Onboard Graphics Card Issue

Ah_Yeah

I bought a Samsung RV511 Laptop a year ago. It has 4GB Ram, an i3 Processor, and an onboard Intel HD Core Graphics card, whose drivers are up to date.

I've recently started using the laptop for gaming, nothing heavy just The Sims 3, but as I've added on the most recent expansion pack and patch, the game will not load and keeps crashing. The graphics card appears to be the root cause of this issue.

The card has 1696mb memory overall, but only 64MB dedicated, which is not enough. I need a minimum of 128 MB. The game played perfectly with no lag until the latest expansion pack, so I believe that 128MB should be fine, or maybe even a little more, in case I add another expansion pack on.

The only problem is there doesn't appear to be an external option to connect a new graphics card, it's onboard. I have the laptop a year, and buying a new one is not an option right now.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do here? I have a 3 year warranty/insurance on the laptop, although I doubt that has much relevance to my issue.

Thanks!

ED E

First off, just fyi, you dont have a graphics card, just a chip.

It cant be changed, its soldered to the motherboard. Your laptop is very much not a gaming one. If they've up'd the required spec with the expansion theres not much you can do, just downgrade back to the original and stick with that.

Ah_Yeah

Thanks for the reply! I know it's not the best laptop for gaming, I'm not a big gamer, I get bursts of playing the Sims and then don't play for ages again, and that's the only game I play, it's mostly for work that it's used.

I may look into refurbishing my old laptop which has enough capabilities to run the Sims. For the moment I'm running the game at the minimum resolution to see what I can get out of it - not a great experience though!

Freddy Smelly

Ah_Yeah wrote: »

I bought a Samsung RV511 Laptop a year ago. It has 4GB Ram, an i3 Processor, and an onboard Intel HD Core Graphics card, whose drivers are up to date.

I've recently started using the laptop for gaming, nothing heavy just The Sims 3, but as I've added on the most recent expansion pack and patch, the game will not load and keeps crashing. The graphics card appears to be the root cause of this issue.

The card has 1696mb memory overall, but only 64MB dedicated, which is not enough. I need a minimum of 128 MB. The game played perfectly with no lag until the latest expansion pack, so I believe that 128MB should be fine, or maybe even a little more, in case I add another expansion pack on.

The only problem is there doesn't appear to be an external option to connect a new graphics card, it's onboard. I have the laptop a year, and buying a new one is not an option right now.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do here? I have a 3 year warranty/insurance on the laptop, although I doubt that has much relevance to my issue.

Thanks!

boot into the bios on the laptop then look for the section where the graphics card settings are and you should be able to share more ram to the gcard there.

64mb shared memory is likely the default setting but most modern laptops can share upto 512mb of the system memory

Ah_Yeah

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

boot into the bios on the laptop then look for the section where the graphics card settings are and you should be able to share more ram to the gcard there.

64mb shared memory is likely the default setting but most modern laptops can share upto 512mb of the system memory

that was my go to solution, however when I go into f2 setup on bootup, I can't get into the BIOS. I cant find a way to get into it either. Some laptops dont allow access to it though am I correct?

Freddy Smelly

Ah_Yeah wrote: »

that was my go to solution, however when I go into f2 setup on bootup, I can't get into the BIOS. I cant find a way to get into it either. Some laptops dont allow access to it though am I correct?

they should always allow access to it

Turn it off
Turn it on
Start tapping one of the keys as soon as you press the on button.

usually it's f2 or del to access the bios

if u get in adjust the time allowed for bios access to 5 seconds for the future

Ah_Yeah

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

they should always allow access to it

Turn it off
Turn it on
Start tapping one of the keys as soon as you press the on button.

usually it's f2 or del to access the bios

if u get in adjust the time allowed for bios access to 5 seconds for the future

F2 Brings me into setup, but no BIOS unfortunately. I'll have a look a little later this evening - thanks a milll!

Freddy Smelly

Ah_Yeah wrote: »

F2 Brings me into setup, but no BIOS unfortunately. I'll have a look a little later this evening - thanks a milll!

setup is the bios... look around for the graphics settings... you should be able to increase the dedicated ram to 512mb

Ah_Yeah

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

setup is the bios... look around for the graphics settings... you should be able to increase the dedicated ram to 512mb

OK - will have a look again, couldn't find it last time I was in there!

Freddy Smelly

Ah_Yeah wrote: »

OK - will have a look again, couldn't find it last time I was in there!

if your bios is a phoenix bios

go to advanced > chipset > frame buffer size

set it to 512M

or some phoenix award bios look more like this

advanced chipset features > uma frame buffer size > 512mb

Freddy Smelly

@Ah_yeah did you manage to get it sorted?

Ah_Yeah

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

@Ah_yeah did you manage to get it sorted?

Couldn't get into the BIOS, but I did go into the game and pulled down the resolution, it plays perfectly now! Thanks a mill for your help

Freddy Smelly

Ah_Yeah wrote: »

Couldn't get into the BIOS, but I did go into the game and pulled down the resolution, it plays perfectly now! Thanks a mill for your help

it seems odd that you cannot get into the bios setup

f2 or del key usually does it

HP pcs use f10