GFX card.

[Bran]

Is a ATI Radeon

 

[eldiablov]

Define good ...

 

[Slasher]

Baaaad graphics card. Don't expect to be playing much with it.
I'm pretty sure that's what my comp has as the built in video card. It's 128mb shared memory, which is crap. I couldn't even play counterstrike.
I now have a 512mb dedicated NVIDIA graphics card and I can play just about anything.

 

[Colm]

Define good ...

Stupid question...
Good card = ability to play most current-gen games at decent quailty (as in, high quality)

I'd reccomend a 9800GT (or 8800GT). Runs Fallout3 grand for me on high but can't do ultra (maybe if you overclock or try SLi...)

 

[mohaas05]

Get an 8800. If you overclock it reasonably, it will run close to a 9800.

 

[eldiablov]

Stupid question...

Not particuarly stupid when you consider that he might not game much on PC and just want something midrange.

 

[Bran]

Not particuarly stupid when you consider that he might not game much on PC and just want something midrange.

This is pretty true. I'm not looking to play Fallout or Crysis on the machine.

I'm just wondering if it's passable, it's the built in gfx card on a laptop I might be obtaining for free so it does not matter all that much.

I'm mostly concerned with it's stats, not speed. I'd be using the laptop to produce some art so I don't care about frame rate, just it's ability to render. Shaders it supports and what not. DX9?

Sorry I was not more clear.

 

[Greyone]

ATI Radeon™ Xpress 200M for AMD Notebooks - Specifications

CPU Interface

* AMD Sempron™, AMD Athlon™ 64, and AMD Athlon™ 64 FX, AMD Turion™ 64 processors
* 800MHz and 1GHz HyperTransport interface speeds
* Supports AMD’s Enhanced Virus Protection
* Supports Advanced Power Management with CPU Throttling, and Stutter Mode capability.

Memory Interface

* UMA mode operation requires no additional memory
* HyperMemory™ is innovative technology that seamlessly enables the Graphics Processing Unit to use a combination of local and shared system memory with real-time performance at a reduced consumer cost and up to 128MB of memory
* GDDR and DDR Support
* Support for 2Mx32 (with 64-bit interface), 4Mx32, 8Mx32 and 16Mx16 memory devices
* Asynchronous HyperTransport and memory controller interface speeds
* Supports GDDR SDRAM self refresh mechanism
* Supports dynamic CKE for power conservation (for GDDR SDRAM only)

PCI Express Interface

* Compliant with the PCI Express 1.0a Specifications
* Up to (4) x1 PCI Express general purpose links

3D Graphics

* Integrated ATI Radeon™ X300 graphics core with clock speed of 300/400MHz (for ATI Radeon Xpress 1100/1150)
* Full DirectX 9.0 Support (Vertex Shader v2.0 and Pixel Shader v2.0)
o Full precision floating point pixel pipeline
o Up to 4 Multiple-Render-Targets (MRTs)
o Support for up to 12-bit per pixel formats
* Supports Microsoft’s next generation GDI+ user interface
* Supports resolution up to 2536x2536@32bpp
* Anti-Aliasing using multi-sampling algorithm with support for 2,4, and 6 samples
* Hidden surface removal using 16, 24, or 32-bit Z-Buffering

2D Graphics

* Highly optimized 128-bit engine capable of processing multiple pixels per clock
* Game acceleration including support for Microsoft’s DirectDraw, Double Buffering, Virtual Sprites, Transparent Blit, and Masked Blit.
* Supports a maximum resolution of 2048x1536@32bpp
* Support for new GDI extensions in Windows

 

[Bran]

you should be able to play hl2 on low/medium. Most users say you can run it on medium, but I don't know since I only have a desktop board with it. Plus RAM can make a difference in its fps.

cool, thank you. That is definitely good enough for me. The laptop has a gig of ram but I have no idea what the processor speed is.

 

[Slasher]

A shared ram video card is a bad idea. I highly recommend getting a video card with dedicated ram. It runs better, and you aren't at a loss of ram.

If this video card is the same one that my desktop has built in - half-life 2 does not run smooth, even at lowest settings it skips hard.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

A shared ram video card is a bad idea. I highly recommend getting a video card with dedicated ram. It runs better, and you aren't at a loss of ram.

If this video card is the same one that my desktop has built in - half-life 2 does not run smooth, even at lowest settings it skips hard.

He doesn't really have the option of getting a discrete card...

This is a piss-poor graphics card for games, but it will get the job done for other needs

 

[Greyone]

A shared ram video card is a bad idea. I highly recommend getting a video card with dedicated ram. It runs better, and you aren't at a loss of ram.

If this video card is the same one that my desktop has built in - half-life 2 does not run smooth, even at lowest settings it skips hard.

Seriously?

I have the desktop version and I can play it with some settings medium and some low with an average of 36fps. The dx7 tweak also helps.

I also have only 512mb of ram.

 

[Slasher]

Seriously?

I have the desktop version and I can play it with some settings medium and some low with an average of 36fps. The dx7 tweak also helps.

I also have only 512mb of ram.

Mine is ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (There's no M)
128mb of shared memory

My comp is 1.5gigs of ram
2.8ghz processor

As far as I remember, I got a new video card because I wasn't satisfied with the performance of half-life 2. On all low settings, it ran choppy(36 fps is still pretty bad, I expect no less than 60), and quality was obviously crap. In addition to that, 128mb was chopped off my original 1.5gigs so less ram was available for use... And I don't know what the dx7 tweak is, so maybe that would have helped a tiny bit. Anyways, I'm happy with my 512mb dedicated NVIDIA now.

He doesn't really have the option of getting a discrete card...

This is a piss-poor graphics card for games, but it will get the job done for other needs

I guess if that's all he's looking for, then he can go right ahead. I was sort of assuming he was looking for a decent graphics card to at the very least play half-life 2 with some dignity.

z357x: If you have the extra money, it's definitely worth investing even just a tiny bit more than low-end

 

[twelve]

I can't believe how many people have suggested upgrading it. The clue was right there in the first post.

ATI Radeon

 

[Bran]

I can't believe how many people have suggested upgrading it. The clue was right there in the first post.

ATI Radeon

 

[Slasher]

Yeah, everyone else seemed to skim past the part where I said it's a laptop I'm getting for free.

I just need it for rendering work, so I don't care about the speed. Greyone and Frozen both knew what I was getting at.

Ugh, if I saw that post I would've shut up. You should've edited your first post to provide that information and I would have picked up on it

 

[Bran]

Ugh, if I saw that post I would've shut up. You should've edited your first post to provide that information and I would have picked up on it

Yeah, I tend to forget about editing posts and what not. Not like you bothered me though.

 

[LocutusEstBorg]

Try to push for a laptop with an MXM slot so you can put in a card later. Like GTX 280 mobile when it comes out.