Laptops graphics

djimi

Hi guys,

Im looking at buying a cheapish laptop (no more than €550) and Ive seen some decent spec ones, but they all have this Integrated Intel Graphic Media Accelerator X3100. Now Im not looking to play massively highend games on this laptop (I have a decent pc at home for that) but would that graphics chip be able to handle games such as Call of Duty 1 and Return To Castle Wolfenstein and games a few years old, to a reasonable playing level at least? Im planning on having at least 2gb of RAM.

Overheal

that controller would even still, be able to rape those games i would imagine. however if you want to play games in any way recent (which may happen down the road) its wise to get one with a dedicated GPU: preferably an ATI. If its nvidia, avoid the 8400 and 8600 model cards - they have defects. other than that youre sorted.

djimi

Someone said to me that after a while playing games, the system might start to lag because the integrated memory starts to create a bottleneck as it takes all the system resources; is this true?

I would like to go with a dedicated graphics card, but Im not really interested in spending more than €500-€550 (its going to be mainly used for work and occasional use) and most of the machines Ive seen so far in that price range have the Intel integrated graphics.

Im kicking myself cause PC World had a decent Acer Aspire for €549 last weekend, GeForce graphics, 3GB Ram, 1.86ghz Core 2 Duo processor, and I hadnt been paid yet! Hopefully someone will have something similar this weekend for the bank holiday...

Overheal

well yes, intel graphics will be a bottleneck, and even if youre just a desktop keyboard warrior the dedicated graphics will make everything a bit smoother.