Upgrading Sony Vaio Graphics Card - HELP

d.anthony

Hey guys,

From what I can gather from a bit of googling, upgrading the graphics card on a laptop is pretty much impossible.

I've just gotten a new Sony Vaio (VPCEB4D4E) and the graphics that came with it is Intel HD Graphics.

I tried to run an old game last night (Silent Hill 2, about 9 years old) and had no luck. I have attached my results from can you run it. I am a bit puzzled as to why it tells me my graphics card isn't good enough but I pass all the subcategories in it.

So basically I have two questions... 1) Is there any way to tweak the current Intel HD graphics card so it will run better?

and 2) Is there anyway to upgrade my graphics card in this model? Either internally or even an external graphics card (if such a thing exists)

Any help would be greatly appreciated guys!

Cheers.

Chaotic_Forces

It should run. The problem is that intel (nowadays for games) are not made for graphics but... I don't see why it shouldn't work. Did you try runnning the game? If so, what happened? Also, you have windows 7, if you treid rtunning it and it wouldn't work, that could be the issue.

x in the city

Intel graphics are crap, the fact they cant play a game a decade old says enough, I think they should be banned from all laptops tbh, cant believe they somehow flog this rubbish to vendors.

there is no way to play this game without buying a new laptop, the graphics are not upgradable.

Intel graphics are just about maxed out playing solatire

Voodu Child

Probably a driver issue or incompatibility caused by the age of the game. Technically you've more than enough power to play a 2002 game.

Update your drivers and download any patches you can find for the game. If that doesnt work then you're probably out of luck.

Jackovarian

When you turn on the laptop go into the bios, usually f2, f8 or the delete key. Once your in there your looking for the graphics memory setting. you need to set it to the MAX.

By the looks of it you have it set to the minimum.

Let me know if this works!!!

Jackovarian

And just to let you know, I came across tweaked Intel Graphics drivers a few weeks ago. Not sure if they're any good or not, but they may give some advantage.


The reason (if you dont already know) why Intel cards aren't so good for gaming is because they use your system memory, your ram (among other things)

Dedicated cards like the ones made by Nvidia or ATI use their own super fast memory, it really speeds up the processes.

d.anthony

Jackovarian wrote: »

And just to let you know, I came across tweaked Intel Graphics drivers a few weeks ago. Not sure if they're any good or not, but they may give some advantage.


The reason (if you dont already know) why Intel cards aren't so good for gaming is because they use your system memory, your ram (among other things)

Dedicated cards like the ones made by Nvidia or ATI use their own super fast memory, it really speeds up the processes.

Thanks for the advice mate. Couldn't find graphic memory settings in BIOS. Any idea where I could find these tweaked drivers? While I do know a bit about computers, this graphics stuff is completely new to me!

Jackovarian

Honestly cant remember, you'll just have to search google man.

You do have a memory problem though.

Its just a settings problem. 32 megs of video memory isnt enough. Could be a power setting either

x in the city

Jackovarian wrote: »

And just to let you know, I came across tweaked Intel Graphics drivers a few weeks ago. Not sure if they're any good or not, but they may give some advantage.


The reason (if you dont already know) why Intel cards aren't so good for gaming is because they use your system memory, your ram (among other things)

Dedicated cards like the ones made by Nvidia or ATI use their own super fast memory, it really speeds up the processes.

thats true but the major difference is that real cards have hardware T&L and SM support (amongst others), what Intel say about support for them I would take with a pinch of salt

Jackovarian

Well I didnt want to get into a big spiel about shaders and pipelines!

But yeah, there is a lot more to it.

d.anthony

Just to let you know lads, I managed to sort it by setting compatibility mode to Vista and running it as administrator.

Thanks for the help!