Help in buying a video card to play online games

  1. #1
    kkreampuff is offline Newbie

    Exclamation Help in buying a video card to play online games

    Hello I have no experience in laptops at all and i need a video card to play Maple story, Counter-Strike, Silkroad etc... the only problem is i have no idea what video card to buy so i was wondering if anyone could reccomend me what video card to buy so that it would work with my laptop. Heres my laptop info with the scan

    -------------------------------------------------------

    OS Information:
    PropertyValue
    OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional|C:\WINDOWS|\Device\Harddisk0\Partitio n1
    Service Pack 2.0
    OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
    Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS


    Processor:
    PropertyValue
    Current Clock Speed 497
    Description x86 Family 6 Model 6 Stepping 2
    Manufacturer AuthenticAMD
    Name mobile AMD Athlon(tm) 4


    Memory (RAM):
    PropertyValue
    Bank Label RAS 7 & 6
    Capacity 268435456

    Bank Label RAS 7 & 4
    Capacity 134217728

    Total Memory Deteced in Hardware: ~384 MB
    Memory Reported to Operating System: 351MB

    Disk Drives:
    PropertyValue
    Description Disk drive
    Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
    Model IC25N040ATCS04-0
    Media Type Fixed hard disk media
    Size 40007761920 (~37 GB)
    Number of Partitions 1

    Motherboard:
    PropertyValue
    Manufacturer ECSM
    Model
    Name Base Board
    Part Number
    Product i_Buddie
    Serial Number 00000000
    Version 1.0


    BIOS:
    PropertyValue
    Manufacturer American Megatrends Inc.
    Name Version 07.00T
    Release Date 20010402000000.000000+000
    Version AMIINT - 1000


    Monitor:
    PropertyValue

    Keyboard:
    PropertyValue
    Description Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard


    Pointing Device:
    PropertyValue
    Manufacturer Microsoft
    Name Microsoft PS/2 Mouse


    Sound Card:
    PropertyValue
    Manufacturer C-Media
    Description C-Media AC97 Audio Device
    Device ID PCI\VEN_1039&DEV_7012&SUBSYS_0F271019&REV_A0\3&61A AA01&0&17


    Video Card:
    PropertyValue

    DirectX Installation:
    PropertyValue


    Modem:
    PropertyValue

    Network Adapters:
    PropertyValue
    Description Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Description Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Description Blank on purpose (my friend told me to do it i have no idea why)
    Description Packet Scheduler Miniport

    External Ports:
    PropertyValue
    External Reference Designator Def

    Expansion Slots:
    PropertyValue
    Slot Designation PCI1
    Slot Designation PCI2
    Slot Designation PCI3
    Slot Designation PCI4
    Slot Designation PCI5
    Slot Designation ISA1
    Slot Designation ISA2
    -------------------------------------------------------

    If anyone can tell me what videocard to buyy i would greatly appreciate it


  2. #2
    jephree is offline ¨*·.¸ «.·°·..·°·.» ¸.·*¨
    What is the exact make and model of the laptop?

    Not many laptops are upgradeable in this area.

    Your scan above is not detecting any graphics device so perhaps you just need drivers.

    Also laptops are not really meant for high end games. It might play Maple Story if the drivers are installed.
    Last edited by jephree; 13-01-2008 at 03:20 AM.

  3. #3
    DJNafey is offline UK site moderator
    You have a 32MB on-board graphics chip. This can be seen by the fact that your laptop has 384MB RAM but only 351MB is available to Windows - 1MB disappeared in the BIOS and 32MB was given to the graphics.

    It is extremely unlikely (more than 99%) that your laptop has any capabilities to install a dedicated graphics card such as an ATi Radeon Mobility or laptop-based GeForce card, etc.

    However, you should find out exactly what graphics chip you have as the amount of memory that is made available to it may well depend on the total amount of RAM that is installed in the system. For instance, you might find that, if you had 512MB or more RAM, then 64MB would be shared to the graphics chip instead of 32MB. This is more common on newer systems so it might not apply to yours .... but it's worth checking. Also, look in the BIOS to see if you can just change it yourself.

    In any case, you may need to look at adding more RAM for a better gaming experience. If you're running Windows XP SP2 with shared graphics and it has lots of applications and background utilities installed (i.e. it's not a particularly "clean" setup), then you may well find that it could do with having 512MB RAM even if you didn't want to play games on it.

    Hope that doesn't sound too negative - just trying to help. I don't think you've got much of a gaming system there at all at the moment but the chances are that you could make some effective improvements very cheaply without taking it apart to try to fit another graphics card into it

  4. #4
    kkreampuff is offline Newbie
    thankss very much guys, i guess theres no hope for mine old laptop. i guess i'll just buy a new one aha

    any suggestions what to buy? i dont work im only 15

  5. #5
    DJNafey is offline UK site moderator
    As you're in the States, I can't be specific on pricing but, in the UK, the Dell Vostro represents very good value for money indeed - big specs, low prices. Of particular usefulness is the fact that you can specify them with dedicated 128MB or even 256MB GeForce graphics cards for the kind of price range where you would still be looking at integrated graphics in competitors' laptops.

    www.dell.com


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