Notebook Graphics Card

[skinrock]

Ok, I'm sure this came across before, but I'm new, so sorry. I have the HP ze5375us notebook, or HP 5000 series if you will. It has an "integrated" ATI Radeon Mobility IGP 345M graphics card, with 64 MB of memory. Now, here is a nice little news article ATI decided to release ATI Press Release. 4th paragraph says "The RADEON IGP family also allows the users to upgrade their systems with a discrete performance graphics chip, such as ATI’s MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9600." Now, my notebook is listed right above that quote, stating that those cards can be found in blah, blah, blah. So, I emailed HP, and they are denying it. In fact, they said "The video memory that is specified for any HP notebook model at the time of purchase cannot be changed after purchasing." Will someone please explain why ATI says we have the option of upgrading, while HP says no?

[az]

Maybe ATI offer models that CAN be interchanged, but it's up to the OEM (whoever manufactures your notebook for HP) to decide if they want to go that route. Most won't.

AZ

[Gurm]

What ATI is talking about with the IGP is DESKTOP machines that use the IGP - in which case, like virtually all motherboards with integrated graphics controllers - you can disable the onboard chip and use an AGP card.

- Gurm

[skinrock]

Originally posted by Gurm
What ATI is talking about with the IGP is DESKTOP machines that use the IGP - in which case, like virtually all motherboards with integrated graphics controllers - you can disable the onboard chip and use an AGP card.

- Gurm

How could I do that (disable the onboard chip and use an AGP card)? Can I do it on my notebook?

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by skinrock
How could I do that (disable the onboard chip and use an AGP card)? Can I do it on my notebook?

Doubt it. I have yet to see an upgradeable video card in a laptop.

Dave

[skinrock]

So what did gurm mean? Do they make any kind of adapter for the PCMCIA slot? Anything, I am very desperate here. If not, that's fine, but I'm looking for any means possible to get my notebook on a 128 card.

[Wombat]

Why? What could it matter for?

[skinrock]

What could it matter? Gaming. Half-Life 2, Unreal 04, Doom III. I can run Unreal 04 somewhat smoothly with sharp graphics with the 64, so a 128 should be more than enough to run it faster. Doubling my memory from 512 to 1024 made a difference, so a 128 card should finish it off.

[High_Jumbllama]

PCMCIA is slower than PCI. So, there are no such things for PCMCIA.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by skinrock
What could it matter? Gaming. Half-Life 2, Unreal 04, Doom III. I can run Unreal 04 somewhat smoothly with sharp graphics with the 64, so a 128 should be more than enough to run it faster. Doubling my memory from 512 to 1024 made a difference, so a 128 card should finish it off.

No, completely incorrect, unfortunately. Video speed is not very proportional to video memory.

[Gurm]

Unreal 2004 (is it even out yet) is highly unoptimized at the moment, and the only thing that's going to make it faster for you is a faster chip (video or CPU), or a switch to nVidia (whom Epic favors).

Video RAM is a moot point.

Laptop video is NEVER upgradeable, period.

- Gurm

[skinrock]

So if I upgraded from a 2.4 to an HT 3.2 (P4 3.2GHz w/HT), would I notice a difference? Even more, CPU's are upgradeable, right (on notebooks, that is)?

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Gurm
Unreal 2004 (is it even out yet) is highly unoptimized at the moment, and the only thing that's going to make it faster for you is a faster chip (video or CPU), or a switch to nVidia (whom Epic favors).

Video RAM is a moot point.

Laptop video is NEVER upgradeable, period.

- Gurm

You are incorrect this time.

Only Alienware's new Area 51 model with the new ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 can and Dell's Inspiron XPS with the same card can be upgraded.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

i was gonna mention that zokes, but my post was lost in the typing space

anyways, ya, i heard the 51 takes both NV and ATI GPUs lol. Pretty cool.

btw, don't even think about DOOM3 on ATI. Even the desktop 9800XT runs like sh*t with Doom 3 because ATI's OpenGL drivers are not polished...

AFAIK only NVIDIA's 5700, 5900, and 5950 runs decently in Doom 3... (i.e. above 40fps)

and we are taking about desktop here. D3 really stress ANY graphics hardware avilible today. (and maybe even NV40/R400)

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Chrono_Wanderer
btw, don't even think about DOOM3 on ATI. Even the desktop 9800XT runs like sh*t with Doom 3 because ATI's OpenGL drivers are not polished...

So if you want D3, go nVidia; want HL2 go ATI?

I'll take the game, over the game engine