Half-Life 2 and Graphics Card Question. (Laptop)

[Pyroxic]

Alright heres the thing.

I have a laptop, pretty good IMO for some games.

Specs are:

Dell Inspiron 5100
256MB RAM (Upgrading to 512mb or 1gb soon)
2.40GHZ Pentium 4 Processer
64MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON 7500 AGP

Now, I want to know, would it be possible to play HL2 on this laptop? Even with that graphics card?

Also, I'm sure I can remove the graphics card from this (As I have when I opened it) and if there is, do you know if there a upgrade for it? (Like 128MB?)

[x3sphere]

Alright heres the thing.

I have a laptop, pretty good IMO for some games.

Specs are:

Dell Inspiron 5100
256MB RAM (Upgrading to 512mb or 1gb soon)
2.40GHZ Pentium 4 Processer
64MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON 7500 AGP

Now, I want to know, would it be possible to play HL2 on this laptop? Even with that graphics card?

Also, I'm sure I can remove the graphics card from this (As I have when I opened it) and if there is, do you know if there a upgrade for it? (Like 128MB?)

Usually graphics cards on laptops can't be upgraded but I would say that the game should run fine at medium to low settings. HL2 isn't really that demanding.

[Junit]

Yeah , source engine games arent very demanding , My laptop runs all source games at highest settings with a good framerate

[Pyroxic]

Well I just found out my graphics card doesn't support pixel shading... is that a bad thing for Half-Life 2? XD As I know it is for other games ;-;

[Junit]

try the demo at lowest settings , register a steam account and try it out before you buy it

[Pyroxic]

Well, I already own it because I used to have an old computer it would run fine on (Then the motherboard got fried XD)

I just tried it out and it seemed to run fine at the title screen.

Anyways I set all the setting to the lowest and started a new game.

One problem I noticed right away was the G-Man video at the beginning did not play, yet I could hear sound and see the subtitles.

Then when it finally switched the train it was pretty laggy and the eyeballs of the people seemed like their eyes were rolling the back of their head (see attachment) and I know on lowest settings it at least shows little black dots on the eyeballs. Also some textures seem to be missing o_O (See attachment)

Anyways, any idea what the problem could be?

[x3sphere]

Could try updating drivers... but as you said before your card doesn't support pixel shading, that could be the reason for black eyes.

[Pyroxic]

Well I have the latest drivers... you think updating to Omega Drivers will help?

[x3sphere]

Well I have the latest drivers... you think updating to Omega Drivers will help?

Probably not... back when I had an ATI I always stuck with the official drivers, Omega Drivers seemed buggier.

I really think lack of pixel shader support on your card is the problem.

[Pyroxic]

Hmm...well is there ANY possible way to upgrade my graphics card that you know of?

[x3sphere]

Hmm...well is there ANY possible way to upgrade my graphics card that you know of?

According to this site... the video card is upgradeable, but the highest you can go to is a Mobility 9000

http://www.bay-wolf.com/videoupgrade.htm

Not sure how much of a performance gain that would give over what you currently have though...

[Pyroxic]

Wow I've been looking everywhere for an available upgrade o_o now I know I can, thanks a lot! I know it will be better cause mine is directx7 (hense the 7 in 7500 :P) and 9000 is directx9 which supports pixel shading...

Now to find out where I can purchase this...

[Pyroxic]

Sorry for the double post, but I found out that pixel shading is optional in HL2, so hmm...]

I mean the minimum requirements are...

1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 graphics card
Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
5.5 GB of available Hard Drive space
Internet connection required for activation

Which I have all of those :P

Edit: Well, I got the actual HL2 and HL2 Ep1 now (As it was pirated before :P) and I reinstalled it and tried it out and it actually ran awesome. All the textures are there and everything, I play it with everything low-res and it lags here and there, but its nothing I'm not used to ;P

Anyways, I guess this can be closed now as the problem is pretty much solved, and I'm sure upgrading my RAM will help reduce the lag.

Thanks for all your help guys!