Ati card in a laptop

[Goodie]

Any of you guys know if a 32 MB ATI® Mobility Radeon 9000 is a good card in a laptop? Will I beable to play my games like Morrowind? The Laptop has a P4 2.0 Ghz Cpu and 1 Gig or DDR Ram. I havent got the Laptop yet, but it has been ordered. I'll get it in about 2 weeks.The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8500.

The cards specs are http://www.dell.com/ca/en/dhs/learnmore/learnmore_gfxinspndtr_notebooks_popup_inspn.htm

I hope someone here knows if it's a good card. I run a Geforce 4 Ti4200 (128 megs) in my Desktop Computer and thought I would give ATI a try. I hope im not disapointed.

 

[fiji]

i didnt know it had any expansion room lol

 

[mage_x]

the 9000 is worse than the 8500 from what i understand, and im not sure how the 4200 Go performs, the same as a normal one i presume

 

[Beast Of Blight]

I thought they were built in, didn't know you could buy mobility cards...

 

[Goodie]

I just hope I'm not going to be disapointed with the Ati card. this is my first Ati card and if I like it im going to get the new one for my Desktop machine. I love my Nvidia, but I figure I might as well try the Ati as well.

 

[Chan]

I just hope I'm not going to be disapointed with the Ati card. this is my first Ati card and if I like it im going to get the new one for my Desktop machine. I love my Nvidia, but I figure I might as well try the Ati as well.

The Radeon 9600 Pro Mobility is about the same as the desktop version I think...should be out soon.

 

[xtrmeocr]

I thought they were built in, didn't know you could buy mobility cards...

great thing about dells is they are almost 100% modular. can change/add whatever you want

 

[juliendogg]

you're using a 128 meg card, i woudln't expect to much from that 32 meg ati card. besides that the 9000 is not that great a card to begin with. i would think it would do just fine for a laptop myself. just don't expect it to compete with the higher end cards yeah?


J.

 

[OC Noob]

It was a top of the line laptop card before the 4200 go and what ever card ATI came out with to counter it.

I've played on a similar set up with a 7500 mobility and it was great...for a laptop.

Your not expecting desktop performance out of it are you?

ps I played UT2k3 on the 7500 mobility and it ran great. The 9000 should handle anything you throw at it.

 

[durrem]

The 4200 Go kicks the crap out of the 64MB (128 bit) Radeon 9000 Mobile, let alone the 32 (64 bit) version. If you play any kind of games at all, I'd go for the 4200 Go. Here is a comparison with benchmarks:

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1745

One other thing. Dell really overcharges for memory. Instead of paying Dell for the 1 GB of memory I would strip the 8500 down to the minimum that they would let you and then head over to Crucial.com or Newegg.com or someone and pick up a pair of 512 MB modules. IIRC the Inspiron 8500 uses standard 200 pin DDR Sodimms.

Anyway, you would probably save enough money doing this to afford the upgrade to the 4200 Go.

If I were you I would cancel the laptop and put in a new order, unless you got a really good coupon deal on it.

durrem

 

[Goodie]

If I were you I would cancel the laptop and put in a new order, unless you got a really good coupon deal on it.

durrem

How about free. I don't have to pay a red cent for it. My college is buying it for me. They told me to go custom build a Dell that comes in under $4000 (canadian) So this si the machine I built. It was already ordered so I can't stop it now, i just wanted to know what the card was like because I have never had an ATI card before. One last question on this. I just bought Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournmament 2003. Will this laptop run those games ok? I have played these games on the machine in my sig but I know I can't expect that kind of performance from the laptop. I just with they would have let me get that Alienware laptop, damn that thing is wicked.

 

[durrem]

Hmm, well I don't have any direct experience with those games, but it looks like the min system requirements for UT2003 are a 16MB TNT2 card, so you should be all right

The good thing about those Dell laptops is that you should (no guarantee though) be able to upgrade the video card on them. At least you could on the 8200 model that the 8500 replaces, and the 8500 does have a modular video card...

Also, is the reason that you can't cancel the laptop because the university is paying for it? Because I know you can just call them up and cancel the laptop at any time before it actually ships. (As an asside, I just got a 600m with that very same Radeon 9000, and mine is not upgradeable, but I wanted a lighter notebook heh. That's how I'm familiar with the process). But I can see how that would be a pain if you had to go through your college... And it would be a double pain to order memory separately through your college...

durrem

 

[OC Noob]

How about free. I don't have to pay a red cent for it. My college is buying it for me. They told me to go custom build a Dell that comes in under $4000 (canadian) So this si the machine I built. It was already ordered so I can't stop it now, i just wanted to know what the card was like because I have never had an ATI card before. One last question on this. I just bought Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournmament 2003. Will this laptop run those games ok? I have played these games on the machine in my sig but I know I can't expect that kind of performance from the laptop. I just with they would have let me get that Alienware laptop, damn that thing is wicked.

Read my post above for the answer to your question.

 

[Chan]

Would I be able to upgrade my videocard in the 600m?

 

[durrem]

Would I be able to upgrade my videocard in the 600m?

Nope, that one's integrated into the motherboard. 600m is not upgradeable.

durrem