Is it possible to use more than the allocated base amount of video memory? On a MacBook Pro with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU, the amount of allocated video memory is 384 MB, as can be seen on this Apple support page  (scroll down to HD Graphics 3000)

This GPU, however, is known to allocate base memory based on available RAM. In particular, for 8 GB RAM, it is expected to allocate 512 MB. It seems Apple has chosen to override this, and allocate only 384 MB instead.


8 GB of RAM, 512 MB allocated. Exception: 384 MB is allocated on
15-inch and 17-inch systems


My question is, since the GPU supports upto 512 MB, is there a possibility to actually use that amount of memory for an application?
It supports up to 512MB on 13" models.

I'm afraid if your model is 15" or 17" there's nothing you can do.

Oh wait, your last chance is to upgrade (coming this fall) to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan which includes Metal, a new graphic framework. I have El Captain Beta installed and the allocated GPU memory went from 1024 MB (in Yosemite) to 1536 MB.