4 MX Vertex and pixel shaders GeForce 3 4 Ti FX 6 7 Unified shaders GeForce 8 9 100 200 300 400 500 Unified shaders & NUMA GeForce 600 700 800M 900 10 16 Ray tracing & Tensor Cores GeForce 20 30 40 50 Software and technologies Multimedia acceleration NVENC (video encoding) NVDEC (video decoding) PureVideo (video decoding) Software Cg (shading language) CUDA Nvidia GameWorks OptiX (ray tracing API) PhysX (physics SDK) Nvidia Omniverse (3D graphics) Nvidia RTX (ray tracing platform) Nvidia System Tools VDPAU (video decode API) Technologies Nvidia 3D Vision (stereo 3D) Nvidia G-Sync (variable refresh rate) Nvidia Optimus (GPU switching) Nvidia Surround (multi-monitor) MXM (module/socket) SXM (module/socket) NVLink (protocol) SLI (multi-GPU) TurboCache (framebuffer in system memory) Video Super Resolution (live video upscaling) GPU microarchitectures Celsius Kelvin Rankine Curie Tesla Fermi Kepler Maxwell Pascal Volta Turing Ampere Hopper Ada Lovelace Blackwell Rubin Feynman Other products Graphics Workstation cards Nvidia Quadro Quadro Plex GPGPU software Nvidia Tesla DGX Console components NV2A (Xbox) RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' (PlayStation 3) Tegra X1 "Erista" (Nintendo Switch) Tegra T239 "Drake" (Nintendo Switch 2) Nvidia Shield Shield Portable Shield Tablet Shield Android TV GeForce Now SoCs and embedded GoForce Drive Jetson Tegra N1 Nvidia RTX Spark CPUs Project Denver Computer chipsets nForce Company Key people Jen-Hsun Huang Chris Malachowsky Curtis Priem David Kirk Bill Dally Colette Kress Debora Shoquist Ranga Jayaraman Jonah M. Alben Acquisitions 3dfx Interactive Ageia ULi Bright Computing Cumulus Networks DeepMap Icera Mellanox Technologies Mental Images PortalPlayer Exluna MediaQ Stexar

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [TurboCache](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboCache) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboCache?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.