[Charismatic]

Right clicked on My Computer>Properties.

System: Microsoft Windows XP, Media Center Edition, Version 2002, SP2.

Gateway
MX6446
AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology MK-36
2.00GHz, 896 MB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

[snipped]

Meh found the card.

Device manager> Display adapters:
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M Series
DM>Computer:
ACPI Uniprocessor PC

[Cobra]

Xpress? I don't think so.

[neoterran]

Wrong - it will run it, and probably do a decent job of it - provided it has OpenGL with the driver.

    * Integrated ATI Radeon™ X300 graphics core with clock speed of 300/400MHz (for ATI Radeon Xpress 1100/1150 respectively)
    * Full DirectX 9.0 Support (Vertex Shader v2.0 and Pixel Shader v2.0)
    * Full precision floating point pixel pipeline
    * Up to 4 Multiple-Render-Targets (MRTs)
    * Support for up to 12-bit per pixel formats
    * 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

you have the higher end one which has a 25 % larger clock.

[Charismatic]

I found the correct one. Whats the outcome look like now?

[neoterran]

 Logically, a Xpress 200m/1100m is a X300 core with half the pipes, reduced clock frequencies (both memory and core) and a reduced memory bandwidth (64bit instead of 128bit, although some X300SE models only come with 64bit) On paper alone, the 200m/1100m should be somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of what the X300 is in terms of performance.

Through my testing unfortunately, the picture has not turned out to be very pretty at all. The X300 all in all, is a horrible GPU. Where it appears to be most flawed is in OpenGL operations. In many benchmarks frame rates drop to as low as 3 frames per second where in comparable DirectX benches the frame rates are at or around 20.

One thing comes to mind here. Is it any real wonder why the X300 card was the only card of its generation to NOT be ported to a FireGL variant?

Sounds bad man, sorry.

[MP-Ryan]

Depending where you live, see if you can find a local computer hardware store - you might be able to get a non-integrated video card, though with laptops it is rather difficult.

[Polpolion]

You know what the best way to find out is?

To try it.

First run with no VPs, then with basic ones, then more advanced ones. Add some flags as you go too.

[WMCoolmon]

My knee-jerk reaction is Yes. Given that it sounds like it's a laptop, make sure that you have it plugged into a wall and have all powersaving options disabled when you try it.

I'm not familiar enough with the video card to say, but given the rest of the specs, the video chipset will be the deciding factor. With that processor and that much memory you should be able to run all of the MediaVPs, including ADVeffects.

[Charismatic]

Alright, thank you guys, I'll give it a try sometime.

And sence my GFX card seems to be crap, what do you guys suppose would be a decent one, middle of the line, GFX card, keeping SCP in mind? (Estimated price as well, if you have a estimate.)

[MP-Ryan]

Alright, thank you guys, I'll give it a try sometime.

And sence my GFX card seems to be crap, what do you guys suppose would be a decent one, middle of the line, GFX card, keeping SCP in mind? (Estimated price as well, if you have a estimate.)

This is a laptop, yes?

First thing you need to find out is if your motherboard has available expansion slots for a dedicated video card, since I'm guessing (perhaps inaccurately) that yours is onboard.

[neoterran]

yeah if it's a laptop replacing it could be close to impossible.

[Scooby_Doo]

If the Xpress is greater than a Geforce 2 then yes it'll run... (as for drivers  thats a whole nother story)

[Charismatic]

@ScoobyDoo: What drivers do i need?
@MPRyan: Yes its a labtop.
And how would i find out if it has avalible expantion slots?

[MP-Ryan]

@ScoobyDoo: What drivers do i need?
@MPRyan: Yes its a labtop.
And how would i find out if it has avalible expantion slots?

Pop open the case.  OR, if you aren't comfortable doing that, take it to a computer hardware store and ask a tech.

[Cobra]

Why doesn't he just try playing FSO?

[MP-Ryan]

Why doesn't he just try playing FSO?

Because that would be the first thing he should try?

The technical discussion of his GPU leads me to believe his system may have trouble, but you're absolutely right that he should try FSO first.

[Scooby_Doo]

@ScoobyDoo: What drivers do i need?
@MPRyan: Yes its a labtop.
And how would i find out if it has avalible expantion slots?

Sorry I'm running on a nvidia card, that even they no longer support.   I'd recommend 16bit color (32 should work ok though) 1024*768, no AA, no glow/shine mapping

[taylor]

Just to add my $0.52: it should work fine, since I know that the game is playable on much less.

It's not going to be a stellar performer, but it should get you through most mods without too much trouble.  A lot of the game engine is still memory and CPU bound, not GPU bound.  Most of the memory issues, and some of the CPU issues, are going to be solved with 3.6.10 and later versions.  ATI has always had issues with OpenGL apps, and the performance from them usually suffers, but that's a driver issue and not really anything hardware related.  Now that AMD is involved though, I expect that we'll see some better driver developement in the OpenGL area.

If you use up-to-date drivers, avoid using AA except at low resolutions, and fiddle with your detail settings a little bit (lowering "3D Hardware Textures" will save you some video memory), then it should play pretty well for you.  But as WMCoolmon said already, just be sure that you always play the game with the laptop plugged in, since the power saving features will kill your performance otherwise.

[karajorma]

Why doesn't he just try playing FSO?

Cause unless he can pull the files across from another PC it's a multi gig download?

[Turey]

Why doesn't he just try playing FSO?

Cause unless he can pull the files across from another PC it's a multi gig download?

He should be able to play retail anyways. So the FSO executables aren't that large a download.