Intel's Integrated "Extreme Graphics" on a Celeron. Is there any hope?

[Capitalizt]

Don't laugh folks, but this is all I could afford. The system is an Emachine T2792. It has a 2.7ghz Celeron processor (128k L2 cache) and 768MB of DDR Ram. The system came with an integrated "Intel Extreme Graphics 845GV" graphics controller. I believe it is burned right into the CPU/Motherboard, and is meant to take the place of a third party Nvidia-type graphics card.

I thought I would get decent performance out of a new $600 PC, but apparently I was wrong. My frame rate on Wolfenstein Enemy Territory rarely tops 30FPS (and that is running at 640X480 with all effects turned OFF!!)

As you can tell, I am desperate. My question is...Are there ANY tweaks I can do with this setup? I'm pretty sure hardware tweaks are out of the question, but I've been hoping to find a software tweak or program that can give my so-called "Extreme Graphics" an extra boost.

Any help with this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

[beau_zo_brehm]

Don't laugh folks, but this is all I could afford. The system is an Emachine T2792. It has a 2.7ghz Celeron processor (128k L2 cache) and 768MB of DDR Ram. The system came with an integrated "Intel Extreme Graphics 845GV" graphics controller. I believe it is burned right into the CPU/Motherboard, and is meant to take the place of a third party Nvidia-type graphics card.

I thought I would get decent performance out of a new $600 PC, but apparently I was wrong. My frame rate on Wolfenstein Enemy Territory rarely tops 30FPS (and that is running at 640X480 with all effects turned OFF!!)

As you can tell, I am desperate. My question is...Are there ANY tweaks I can do with this setup? I'm pretty sure hardware tweaks are out of the question, but I've been hoping to find a software tweak or program that can give my so-called "Extreme Graphics" an extra boost.

Any help with this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

your best hope is to save up for a decent procsessor or video card :-/

[Capitalizt]

I'm not tech savvy and pretty sure I would end up screwing the whole system up by installing a new CPU. There must be some way to give a boost to this POS.. I've heard of "forceware" drivers for Nvidia based systems and was hoping one of the smart people here knew about an Intel equivalent.

[Lord09]

Hopefully your system has an AGP port, if so you're good. Just save up for whatever you can afford. If not, you're pretty screwed... even a P4EE wouldn't do well with the junk onboard Extreme Graphics...

[Capitalizt]

AGP ports are those vanilla colored rectangle things right? If so, yes I have them.

[Lord09]

Oh man... those are probably PCI slots... is there another slot that looks different? There should only be one...

I think the best method would be to check your manual specs...

[9mmCensor]

AGP ports are those vanilla colored rectangle things right? If so, yes I have them.
AGP are similar but there is only one, and it normally is brown.

[larva]

845GV differs from 845G in that it does not have an AGP port for external graphics upgrade. And being an i845, the integrated video is not even the later 'extreme graphics 2'. Gaming performance is minimal.

Considering your chipset is inadequate, motherboard integrated and propriatary, and the graphics inadequate and not upgradeable, exactly what kind of processor the machine carries will have little impact. I'd counsel selling the machine and building an inexpensive pc from parts that will run modern games and be upgradeable in a cost effective manner.

[Ssetre]

I'm with larva on this one, sell it and use the money for something better. If anything else buy the parts and take it to a friend who knows computers and have him put it together for you. That emachines will barely run DX7 native games.

[Capitalizt]

Thanks guys...not the news I was looking for, but at least I can stop wasting my time now. Appreciate the responses.

[Shroomer]

There is one thing you can try, though it might be a waste of money. There is such a thing as a Geforce 5700LE PCI card. This Will definately help, but to what extent I could not guess. Newegg was out of stock when last I checked.

Good Luck!

[Streifenkarl]

Yeah, right! Arent there any Ti4x00 PCI cards out there?

Edit: Hmm, no, the best i could find are some FX5200 PCI cards. Ah what the hell, just sell your crappy rig and get a new one! (Or keep it if you need it for work.)

[Shroomer]

Just trying to show that they do exist.... Again, not sure how much this would help. Getting a better system would be the best bet, but if you just want a band-aid...

APOLLO BLOODY MONSTER 3 GF FX5700 LE 128MB PCI RETAIL (http://www.gameve.com/gve/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?sku=VC-APOL-0015)

[CandymanCan]

For $600 you could have gotten an A64 3000+ Winchester, with 1gb of pc4000 ram and good mobo, and a 9800pro.

[Prot]

Virtually any PCI graphics card will be an improvement over what you have. Go into the BIOS and verify that onboard video can be disabled before making the purchase. Until you get a graphics card, you can go into the BIOS and look for an option for how much ram memory gets allocated to video. Set it at the highest setting that is available to you. How long ago did you make the purchase? If you purchased the machine within the last week or two, you may be able to return it for a refund. You may get charged a restocking fee, but that is better than having what is essentially a $600 websurfer. I wonder why it was so much? Walmart sells a 2.66 Celeron based Compaq system with monitor for $398. If all else fails, you can put it on ebay. Some sucker may even buy it for more than what you paid for it.