Curse

Soja Aurion · Mar 04, 2007, 03:27 AM // 03:27

1. I'm looking into buying a laptop for school and gaming, preferably a midline Dell Inspiron. I obviously want this game to run well on the machine and know that Intel GPUs = suck (personal experience). Would the ATi/Nvidia laptop options run GWs well?

2. While I raise the money for that, how do I uninstall my graphics card's old drivers? I've long since installed the new one, but I read on a thread here that the old ones can cause lockups and BSODs (as I've had recently).

Thank you in advance.

Kyuuba · Mar 04, 2007, 05:11 AM // 05:11

1. For a laptop graphic card, many of them come with either intel graphic accelerator 950, x3000 or Ati x1000's mobility radeon and nVidia geforce 6150
all these should play GW decently but if your looking for something better, i would say the bare minimum would be a nVidia geforce 7300 GO or 7600 GO.
midline laptops do not come with such great graphic cards but GW is still playable on it. gaming laptops in the $2000+ range would come with something like a 7900 GO but then that would not be considered midline and is much to expensive.

2. to uninstall your old graphics drivers, go to control panel -> add/remove programs, and then select your old graphics drivers and click remove.
normally you should uniinstall the old graphics drivers before switching to new graphics drivers unless it is the same series such as when you upgrade nVidia Forceware to a new nVidia Forceware

Darko_UK · Mar 04, 2007, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Don't get a dell.

jimmy_logic · Mar 04, 2007, 02:37 PM // 14:37

Remember to also use DriverCleaner before reinstalling the new drivers. The program will clean out any vestiges of the old driver. Also better to do it in Safe Mode also.

Dell are great IMHO if you want something that works then Dell's are an excellent choice. Never had one fail yet at work and there are plenty, most problems are due to the user installing or reading some shonky email that causes the software to completely bork.

Soja Aurion · Mar 06, 2007, 07:06 AM // 07:06

I'm quite good at maintaining computers, despite being a novice. I was just asking here since I've seen quite a few others who seem to be more knowledgable in these matters than I.

Quote:

Don't get a dell.

Some elaboration as to why would be nice.

The laptop I'm looking at is a Inspiron 6400 with the following:

Intel Core Duo 1.6 GHz processor
1GB RAM
120GB HD
256MB ATi Radeon Mobility X1400 HyperMemory

I'm split between Windows XP or Vista as the OS. Furthermore, I'm split on whether to get the ATi or nVIDIA card options. Either way, I'm not settling for lower than 256 MB and I'm absolutely not getting an integrated card. Right now I'm running with an Intel 910GMS/915GML card and Guild Wars, while it displays well, chugs something horrible (-especially- in Kaineng City) despite displaying well. Usual FPS is 40 (while staring at the ground in first-person) and 7-10 while in an Alliance Battle. During festivals, it's a miserable 3 FPS.

So. What I'm looking at wouldn't produce the same results, would it?

Dex · Mar 06, 2007, 07:43 AM // 07:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darko_UK

Don't get a dell.

There's nothing wrong with Dells if you know what you're buying. The trouble with Dell is when people buy the $400 setup and then want to make a gaming rig out of it. You get what you pay for. If you're going to buy a Dell desktop make sure you're getting something with expansion slots and a PCI-Express x16 slot so you can upgrade the video card if you want to.

Laptops are tricky for playing games, mostly because they're difficult and expensive to upgrade. The ones with decent GPUs are typically pricey. There are a lot of nice gaming laptops out there...Dell has a few decent ones. There also some smaller companies that make some decent ones as well. Doing a healthy amount of research (online reviews, laptop round up articles, etc.)

Make sure you get an ATI or nVidia GPU with at least a "6" as the second number in the name (6600, 7600, x1600, etc.) An 8 or 9 is even better.

Soja Aurion · Mar 06, 2007, 09:07 AM // 09:07

Haha. If I had it my way, I would get a desktop instead of a laptop. It is, after all, less expensive to have a pretty nice setup compared to a laptop. But with my current lifestyle (cramped living quarters, frequent movement), a notebook would be much more convenient given the above. Unfortunately, I'm locked with three video card options:

Intel Media Accelerator 950 (Integrated)
nVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache (256MB)
ATi Mobility Radeon x1400 HyperMemory (256MB)

Better doesn't seem to be available until I get to the $1500 price range. Nevertheless, which of the obvious two would you suggest? Does it make a difference?

Dex · Mar 06, 2007, 06:34 PM // 18:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soja Aurion

Intel Media Accelerator 950 (Integrated)
nVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache (256MB)
ATi Mobility Radeon x1400 HyperMemory (256MB)

Better doesn't seem to be available until I get to the $1500 price range. Nevertheless, which of the obvious two would you suggest? Does it make a difference?

I'd go with the x1400, but it's still not going to be fantastic. You would need to run most games at a low resolution (800x600...far below your LCD's native res...making it blurry) in order for them to be playable. Also, that's with current games from the past 2 years. Forget about playing the newer stuff coming out over the next year.

How much are you looking to spend? There may be some better options for you in your price range. Any of those 3 GPUs are going to disappoint, and you're most likely going to be stuck with whatever you get. Most laptops don't have a GPU upgrade option.

swaaye · Mar 06, 2007, 09:06 PM // 21:06

I'd suggest considering something with a 7900 or X1800, honestly. Those two GPUs are quite literally several times faster than a X1400 or 7300. As a gamer, you will be much happier with something like that, and the laptop will actually have a future with newer titles.

There are also 7600 and X1600. Both of those are better than X1400 and 7300, but they are still a lot slower than the top models.....

Dell probably has the best prices on models equipped with the top GPUs.

Dex · Mar 06, 2007, 09:13 PM // 21:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by swaaye

I'd suggest considering something with a 7900 or X1800, honestly.

Well, of course that's the way to go, but if the OP isn't willing to hit the $1500 price point he's certainly not going to fork out the $2300 - $3300 for one of those, eh?

moriz · Mar 06, 2007, 10:19 PM // 22:19

the three he listed should be able to run GW with no problems. a friend of mine has the intel GPU on his laptop, and honestly, it can run the game at his laptop's native resolution, with every maxed out faster than my desktop can. with everything maxed out, he can hit observer mode and watch every match at 30fps+

granted, he does have 2gb ram. i'm not sure if it can make that big of difference though.

point is, the ATI and NVIDIA should be able to run GW perfectly well at his monitor's native resolution.

Dex · Mar 06, 2007, 10:31 PM // 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

the three he listed should be able to run GW with no problems. a friend of mine has the intel GPU on his laptop, and honestly, it can run the game at his laptop's native resolution, with every maxed out faster than my desktop can. with everything maxed out, he can hit observer mode and watch every match at 30fps+

granted, he does have 2gb ram. i'm not sure if it can make that big of difference though.

point is, the ATI and NVIDIA should be able to run GW perfectly well at his monitor's native resolution.

http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources...?id=37&page=10

Yeah? That surprises me since an x1400 can't get over 25fps in Half-Life 2 at 1024x768. Since most newer laptops have a native res of at least 1280x1024 or 1440x900 (w/e) I would have expected GW to have hit about the same level. The 7300 should be doing even worse than the x1400, so I wonder what your friend's Intel GPU can do with Half-Life 2....and does it look decent?

I'll take your word for it, but I'm surprised. Which Intel GPU does he have?

moriz · Mar 06, 2007, 10:36 PM // 22:36

no idea what his laptop can do with HL 2, since he doesn't have it. GW did look very good though, although there was no way since he could enable AA (since intel GPU doesn't support it).

no idea which intel GPU he's using, but it's probably the 950/960.

Dex · Mar 06, 2007, 10:39 PM // 22:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

no idea what his laptop can do with HL 2, since he doesn't have it. GW did look very good though, although there was no way since he could enable AA (since intel GPU doesn't support it).

no idea which intel GPU he's using, but it's probably the 950/960.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2766&p=10

Here we see a fairly well-equipped Dell laptop with a x1400 can't even hit 20fps with the audio disabled in Far Cry at 1440x900.

I don't know about you, but IMO it's not good when your GPU is struggling to run 2-3 year old games at your native res.

BLUESHIFT · Mar 06, 2007, 10:58 PM // 22:58

You should look everywhere you can for a good deal. Also, what is your budget range? Here is a good desktop replacement laptop from ASUS for about $1,300: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220104

Newegg offers the exact same laptop, but with a 7700 from nVidia for a slightly different price.

The best idea, imo is to search around for a laptop without an integrated video card.

tijo · Mar 06, 2007, 11:20 PM // 23:20

I agree, get a laptop with something that's not integrated. For example, my laptop is getting old (Toshiba M40), Pentium M 1.6GHz(single core), 512MB ram and a GeForce Go6600 128mb while i get some lagg issues from time to time in GW, prolly due to the 512MB ram i have my card still runs it around 50 fps. I've seen as high as 60fps but average is 50fps at a resolution of 1280x800 with all the effects on except for 2x AA and medium shadows. My sister has an HP pavillon dv6000, 1.83GHz amd turion dual core, 2MB ram and a GeForce 7200 Go 256MB and she gets around 15-30fps with all the effects enabled at 1280x800 resolution.

So basically my point is the GPU will make a huge difference with GW. If you don't play many other games, i'd suggest getting a decent processor, 1GB ram and a good video card, it'll make GW a lot more enjoyable.

Soja Aurion · Mar 07, 2007, 11:36 AM // 11:36

So, after three hours of Googling reviews and looking through the provided links, I still haven't found any solid testimonials to the x1400's performance with Guild Wars besides a thread here on Guru and moriz's brother running Guild Wars at over 30 fps with an Intel MGA.

After giving the Dell the equivalent upgrades to the ASUS on their business site, I find that the Dell comes out less expensive due to their seasonal offers and it also includes Vista in the price as well as a larger screen. However, the ASUS (in the link provided by BLUESHIFT) has a lot of very good reviews (main complaint however being the sound quality).

This brings me to this...

ATi Radeon Mobility x1400 vs. ATi Radeon Mobility x1700

The x1700 is obviously better, but how much better?

As for how much I'm looking to spend, I'm trying to keep it below the $1,000 mark. Because of the way these dealers like Dell and Best Buy demand I pay, and lacking any form of credit, I have to save up the money and debit it out; I can't pay in small, comfortable, convenient increments.

Dex · Mar 07, 2007, 04:56 PM // 16:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soja Aurion

ATi Radeon Mobility x1400 vs. ATi Radeon Mobility x1700

The x1700 is obviously better, but how much better?

It's quite a lot better. If you look here:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

You can see that the x1700 doubles the 3DMark scores of the x1400. The x1700 is pretty much an x1600 made using a strained silicon fab process...allowing it to run at slightly higher clockspeeds. It also has 100% dedicated memory instead of sharing system memory. It trades blows pretty evenly with the GeForce 7600 Go.

Bottom line: the x1700 would run most games pretty well as opposed to limping through them as the x1400 would. It's a much better choice if you've narrowed down to those two.

Soja Aurion · Mar 07, 2007, 10:57 PM // 22:57

Okay. I've made my decision. Thank you very much for your replies, everyone.