Laptop Graphics Card Query (again!)

[AceDiamante]

What's pathetic?

That I am basing the decision on what new laptop to buy SOLELY on the basis of "Will it play CIV IV?"

I am looking at a Compaq R4000 series with 1.8 Ghz AMD Sempron Chip. 512 MB RAM. and the ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M with 128MB RAM (with hypermemory (tm)).

What do you, the knowledgeable guru's of Mount Apolyton think about this?

[Robert]

Just bought a new graphics card for my desktop
a GeFORCE 6600 with 256 MB 8)

When I buy such a thing I always remember my first 40MB harddisk 8)

[LordShiva]

Re: Laptop Graphics Card Query (again!)

Originally posted by AceDiamante
What do you, the knowledgeable guru's of Mount Apolyton think about this?

I don't know what they think, but I think you should be fine with these specs. If you have anything left in your budget, though, bump up the Sempron to Athlon.

[Adm.Naismith]

Re: Laptop Graphics Card Query (again!)

Originally posted by AceDiamante
I am looking at a Compaq R4000 series with 1.8 Ghz AMD Sempron Chip. 512 MB RAM. and the ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M with 128MB RAM (with hypermemory (tm)).

In my experience 1 GB of RAM can help on some tasks (outside than playing Civ IV, unless this is your expensive "PSP like console" just for Civ on the move). With that you should be able next year to upgrade to Win Vista, if so you like.

Anyway, AFAIK every modern graphic card are T&L compatible, so you should be fine for Civ IV needs.

What do you, the knowledgeable guru's of Mount Apolyton think about this?

Actually I think that some should be more Mount Apolyton deity or demi-god (a more classical Greek approach than an indian/new age guru, IMHO).

[Atahualpa]

The 128MB of the graphics card will eat into your RAM, thus you have only 384MB left for OS+Apps.

[Kinjiru]

All my gaming is on a laptop these days. And I play very graphics intensive games at that.

My thoughts...

A gig of RAM is really critical, makes all the difference in the world.

The 256mg laptop graphics cards aren't that much more expensive than the 128 ones. Go for the better card.

I would also highly recommend going with Dell. Why? Good warranty and customer service.

After 3 months, my graphics card started flaking out. A quick chat with Dell and they send me a box to return my laptop to them. Three days later I had my machine back with a brand new card in it.

A couple months later, my power supply ceased working. Again, a quick chat with Dell and they sent me a new powersupply.

All this at no cost to me.

The bottom-line is this... the state of hardware (chips that run very hot, power supplies/converters that melt, poor heat management) means that laptops should not be used to play modern games. They can (and do) run the software very very well, but the hardware will fail. Therefore, get a good warranty!

Once you settle on your specs, check the Dell Outlet site daily. Their inventory fluctuates greatly, but you can find a really good deal at least once a week.

Your biggest choice will be XPS versus Inspiron line. I went with an Inspiron 9100 and am quite happy with it. Cost me $1800 through the outlet site and that is with a 3.2Ghz P4, Ati Mobility 8500 (256Meg) graphics card and a gig of ram).

[Atahualpa]

Well that's okay while you are in warranty...

Anyway, I've recently read a review of a similar model: HP Compaq nx6125 http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050927/index.html
That was quite interesting since I saw this for €1400 (best model) which is really cheap for a notebook with SXGA+ display.
It's XPress 200 as well, check out the benchmarks... the performance is not really great, but they say it's very quiet and the sound is quite good... two things I value a lot in my current notebook (compaq as well)

I think it should be able to run Civ4 adequately.

If you don't mind about XGA (or WXGA: 1280x800) displays, you should check the Acer Aspire series, they've got nice ones with extra graphics memory for around €1000.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Atahualpa
The 128MB of the graphics card will eat into your RAM, thus you have only 384MB left for OS+Apps.

Am I missing something? That 128MB are dedicated RAM, not shared with main memory, AFAIK. Using shared RAM will be the case of graphic chip integrated on the motherboard.

256MB of dedicated graphics are good if you make very large use of textures, but that's more the need for 3D First person shooter, or advanced 3D animation/graphic manipulation.
It's not so easy to find 256MB graphic card on a notebook, and I'll spend more money on 1 GB system RAM, or a better (faster/larger) HD.

[CanuckSoldier]

If you are looking for a laptop for gaming in 2005 and beyond I wouldn't buy anything but ones with the Radeon X600 to X800, even the X300 is probably to litttle "horsepower", and many other "new" laptop chips don't have full hardware support for DX9 programmable shaders, and without this you might find yourself short of the requirements for many games.

CS

[Disk Killer]

The 128MB is indeed integrated.... however the XPRESS 200M chipset is a pretty weak one (apparently about 2/3 the power of a normal Radeon X300).

Not horrible for a laptop, and it will run Civ IV - however if you can spare the change and you want to go Compaq I would recommend a V4000T series with it's Mobility Radeon X700 - it'll be future-proof to a certain extent and will be usable long after to R4000 is unable to play anything contemporary.

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by Disk Killer
The 128MB is indeed integrated.... however the XPRESS 200M chipset is a pretty weak one (apparently about 2/3 the power of a normal Radeon X300).

more like 1/3 unfortunately...

Am I missing something? That 128MB are dedicated RAM, not shared with main memory, AFAIK. Using shared RAM will be the case of graphic chip integrated on the motherboard.

The XPress200 IS a motherboard chipset with integrated graphics

[Locutus]

If you're buying the laptop specifically for Civ, I'd wait until we get some official word on this, as everyone so far is just bull****ting, none of us have played the game (as far as we know ) and there's been NO official word on the system requirements, laptop or otherwise.

If you can't wait, I would go above and beyond what the likely requirements are, to make sure you don't fall short: at least 1 Gig memory, at least 256 MB (dedicated) graphics. 1.8 MHz sounds about right, I guess.

[AceDiamante]

Wow, thanks everybody!

well, not really, the advice I got here just tacked on about $200 more to the price of my laptop. Ah well, I still have more crap I can sell on Ebay.

YOU GUYS ROCK!

(Send me $5 and you guys would REALLY rock
)

[GeoModder]

(Look for a good spot in a busy mall, sing a bit and you'll have $5 in no time )