How do I find what games are compatible with an ATI Xpress 200 IG chipset?

[lord of the mark]

Not that Im really in the market for new games (both cause I have gameplay left on games I own, and backlog of games from 2000 to 2004 that I want to buy) but its novel for me to be in the position of buying recent games. And the question of what is required to run specific games has come up several recent discussions. So Id like to find out what my relatively new machine would run.

Intel had (has?) a site that gives a listing of what games are compatible with their IG. Looking on the ATI site, I dont find such a listing, at least not for this.

Alternatively I could look game by game, based on the chipset specs. What are the key specs DX level ( I think its DX9) and video RAM? Any others?

[Wiglaf]

You can run "older but kinda recent" games on that integrated chipset, like Doom 3 or possibly Simcity 4, but avoid recent games like Company of Heroes or Heroes of Might and Magic V (the latter I know is unplayable). Keep in mind you'll need to lower graphics options as well.

Definitely download demos to establish benchmarks of what is and is not playable.

[Wiglaf]

Some more random **** I see on google:
It won't run Knights of the Old Republic or Oblivion well. It can do Half Life 2 though.

[Standup]

DX and Ram will give you an idea but being an integrated card performance will be lower than equivalent PCI-E cards. So just because it meets the requirements doesn't mean it will actually be any good.

You could also add SM (shader modelling) to your list of requirements.

Not sure I'd fancy SimCity4 on the x200 chipset though. Probably playable but loosing a lot of detail or clunky frame rates.

You could think of it as the difference between minimum, recommended and realistic requirements. I always have these conversations with our desktop development people at work. The minimum for windows XP is something like a P3 500 with 128Mb, the recommended is probably about a p3 733 with 256Mb and what you actually want is a P4 3Ghz with 2Gb of ram!

[snoopy369]

You have shader model 2.

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=0

That shows the list of what your card can do. Unfortunately, while in terms of "supported" tech you are okay (SM2 means you support a lot of things most games need), your card is just very, very slow (300mhz, fill rate of 600 MT/s) which is slower than most radeons (even like radeon 9250 has a fill rate of 980 MT/s). So that mean you could play games like Civ4, in that you technically have the requirement of SM2 (don't know your VRam though), but I wouldn't recommend it.

What it does mean is that you probably can play most games that are more than about 1-2 years old, and some more recent than that, but you probably will have to do so on low graphics settings. I'm guessing you don't mind that so much though...

As an example, with Civ4, people who couldn't run it at all were the folks who didn't have the right shader model. People who can't run it well are in your boat (not enough VRam or clock speed).

This is a benchmark list...

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/bonus/t/sysinfo_intro.tmpl?PHPSESSID=7571a40c88fbf556443af053d1dd2a32&registration_option_id=2738&submit2.x=45&submit2.y=20&submit2=Go

[snoopy369]

btw, you should also be able to look at individual games at systemrequirementslab.com or other similar sites. Just remember that "compatible" and "will play well" are rather two different things, and the latter is hard to tell from a test. I suggest what wiglaf rudely suggests, namely google.com and a search term of {Xpress 200m *game name*} ...

[DrSpike]

Some half decent suggestions, but basically you just pray. And when your prayers are not answered you look to the heavens and cry "Why oh why did I not take DrSpike's kind and insightful advice. Oh woe to me that I should be so reckless"

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Some half decent suggestions, but basically you just pray. And when your prayers are not answered you look to the heavens and cry "Why oh why did I not take DrSpike's kind and insightful advice. Oh woe to me that I should be so reckless"

Oh, no, doc, remember i have a slot, so i can always run out and buy a real video card if I get desperate. Id just like to see how many wonderful games are available to me before I reach that point.

[lord of the mark]

RTW yes, MTW2 no?

Oblivion no?

Simcity4 maybe, COTN yes?

[Spaced Cowboy]

we told you not to buy that.

anyway, spring for an upgrade.

[DrSpike]

Yeah, you're looking at it the wrong way. With some exceptions the most recent game in a series like TW is the most advanced. If you start late it's best to jump to the end.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
You can run "older but kinda recent" games on that integrated chipset, like Doom 3 or possibly Simcity 4

I wouldn't really try to run SC4 on an integrated card.

[DrSpike]

Or Doom 3 for that matter, not that you would want to.

[Wiglaf]

It will work moderately well on that card at low resolution. i think.

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Yeah, you're looking at it the wrong way. With some exceptions the most recent game in a series like TW is the most advanced. If you start late it's best to jump to the end.

If you start with the most advanced, then when you try the older ones you will be annoyed that it is missing features added in the newer games. If you start with the older ones first, however, you don't know better and enjoy the older game for what it is. Then when you move to the more advanced game in the series, the additional features are a bonus.

In this way you can actually play all of the series. Of course, if you only have time to play one of the games in the series, the most advanced one is generally better.