Graphics Card

[robodestructo]

Hey everybody, well, my parents are letting me buy a new laptop for school, and I think I found a good one... Im going to get a HP Pavilion dv2910us 14.1" Widescreen Entertainment Laptop from circuit city and I needed some last minute advice... I wanted to know more about GFX cards... I coudlnt really figure out how to tell weather or not the GFX card is good, keep in mind, I wanna be able to play games like Prince of Persia, Swat4, Halo2, etc. those are just an example of some of the games I wanted... heres the product specifications, Im wondering if anybody can tell we what the graphics card is and if it meets the requirements... BTW, my bro has a HP Pavilion CP and ive seen how awsome they are... so dont tell me to pick another CP..

Processor
Processor brand ?
Processor brand: Intel®

Refers to the company that manufactures the processor.

View full glossary
close window

Processor brand: Refers to the company that manufactures the processor.
Intel®
Processor type ?
Processor type: Core 2 Duo

The generation/basic model of the processor.

View full glossary
close window

Processor type: The generation/basic model of the processor.
Core 2 Duo
Processor speed ?
Processor speed: 1.83GHz

The number of calculations that the processor can handle in one second measured in millions of cycles (MHz).

View full glossary
close window

Processor speed: The number of calculations that the processor can handle in one second measured in millions of cycles (MHz).
1.83GHz
Bus speed ?
Bus speed: 667MHz

The maximum rate of communication between the processor and the rest of the system, measured in millions of cycles (MHz).

View full glossary
close window

Bus speed: The maximum rate of communication between the processor and the rest of the system, measured in millions of cycles (MHz).
667MHz
Level 2 cache 2MB
Memory
RAM 3GB
RAM expandable to: 4GB
Memory type (RAM) Info unavailable
Expansion slots 2
Available expansion slots 0
Storage/Drives
Hard drive speed 5400RPM
Hard drive size ?
Hard drive size: 250GB

Hard drive space is typically measured in Gigabytes (GB) or storage; the larger the number, the more programs, games and data you can use on your computer.

View full glossary
close window

Hard drive size: Hard drive space is typically measured in Gigabytes (GB) or storage; the larger the number, the more programs, games and data you can use on your computer.
250GB
Burns DVDs Yes
Graphics and sound
Screen size (diagonal) ?
Screen size (diagonal): 14.1"

TV screens are measured diagonally, from corner to corner. HDTVs often look smaller than SDTVs with the same screen size because of the wider 16:9 aspect ratio.

View full glossary
close window

Screen size (diagonal): TV screens are measured diagonally, from corner to corner. HDTVs often look smaller than SDTVs with the same screen size because of the wider 16:9 aspect ratio.
14.1"
Maximum screen resolution 1280 x 800
Video memory 358MB
Video memory type Shared
Ports
TV tuner ?
TV tuner: Optional

A TV tuner lets you watch broadcast TV on the system.

View full glossary
close window

TV tuner: A TV tuner lets you watch broadcast TV on the system.
Optional
Express card Yes
S-video out Yes
Media card slot Yes
VGA Yes
USB 2.0 ?
USB 2.0: 3

USB is a standard connection port on most PCs. This will allow you to quickly and easily connect and sync the device with your computer.

View full glossary
close window

USB 2.0: USB is a standard connection port on most PCs. This will allow you to quickly and easily connect and sync the device with your computer.
3
Firewire ?
Firewire: 1

FireWire (or IEEE 1394) is a type of data transfer. Devices with FireWire output can transfer footage directly to a PC with a compatible cable.

View full glossary
close window

Firewire: FireWire (or IEEE 1394) is a type of data transfer. Devices with FireWire output can transfer footage directly to a PC with a compatible cable.
1
Infrared port ?
Infrared port: Yes

This port uses an infrared sensor to wirelessly transfer information to other computers.

View full glossary
close window

Infrared port: This port uses an infrared sensor to wirelessly transfer information to other computers.
Yes
PC card No
Internet/networking
Dial-up modem Included
Ethernet Yes
Wireless 802.11a/g/n
Bluetooth No
Built-in webcam Yes
General features
Operating system Windows® Vista Home Premium
Fingerprint reader No
UPC 884420154242
Manufacturer's part number FE989UA#ABA
Dimensions
Height 9.3 inches
Width 13.2 inches
Depth 1.5 inches
Weight 5.5 lbs.

[bigbase]

Um i don't see where it says what the graphix card is mate. I would say u need at least a nvidia geforce 8 or compatible

[robodestructo]

Ok, so i figured out that my GFX card is a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, is this good enough...

[bigbase]

intel has never realy been known for a good gcard.. Are you buying this at a store or offline? cause if your buying it at a store. see if u can run a game on the floor model.

[robodestructo]

i dont think Im willing to go into the store and say: "Hey, can i play on your computer!!!" Ill ask the guy a CC about it, but I think Im just going to go for it and get the HP, its a really sweat computer and they deal is VERY NICE

[WhiteRanger]

You Lucky 176 Gigs.

[robodestructo]

what are u talking about... the cps harddrive is 250 gigs...???

[willwest123]

w8 i thought it was like hard to put new gfx cards in laptops ?

[robodestructo]

w8 i thought it was like hard to put new gfx cards in laptops ?

im talking about my laptops built in one

[beanmiester]

I don't see your graphics card.

[bigbase]

He posted it in his second post. And you can update notebook g cards now they have some they make for notebooks now.

[beanmiester]

Oh ewww.

That card can't even play css.

If you wanna play halo2-3 you want at least a NVIDEA 8800 GTS.

[robodestructo]

Oh ewww.

That card can't even play css.

If you wanna play halo2-3 you want at least a NVIDEA 8800 GTS.

im thinking about buying a separate GFX card, cause aside from that, this computer is great, do you know how much it costs

[beanmiester]

im thinking about buying a separate GFX card, cause aside from that, this computer is great, do you know how much it costs

You can't replace a laptops graphics card.

[robodestructo]

You can't replace a laptops graphics card.

WHAAAAT, how come... why do they sell seperate gfx cards and i cant replace mine

[wut]

You can't replace a laptops graphics card.

You can't?

That's weird seeing as they sell separate graphics cards.

[beanmiester]

http://www.internet-guide.co.uk/Replacing-Laptop-Graphics-Card.html

http://forums.gamespy.com/computer_hardware/b50692/19714337/p1/?2

Unless you want to do the research and make sure you can replace it, I would suggust contacting the person assembling your laptop and ask for a 8 series NVIDEA card.

And if this laptop is for gaming, just build a desktop, there cheaper, easier to upgrade, and have a much longer lifetime.

[Tman340]

id suggest not getting a intel embeded GPU its much better to get a laptop with an ATI GPU, or nvidea GPU, intel is a good graphics accelorator but when you want to play new games it just dosent fit the bill.
also its not true that you cannot replace a laptops graphics GPU some high end models do have the feature to do so but most laptops are useing embeded, shared memory GPU's for graphics

[robodestructo]

its to late. me and my dad went and looked around and found the same deal at staples, + a free printer, and were gonna pick it up today at 3:00

[bigbase]

its not to late lol.. Its not 3pm yet =-)

[robodestructo]

its not to late lol.. Its not 3pm yet =-)

i know, but we technically "bought it"... this is cause we already got the printer and paid for the cp. and were just gonna pick it up... so it is to late

[Tman340]

lol i have a intel accelorater and im not happy with it at all

[silentiger]

Ok, so i figured out that my GFX card is a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, is this good enough...\

Intel Graphics are the possible WORST in the world, short for the cpu rendered GA motherboard chips.


I have a laptop that can barely handle cs1.6 (2001game, 1998 graphics) and CANNOT handle CS:S (2005 game)

If this computer is less than 1000$, good price.

[robodestructo]

Hey ppl, im typing this from my new CP, and i love it...

[silentiger]

Hey ppl, im typing this from my new CP, and i love it...

That great. But dont expect great graphics and good detail from nice looking 3d games. (Anything above DirectX 8.1 will be extremly laggy with horrible framerates.)

But if your playing pawngame and other 2d games, it will be absoulutely SUPERSMOOTH.

[darkskater]

i have nivida :) thats the best :P

[robodestructo]

That great. But dont expect great graphics and good detail from nice looking 3d games. (Anything above DirectX 8.1 will be extremly laggy with horrible framerates.)

But if your playing pawngame and other 2d games, it will be absoulutely SUPERSMOOTH.

dont say things without proof, X3100 can play decent games, just not DX10, which Windows Vista doesnt even really support

[beanmiester]

dont say things without proof, X3100 can play decent games, just not DX10, which Windows Vista doesnt even really support

Windows Vista is the only OS that supports DX10...

[wut]

dont say things without proof, X3100 can play decent games, just not DX10, which Windows Vista doesnt even really support

Like Bean said.

It suports it just fine.

[robodestructo]

huh?? oh, well then, my bad

[BENJE]

Id say nivida :)

[silentiger]

dont say things without proof, X3100 can play decent games, just not DX10, which Windows Vista doesnt even really support

Windows Vista is truly the only OS that supports DirectX Level 10 and 10.1 Windows XP can only get up to 9 unless you hacked it somehow.

My Proof (well you don't have to believe)

Specifications:
Computer Model: Gateway MP8709 (Silentiger)
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM
CPU: Intel(R) Geniune CPU Core 2 Duo T7200@ 2.00 GHz 2 CPUs
Memory: Manufacturer DDR2/677 @ 677MHz
Motherboard: Gateway/manufacturer brand Intel 945GM Express Chipset
Video/Graphics Adapter: Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family

Valve Source Engine Test Run (Default except Setting antialias (AA) changed to Nan
Resolution: 800x600
Test Ending Score: 17 FPS *Frame(s) Per Second*

Changed Advanced Startup settings:

-fullscreen

^
This was on the Video Stress Test for CS:S (counter-strike: source) which was run on DirectX Level 9.0 and i only got 17 fps. The other crap i'm running on my computer: no antivirus (i turned it off so i can get better performance while gaming)
Steam (you need it to start cs:s) I didn't expect good performance, so I turned it down to 800x600 to atleast run it half-smoothly. I ran it on fullscreen, because on windowed i only got about 9 fps or so. In the very end at the door it ran actually around 30 fps O_O

Why intel graphics fail:

My graphics media accelerator runs on:

Core Clock: 400mhz Memory clock: 400mhz Shader Clock: 400mhz
Dedicated video memory:8mb/about 256mb max system share.
2 vertex shaders.

The worst on the planet, short for those chips that tell the cpu how to render it (onboard chip thingy) but that would be a totally diffrent story. The cpu would do everything for you.

Ill send you a pic of it on gpuz/gpuid (forgot the name) if you really beg of me.

70+ fps is playable. 50 fps is tolerable. 30 fps is horrible, unplayable etc. 17 fps? I don't have a name for it.

The maximum resoulution for an intel graphics media accelerator, such as his is lower than 1440 x 900 (on games such as tf2/css/hl2/crysis/farcry, etc.)

Intel miserably fails at graphics unless they release Larabee sooner.

TF2 requires better hardware than CS:S or HL2.

Even with the best config/log file that makes the game look like ****, it won't work unless you upgrade the cpu and cpu fan and everything. You just can't polish a turd.

Edit: I actually got almost playable frames for a 12 year old graphics-game. Counter-Strike 1.6: 49 fps amazing? just type in net_graph 3 in your console to see the amount of fps your getting on maps/games.

[beanmiester]

Windows Vista is truly the only OS that supports DirectX Level 10 and 10.1 Windows XP can only get up to 9 unless you hacked it somehow.

My Proof (well you don't have to believe)

Specifications:
Computer Model: Gateway MP8709 (Silentiger)
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium - OEM
CPU: Intel(R) Geniune CPU Core 2 Duo T7200@ 2.00 GHz 2 CPUs
Memory: Manufacturer DDR2/677 @ 677MHz
Motherboard: Gateway/manufacturer brand Intel 945GM Express Chipset
Video/Graphics Adapter: Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family

Valve Source Engine Test Run (Default except Setting antialias (AA) changed to Nan
Resolution: 800x600
Test Ending Score: 17 FPS *Frame(s) Per Second*

Changed Advanced Startup settings:

-fullscreen

^
This was on the Video Stress Test for CS:S (counter-strike: source) which was run on DirectX Level 9.0 and i only got 17 fps. The other crap i'm running on my computer: no antivirus (i turned it off so i can get better performance while gaming)
Steam (you need it to start cs:s) I didn't expect good performance, so I turned it down to 800x600 to atleast run it half-smoothly. I ran it on fullscreen, because on windowed i only got about 9 fps or so. In the very end at the door it ran actually around 30 fps O_O

Why intel graphics fail:

My graphics media accelerator runs on:

Core Clock: 400mhz Memory clock: 400mhz Shader Clock: 400mhz
Dedicated video memory:8mb/about 256mb max system share.
2 vertex shaders.

The worst on the planet, short for those chips that tell the cpu how to render it (onboard chip thingy) but that would be a totally diffrent story. The cpu would do everything for you.

Ill send you a pic of it on gpuz/gpuid (forgot the name) if you really beg of me.

70+ fps is playable. 50 fps is tolerable. 30 fps is horrible, unplayable etc. 17 fps? I don't have a name for it.

The maximum resoulution for an intel graphics media accelerator, such as his is lower than 1440 x 900 (on games such as tf2/css/hl2/crysis/farcry, etc.)

Intel miserably fails at graphics unless they release Larabee sooner.

TF2 requires better hardware than CS:S or HL2.

Even with the best config/log file that makes the game look like ****, it won't work unless you upgrade the cpu and cpu fan and everything. You just can't polish a turd.

Edit: I actually got almost playable frames for a 12 year old graphics-game. Counter-Strike 1.6: 49 fps amazing? just type in net_graph 3 in your console to see the amount of fps your getting on maps/games.

30 fps is playable...

Anything below about 25 gets choppy.

[BENJE]

Lol yeah it can.

[silentiger]

30 fps is playable...

Anything below about 25 gets choppy.

I really can't get any headshots on CS:S when my fps is below 70, and I can't get any headshots on cs1.6 when my fps is below 40. The 945gm intel graphics accelerator actually does ell and excels on cs1.6, a 1998 game, but itsslaughtered by a 2004 game/2005 game called cs:s which a 6800gt can run better. 30fps is NOT playable have you even played cs:s/cs1.6 with "fps_max 30" typed in your console? Anything below your monitors refresh rate is extremely choppy. I get around 200 fps normally on all settings high, 16xcsaa 16x anisotropic, hdr enabled, all high etc. That way I can actually play the game. But that would be on my other computer.

The video stress test actually over-rates your fps because in real servers you introduce lagg, and bots. I only get 9 fps in de_dust(2) with all settings low on my 945gm.

OFF TOPIC: To make cs:s look better use high poly-high res w-models, and better skins because theres a graphic glitch on the AUG/Bullpup and your thumb is lopsided on the SG552.

Don't try crysis on the 945gm, because you not only will get real shitty fps(around 1 or 2, maybe as laggy on the cpu test in 3dmark06, the textures will be messed up.

[beanmiester]

The human eye can't see past 60 fps, so you needing 70 fps is all in your head lulz.

[MagicalDog]

'Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100'

Personally, (I don't care what everyone else thinks) I think it's a pretty good Graphics Card. (Don't download those crappy games on a laptop.) Use games on a main computer?

[beanmiester]

'Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100'

Personally, (I don't care what everyone else thinks) I think it's a pretty good Graphics Card. (Don't download those crappy games on a laptop.) Use games on a main computer?

You realize even intel knows they make crappy cards?