Graphics card help?

drunkymonkey

Heya guys,

Not sure where to post this so mods feel free to shift it!

Just bought a pc laptop after converting from a mac last week so not so familiar with the PC's, its a Sony VAIO, 2 Duo Processor T6600/2.20GHz with Graphics : Mobile Intel Graphics accelerator 4500 MhD (standard)

Any ways , today i decided to buy a game (New Grand Theft Auto) and checked the stats wasnt too sure whether i had the right video card for it so i asked and the assistant said that if it wasnt up to spec then i can lower the graphics to play it!?

Being a newbie on it i Dont have a clue how to do this so can anyone help me with how to do it?

The required graphics card is 256MB NVIDIA 7900.

Thanks for your help !

Solitaire

You've been ripped. PC games aren't refundable and you've been sold a game you can't possibly play on your laptop. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to run almost any 3D game on your laptop - GMA4500 is first and foremost a 2D GPU, and is dire at 3D. Most (and nearly all sub-€700) laptop GPUs are little better.

drunkymonkey

So there is no way of getting games like that to work?
What if i upgrade the graphics card?

Thanks Solitaire!

longhalloween

drunkymonkey wrote: »

So there is no way of getting games like that to work?
What if i upgrade the graphics card?

Thanks Solitaire!

Its almost impossible to update most laptop hardware as theyre are not designed to have parts replaced, generally only RAM and hard drives. I think your graphics card is integrated into the motherboard so that rules out all hope of changing it.

GTA4 is also heavily reliant on the power of the CPU, more so than other PC games, so you'd prob have to upgrade that too causing a double headache.

If I were you, id concentrate mainly on games that were released pre-2007 if you want to get optimal performance on your laptop. There are some real gems around, like Rome: Total War, so have a look on the internet and see if anything interests you. These games are also pretty cheap ATM.

Solitaire

IIRC GMA4500 < 6600GT. And the latter was pretty much the minimum spec for Oblivion (at least past 640*480 with minimum settings ). So I really don't see many games made after 2005 playing ball at any viewable resolution. If you want to game, stick to desktops or be ready to pay big bucks on a gaming laptop.

drunkymonkey

Ah damn anyway was looking forward to it! I can sell it to my friend though so not out of pocket!

Thanks for ye're help!

Lu Tze

I think my integrated graphics is the same, and it runs GTA3 just fine, so go and get that as it is a lot more fun to play than GTA4 anyway

Solitaire

I wonder if you could get GTASA to run on it on minimum settings? Was a bit prettier than GTA3 (which could be a problem with a cack lil' GMA4500) but on the other hand its the best GTA by a long shot. Well up on my Best Games Ever list

Lu Tze

But there is no dodo in GTASA! I ploughed far more hours into GTA3 and Vice City than SA, wasn't a massive fan of it, though it was still excellent.

I doubt i would on my machine anyway, even if the graphics are capable its a CULV processor in it! Presume this would bottleneck anything newer

drunkymonkey

I was thinking of GTASA as well! Thought it was second to best in the GTA range, there was so many places to go and i loved the whole Compton/Gangster theme to it was a bit different to the normal mafia ones!

Let me know if it works for anyone, otherwise it will GTA3 for me.

Skerries

check to see a few of the games you can actually run
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-4500MHD-GMA-X4500MHD.9883.0.html

TerrorFirmer

San Andreas will definitely run, I've seen it running on the older Intel integrated cards.

At the moment Dell have some great deals on laptops, one of the Vostro's is 589 including delivery and a GT330 1GB Card. Almost bought one then slapped myself in the face and said 'Hang on...but you don't even play games on your laptop.' The last laptop I bought had a 9600M and I've never played anything on it except some older games.

elnino35

Hey Solitaire...you seem to know your stuff on this issue, so can I ask ya for some advice???..I have a laptop with the following spec
Processor is Intel Core duo T5550@1.833GHZ
Graphics card is Intel(R) 965 Express chipset
Also have 3GB Ram....so my question is this
I have just bought Football Manager 10. and being the total noob I am, didn't check the specs required to run it which are: minimum 2.0GHZ processor, and 256mb mvidia graphics card. The game is playing, but VERY slowly!!..so can I upgrade the processor and graphics card to improve performance, and how much damage am I looking at cash wise??
Really want to keep the game as was addicted to them in their previous guises, so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

PS..sorry if posted in wrong thread, as still trying to find my way around the different forums.

Solitaire

Your CPU shouldn't be that bad. Alas, from the sounds of it you only have horrid Intel GMA950 graphics, which can't run FM10's Match View mode (it being in 3D and all)

elnino35

Solitaire wrote: »

Your CPU shouldn't be that bad. Alas, from the sounds of it you only have horrid Intel GMA950 graphics, which can't run FM10's Match View mode (it being in 3D and all) [/QUOTE
Ah sure nay bother, will play it on slow mode for now:(..

Cheers for the quick reply anyhow