What is the best video card for gaming on laptop from these 4?

Question

ati 1150
ati1200
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950

Please give me as many details as possible especially from personal experience. I really like Counter Strike and would want to be able to play games like that but realize that brand new games may be a stretch.

I am between Dell and toshiba any recommendations on that would be helpfull as well, looking to spend 500-600.

Thanks

Answer 1

you have to know that a price tag of $500-600 and a gaming laptop is a mutual exclusion.

the cheapest Dell Inspiron 1520 with the Nvidia 8400M GS graphics card cost atm $699 and be aware that this graphics card isn't especially fast but will do the job.

Answer 2

Of the three the x3100 is the fastest, but it is the fastest of a slow bunch.

Comparing them all the best 3dmark2006 of them is about 450 for the x3100, about 250 for the ATI's and 150 for the GMA950

In perspective new games like Crysis will be unplayable. I have to turn my computer to low settings and I have a 3dmark of over 3000 (9x faster than those onboard sets)

Counterstrike is old enough shouldn't be a problem, but new games are going to suck.....bad.

For any sort of gaming you will really want to look at an Nvidia 8400 as the minimum. I've seen the Dell Vostro in your price range with the dedicated 8400 card in it (currently $630 with dual core, 2gb ram and 8400 for Vostro 1500, but prices vary). 3dmark at 1300 (or 4x the best of the list you game). I've also owned one of those video cards and while most gamers would scoff at it, it is a huge step up from the 4 you listed.

Of course an Nvidia 8600 or ATI 2600 are big steps up again, but prices go to the $1000 range then.

Answer 3

Go to the Dell Outlet, http://outlet.dell.com and go to the Inspiron or Vostro section. Look for 1520 or 1500. I got a Dell 1520 for 809 bucks with 1 gig of ram but everything you see below (below shows 2 gigs cuz I upgraded). But the video card and the processor would play your game fine, for just 200 bucks more. Dell Outlet sells refurbished computers. Dont think the laptop is or has been used. It probably just went out, had a small defect that they replaced and reformatted everything and sent it back out, when I got it the box looked and everything in it looked brand spankin new. Here's the specs.. You can find deals like this on the outlet store online.

Dell Inspiron 1520 - Black
Intel T7300 - 2Ghz - 800Mhz FSB - 4MB L2
15.4" UltraSharp 1680x1050 LG Display
2GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
256MB GeForce 8600M GT
Intel 3945 A/B/G WiFi
BlueTooth w/remote
8x DVD Writer
120GB 5400 RPM HDD
9-cell 85Whr Battery
Vista Home Premium

Answer 4

easy. the ATI chips are far better. the 1200 the better of the two. it has 256 megs of dedicated video memory, the 1150 128 megs. The 1200 will run just about everything on the shelf at the software store. The intel chips are integrated, so they use your systems ram, not their own.

Answer 5

All suck.

The X1200 is OK and surpringly the X3100, but they are not considered gaming cards.

Counter-Strike Source is unplayable on a GMA 950. THe X1200 or X3100 should play that game. For CS 1.6, all those will play the game fine using the DirectX API.

Answer 6

They all ****, pardon the language.

Look for one that has NVIDIA GeForce Go or ATI Mobility Radeon, but better than 1150 or 1200.

Answer 7

sure, there is, it is called a ViDock. it is totally costly nonetheless, you'de be better off only procuring a sparkling workstation from one in each and every of many cells TigerDirect or CompUsa have each and all the time. stable success!