HELP - Need NOtebook Video Card Advice quick!

[TankDawg]

Hi Guys,

COntinuing our previous discussion, I have narrowed it down to TWO notebooks.

One has 32mb Seperate Video Memory

One has 64mb Shared Video Memory

Both are ATI Mobility.

I want to play CMAK and some new first person shooters that demand good graphics.

Advice???

THanks!

[Schrullenhaft]

If CM performance is a major issue in your laptop purchase, then get the one with the 32Mb separate/dedicated video memory.

Shared memory tends to drag quite a bit in performance, especially 3D games. Plus they also tend to degrade the system performance a bit too since the integrated video is taking up a bit of system's memory bandwidth and a little more CPU time compared to a dedicated video setup.

[easytarget]

just don't expect to get anything resembling decent performance in any recent fps game

and in all liklihood some stutter at the very least in cmbb and/or cmak

my advice, don't buy a notebook as your primary game playing machine

[ December 26, 2003, 11:13 PM: Message edited by: easytarget ]

[phil stanbridge]

I've got a Tosh Satellite (2ghz mobile P4) with a Geforce Go 32mb card and 256mb ram, and it's fine in CMAK and some first person shooters, like H&DII. Obviously you have to run with the minimum settings unless you want a slide show but I like the fact that I can then run it at the highest settings on my desktop. I get the best of both worlds. I tend to run only the smaller scenarios in CMAK on the Tosh for obvious reasons, but it's not as slow as you would expect. A 500 pointer QB runs perfectly well with the settings maxed out at 1600x1200!

But as Easytarget says, a laptop is no substitute for a desktop machine in any circumstances! A 1000 point QB takes 5 seconds to crunch on my desktop and up to 50 seconds on my laptop.

[ December 27, 2003, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: phil stanbridge ]