What games WONT run on Intel "Extreme" Integrated Graphics

[lord of the mark]

Most of the budget PC's out there (and no,Im NOT gonna build one anytime soon) come with Intel Extreme TM Integrated Graphics. And many (most?) dont even have a slot for a video card. So what games am I foregoing by buying a PC without a video card? I was inclined not to worry about this, but I noticed that Simcity4 has minimum video card specs (though im not sure it wouldnt work on the above) What recent games might be problematic? Note, Im not particularly worried about shooters. But what Strat games, city builders, RPGs, etc would likely give problems?

[Jon Miller]

a lot

like morrowind for example (Which came out years ago)

Jon Miller

[DrSpike]

LoTM it really isn't worth buying these machine IMO, unless you don't want to play any games at all. Get a decent budget card for £100 and you'll have no worries.

[child of Thor]

Yep, i agree with what others are saying.
My 'new' P3-533mhz machine has that awful '810i' integrated graphics chip, and the only game it has enabled me to play over my trusty P166 is the city builder game 'Emperor'(the one after Pharoh) by Sierra.
I cant play either 'Shogun' or 'Medieval' total war for example because the graphics chip cant handle it!
EU2 does run better than on my old pc, but its not a game that pushes graphics so much as the processor.

The good news is that as long as the motherboard supports it(look for AGP slots), you should be able to get a graphics card that you can use to override the on-board one. I've got a friend who has a spare card i'm going to try on my pc, as long as Medieval runs that will keep me happy

[DaveV]

I just bought a PCI graphics card (ATI Radeon 9200, 128MByte) for my PC for $50. Graphics performance on the Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 demo (my kids want the full game for Christmas) went from unplayable to acceptable at low to medium settings. So you can get by even without the AGP slot. I'll probably never be able to play FPS games on my machine, but I'd rather save some money than have bragging rights.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar
Is a real video card that expensive?

If theres nothing i want to play that needs it, then its too expensive, yeah

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
a lot

like morrowind for example (Which came out years ago)

Jon Miller

Thanks for the info. Im not real into RPGs (have only played BG and PST) but i might be interested in Morrowind.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Yep, i agree with what others are saying.
My 'new' P3-533mhz machine has that awful '810i' integrated graphics chip, and the only game it has enabled me to play over my trusty P166 is the city builder game 'Emperor'(the one after Pharoh) by Sierra.
I cant play either 'Shogun' or 'Medieval' total war for example because the graphics chip cant handle it!
EU2 does run better than on my old pc, but its not a game that pushes graphics so much as the processor.

The good news is that as long as the motherboard supports it(look for AGP slots), you should be able to get a graphics card that you can use to override the on-board one. I've got a friend who has a spare card i'm going to try on my pc, as long as Medieval runs that will keep me happy

The sort of cheap machines have no seperate video card, but do have a slot, AGP i think. The super cheap ones have no slot -the Integrated graphics is all youre gonna get. The former I wouldnt even need feedback for, since I can always upgrade -its the latter Im worried about. So you couldnt run any TW games, even Shogun? Any others you tried that didnt work?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DaveV
I just bought a PCI graphics card (ATI Radeon 9200, 128MByte) for my PC for $50. Graphics performance on the Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 demo (my kids want the full game for Christmas) went from unplayable to acceptable at low to medium settings. So you can get by even without the AGP slot. I'll probably never be able to play FPS games on my machine, but I'd rather save some money than have bragging rights.

But you need a PCI slot, no?

so RCT3 is also unplayable on Intel extreme alone?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
LoTM it really isn't worth buying these machine IMO, unless you don't want to play any games at all. Get a decent budget card for £100 and you'll have no worries.

so what follows is a lie?

"Intel® Extreme Graphics


Intel® 845GE, 845GV, 845G and 845GL chipsets feature integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics, a graphics core that delivers 3D graphics with sharp images, fast rendering, smooth motion, and incredible detail. This architecture enables balanced memory usage between graphics and the system for optimal performance. Extreme graphics architecture was designed to complement the capabilities of the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, and also supports the Intel® Celeron® processor.

TECHNOLOGY BENEFIT
Rapid Pixel and Texel Rendering Uses special pipelines that allow 2D and 3D operations to overlap to speed up visual effects without impacting system performance.
Zone Rendering Unique technology for drawing 3D scenes that optimizes performance between graphics and system functions.
Dynamic Video Memory Dynamically allocates graphics memory as needed to balance memory usage among the operating system, applications, and graphics.
Intelligent Memory Management Tiled memory addressing, deep display buffers, and dynamic data management assure efficient usage of memory. "

[alva]

Originally posted by DaveV
I just bought a PCI graphics card (ATI Radeon 9200, 128MByte) for my PC for $50. Graphics performance on the Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 demo (my kids want the full game for Christmas) went from unplayable to acceptable at low to medium settings. So you can get by even without the AGP slot. I'll probably never be able to play FPS games on my machine, but I'd rather save some money than have bragging rights.

Wow, they still sell PCI cards?

So, you would getter performance if you would skip AGP and use it on a PCI-E motherboard.

[DaveV]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
But you need a PCI slot, no?

Yes. My machine is about 2 years old and had two PCI slots available; I'd forgotten that the PCI bus was being phased out .

so RCT3 is also unplayable on Intel extreme alone?

Yes, on my machine anyway (Celeron 1.8 GHz, 384 MBytes RAM). The demo suggested I run it at "low" graphics settings and I did; I got about 1 frame/second when using the on-ride camera or during the fireworks display.

so what follows is a lie?

"Intel® Extreme Graphics


Intel® 845GE, 845GV, 845G and 845GL chipsets feature integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics, a graphics core that delivers 3D graphics with sharp images, fast rendering, smooth motion...

It depends on what your definition of "fast" and "smooth" is . Actually, RCT3 was the first game my kids had any trouble with; they've run a variety of games that used 3D textures and rendering with no problems. But RCT3 explicitly called for a 32MB graphics card. My machine is also two years old, so maybe the onboard graphics chip has improved in the meantime...

[Jon Miller]

If it is really new I could be wrong

I just no about the older integrated graphics

JonMiller

[Spaced Cowboy]

LotM, do you not feel confident enough to build your own pc?

[DrSpike]

LotM I know you don't require a ninja system but I think you'll probably regret buying that system with the on-board graphics. Instead if you don't want to do it yourself get a cheap no frills system made for you. It'll probably be a little more than the one you are looking at, but so worth it in the long run.