Dell/ Intel integrated graphics

[chevro1et]

Hey all,

Looking at getting a portable laptop. Planning on teaching ESL overseas, and am gonna take a lappy with me. Currently looking at the Inspiron 940m (the 14.1" version of the Inspiron 9400). Only graphics option available for the 940m is the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950. Of course Dell says that its great, DX9.0C and all that, but how good is it really? Any light gaming possible with this integrated graphics chipset? (thinking FarCry/ HL2). Cheers.

 

[jiggamanjb]

on the 940m I could run WoW with everything turned off at ~20fps. It sucked pretty bad and WoW isn't very system intensive.

 

[||Console||]

Just a idea waite till you are over seas and buy a better laptop over there where it will be chepper =) or get a laptop that has a real card in it you can get laptops with SLI

 

[jivetrky]

I'd guess you could play older games...but probably not HL2, etc. At least not with acceptable frame rates. This is a just a guess though.

 

[jivetrky]

Just a idea waite till you are over seas and buy a better laptop over there where it will be chepper =) or get a laptop that has a real card in it you can get laptops with SLI

yeah, but an SLI laptop will not only be very expensive, but won't really be something you could really consider portable.


How about a 15" laptop? Still pretty portable, but you can get them with a dedicated graphics card. The E1505 can be fitted with an X1400. Not a ton of horsepower...but it'd play HL2 and Farcry at lowerish settings.

 

[Prot]

How about going with a laptop based on Turion X2. The integrated graphics on models that use that processor tend to be nVidia Go 6150LE or Go 7200, both of which are far better than Intel graphics. Don't get me wrong, they are not in the same league as a dedicated graphics solution, but are far superior to Intel integrated graphics. Turion X2 isn't a bad processor, and runs quite cool. I know, I know, Core 2 Duo is better.

 

[stang8118]

I have owned a dell e1505 with a core duo + intel 950 graphics, and it was flat out HORRIBLE to even play madden 06. Almost unbareable....

I am now using the laptop in my sig (1.6ghz turion x2, 2gb ram, 6150go nvidia), and while its not a beast in gaming i can atleast play any game out on low settings with decent frames.

Although when i get my tax money i plan on going with a 14-15" sager laptop wiht a 7600go, just because i want a little better experiance gaming then what i am getting now.

 

[funnyperson1]

If you plan on doing any gaming with your laptop do not get one with Intel graphics.

It is DX9 "compliant" but it doesn't have hardware Texture and Lighting, a feature that was revolutionary when introduced with the original Geforce cards...

I always bench laptops when I get them and lets put it this way, I got higher 3DMark01 scores with an overclocked PIII600E and 128mb of SDRAM and a Geforce2 Pro than I did on a Pentium M 1.6 laptop with 512 PC2700 ram and a GMA950 gpu.

I don't know how much you are willing to spend, but if you can drop like $1,500 then look into the Dell Latitude D620 or IBM T60. The D620 comes with a 7300go equivalent and the T60 comes with an X1400, while still not great gaming cards, at least gaming is possible with them. They should play the games you mentioned at low to medium settings at 1024 or 1280x800.

powernotebooks.com have a couple 14.1" laptops with 7600go gpus starting at $1000.

 

[ozzlo]

Yeah I have an Intel integrated in my new lappie, I haven't even tried to game on it because I know it's going to be pretty much impossible.

When I bought my lappie that was one very hard decision to make, 9 hours battery life without gaming or 5 hours battery life with.

 

[jivetrky]

yeah, you kind of have to concede something. Because you aren't going to get a gamer laptop that will last more than a couple of hours on battery. But you aren't going to get an 8 hour battery typed laptop that will play games worth a poop.

I would really say that a Dell E1505 or equivalent would be the way to go. You get a decent GPU in them (or at least it's offered) and the battery life isn't too bad.

 

[chevro1et]

Hey, thanks for all the sage advise guys. Have decidied that if I am gonna do any gaming, then I certainly do need a dedicated graphics card. Currently looking at the 15.4" Dell Inspiron 6400 w. T7200 C2D/ 2gig ram/ x1400.

Funnyperson: I will have a look at the site you mentioned (although I live in Canada) and the Dell Latitude line as well...

 

[e6600]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220118
i liked this one.
the price comes out to just about the same when compared to the 6400 inspiron and it has a much better video card/memory/cpu
http://premierconfigure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=&ci=E1677&customer_id=RC956904&~tgt=cfg&l=en&s=hied&cs=RC956904

 

[gearhead1972]

Just food for thought. I have the 945 intel graphics on this lappy (Gateway)and play WOW, Everquest, UT2004, and Call of Duty on it. Granted not on the highest settings, but not the lowest either. Yes its not as good as my Pent D 920 with an 1600x and a 32 inch lcd but it works and works fine when im away from home or want to log on for a few min at the dinner table and frag some people.......

 

[chevro1et]

Thanks for all the input guys. Ended up ordering the Inspiron 640m w. Intel 950 integrated graphics. I came to the conclusion that I will have alot of other things (besides gaming) to occupy my time while overseas. And, if I feel the urge to frag real hard, there are alot of PC gaming cafes for cheap where I am going anyways...

 

[Vengance_01]

It will still be ok for older games. Plus there is always emulation, addicting Flash games etc... Also a good thing with the 640m, is it can take Core 2 chips, use a 9 cell battery and get tons of battery life. Hope dell sends you a good one.

 

[Vengance_01]

I have owned a dell e1505 with a core duo + intel 950 graphics, and it was flat out HORRIBLE to even play madden 06. Almost unbareable....

I am now using the laptop in my sig (1.6ghz turion x2, 2gb ram, 6150go nvidia), and while its not a beast in gaming i can atleast play any game out on low settings with decent frames.

Although when i get my tax money i plan on going with a 14-15" sager laptop wiht a 7600go, just because i want a little better experiance gaming then what i am getting now.

stang look at the Asus AJ8P/s models. They come fully loaded, and both have good gpu's, and good screens.

 

[ozzlo]

I just installed EVE ONLINE on my Integrated Graphics lappie (just for kicks)

What do ya know It actually plays it!!!! It even gets acceptable frame rates at 1920x1200...
Sure there's no AA or eye candy but it doesn't seem to lower the game experience any...

 

[chevro1et]

It will still be ok for older games. Plus there is always emulation, addicting Flash games etc... Also a good thing with the 640m, is it can take Core 2 chips, use a 9 cell battery and get tons of battery life. Hope dell sends you a good one.

Yea, I got mine loaded (well, not fully loaded) with a C2D T5500 (1.66ghz, 667 fsb)/ 2 gigs of ram (533fsb, couldn't spring an extra $250 for the 2 gigs @ 667mhz)/ 9 cell battery/ Vista Home Premium/ 1395 a/b/g wirless/ bluetooth. Should be a nice little rig, shipped from Dell today!! Be here next week...