Laptop Video Cards Not Supported

[Herr Karl]

Has anyone figured out a work around? I'm in the process of putting together a new laptop. Because of my job a desktop isn't feasible. I checked the Ubi support site and nothing has changed on this front. Anyway, I'm wondering if any brave soldiers that own a laptop has installed the game anyway and what results they have had.

Thanks...

Herr Karl

[SUBMAN1]

I can't see why a laptop armed with an x1600 or x700 and having 128 MB or memory would not be able to play it. I think it would work just fine.

-S

[Zantham]

I play Sh4 (and many other games) on my laptop, it has a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra 256MB. Its not as fast as the desktop 6800 Ultra obviously, but it works perfectly fine. Just gotta make sure it has enough airflow underneath for the FIVE :doh: cooling fans my laptop has.

[Herr Karl]

I was planning on installing a 7700go 256mb card, or maybe an 7950go 512mb card is affordable. It could be a power thingy or somthing. You know, a dedicated power supply.

Not sure though, since I can't find out anything at Ubi.

Hopefully, one of our mates here has done some experimenting.

I'd really like to know since SH4 is the main reason I'm researching the various video cards available for laptops.

Can't play SH4? Unacceptable.:down:

[Herr Karl]

I play Sh4 (and many other games) on my laptop, it has a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra 256MB. Its not as fast as the desktop 6800 Ultra obviously, but it works perfectly fine. Just gotta make sure it has enough airflow underneath for the FIVE :doh: cooling fans my laptop has.

Ahhh...thanks Zantham!! I knew someone around here would not be denied!!!

:rotfl:

I could care less if I can run everything maxed out. I just want to play my favorite game!

:rock:

Hmm...wait...I don't think anything is supported over 6800 though...

more research required...

[Zantham]

Well, technically none of the laptop video cards are supported, over, including, or under the 6800...

The GeForce 6xxx are old news video cards (mine is over two years old now). Any new laptop should come with a 7xxx series or equivalent ATI. I'd stay away from the lower end 7xxx like the 7100 or 7300 GeForce in laptops (or equivalent ATI cards) and try to get as fast of one as possible, since you are using it for gaming. Obviously a faster card is going to make more heat, and likely will also be heavier because of the added cooling. These are the tradeoffs you have to consider in a laptop when wanting to game on one (noise, weight, battery life versus performance). My laptop sounds like a hovercraft when I play SH4...and its battery life is...well...nonexistant. But in it's day it was faster than many desktops (I paid over $5000 for it, and still use it two years later). The other problem of course is once you settle on a laptop, upgrading it later is much more difficult to do....I could get a lot more life out of mine if I could upgrade the video to a GeForce Go 7950 512MB...but I can't because the cooling setup wont work with it....RAM and hard drive are easy, but you are stuck with whatever video card comes with it.

While my laptop served me well...I think I wouldnt go the same route again...my next gaming system will be a desktop, with my portable needs met with a smaller, lighter laptop used just for ordinary work-related stuff.

I know its a long post but hope this all helps you...:cool:

[Herr Karl]

Well, technically none of the laptop video cards are supported, over, including, or under the 6800...

The GeForce 6xxx are old news video cards (mine is over two years old now). Any new laptop should come with a 7xxx series or equivalent ATI. I'd stay away from the lower end 7xxx like the 7100 or 7300 GeForce in laptops (or equivalent ATI cards) and try to get as fast of one as possible, since you are using it for gaming. Obviously a faster card is going to make more heat, and likely will also be heavier because of the added cooling. These are the tradeoffs you have to consider in a laptop when wanting to game on one (noise, weight, battery life versus performance). My laptop sounds like a hovercraft when I play SH4...and its battery life is...well...nonexistant. But in it's day it was faster than many desktops (I paid over $5000 for it, and still use it two years later). The other problem of course is once you settle on a laptop, upgrading it later is much more difficult to do....I could get a lot more life out of mine if I could upgrade the video to a GeForce Go 7950 512MB...but I can't because the cooling setup wont work with it....RAM and hard drive are easy, but you are stuck with whatever video card comes with it.

While my laptop served me well...I think I wouldnt go the same route again...my next gaming system will be a desktop, with my portable needs met with a smaller, lighter laptop used just for ordinary work-related stuff.

I know its a long post but hope this all helps you...:cool:

Oh yeah, all input is greatly appreciated.:up: I'm not rich, so I have to be diligent in my investments. I want the best vid card I can get, since I'm of the opinion that the better and more capable the card, the less stress on said card equates into less heat generation.

I'm thinkin I'll go with a intel chipset and the dual-core 7200 CPU with the L2 4mb cache. Again, I'm figuring on Intel and Nvidia products because of the heat generation issues. For RAM I'll go with a 2048 setup, though which brand I haven't decided yet.

You spent 5K for your laptop!!!??? Ouch!! I'm a cheapskate and will keep mine under $2,000!!

:rock:

[Chock]

I think the main problem with laptops not running newer stuff is on-board graphics that don't support 2.0 pixel shaders for the 3D. This is the case with even very new laptops (such my month-old Hewlett Packard Pavillion for example - it has Vista Home Prof edition as the OS), it runs SH3 with GWX just fine (mind you, it does have 2 gig of RAM, which is kind of unusual for most laptops), but things like SH4 and ARMA are a no go.

It's definitely the 3D that is the issue here, as you can start a mission in SH4 on my laptop, but the moment you go to an external view or the bridge etc, it bombs out.

Not really a big deal for me, as I bought it for my job as a back up to train people on Photoshop and for the occasional blast on things when on a long train journey.

The really ironic thing with my laptop however, is that it runs the SH4 Intro movie as smooth as glass, whereas that movie is not quite so smooth on my desktop PC, which runs the game absolutely fine on full settings at 1320x1024 resolution with no hassle whatsoever - go figure :-?

One thing my laptop does run well however, which was something of a surprise to me, is MS Flight Simulator 10, which is a notorious crippler for even high-end graphics cards.

[GnarPow]

I have a laptop and play SH4 just fine with plenty graphics options turned up...

My specs..

Centrino Duo 1.83ghz processors
2gig DDR2 ram at 667mhz
Geforce GO 7400 256mb Dedicated (make sure you get dedicated memory)

And thats all that really matters

So yes, you can play SH4 just fine with a laptop, just dont buy anything lower end than my 7400 I would say because they either dont have dedicated memory, have less memory and are just missing a lot of good options... Personally I wish I had a better gfx card even but I got this laptop for free under warranty so Im not complaining.

[THE_MASK]

Well as soon as i get my 2 gigs of ram for my laptop i will be good to run SH4 . x1700 supports pixel shader 3 . yes:rock:
The graphics card says it has 512megs of hypermemory . Is that good ?

[Herr Karl]

Thanks GnarPow (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=231035) for the dedicated memory tip. That sounds like excellent advice!!:up:
It's reassuring to know that someone is using one of the 7xxx generation cards!
I think Ubi has a lot of explaining to do!!:lol:

Sober: I'm not sure about the hyper-memory. Sounds impressive though.
I guess a Google is in order.:hmm:

[Zantham]

HyperMemory (ATI) and TurboCache (nVidia) are two ways of saying Shared memory, meaning that it will use system memory, which as pointed out above, is inferior to dedicated memory.

Shared memory runs at the same speed as your system memory, which compared to dedicated graphic memory can be significantly slower. Also it takes away some of your system memory from Windows. Often these memory systems do have a bit of their own dedicated memory, but will steal more memory as needed from Windows. So say that GeForce 7300 says it has 512MB...it may actually have, say, 64MB of its own independant memory...but when you load up a game like SH4 it discovers that it needs much more than 64MB and so steals up to 448MB from Windows to run your game (448+64=512). Thus the manufacturer can claim it as a 512MB video card.....

To make it even more fun....laptops that look equivalent often aren't. Two laptops of differing brands may have identical specs on paper. Both laptops may have say a GeForce 7300 - 512MB. Laptop A however might just have 64MB dedicated, whereas laptop B may have 128MB dedicated, hence needing to steal less memory from the system to take it to 512MB. Then again...laptop B's GPU may be clocked at 300MHz....but laptop A may have a 350MHz clock.....

You can see why it is very important to research why two laptops that are perhaps comparable on paper, but for some reason one looks like a much better deal when really you are still getting what you pay for.

[Herr Karl]

I'm looking at an article about 8xxx series graphic cards being available here in the 2nd quarter of 2007. There is also good info about dedicated memory if anyone is interested.
:p
http://laptoping.com/category/laptop-graphics-card/

[THE_MASK]

HyperMemory (ATI) and TurboCache (nVidia) are two ways of saying Shared memory, meaning that it will use system memory, which as pointed out above, is inferior to dedicated memory.

Shared memory runs at the same speed as your system memory, which compared to dedicated graphic memory can be significantly slower. Also it takes away some of your system memory from Windows. Often these memory systems do have a bit of their own dedicated memory, but will steal more memory as needed from Windows. So say that GeForce 7300 says it has 512MB...it may actually have, say, 64MB of its own independant memory...but when you load up a game like SH4 it discovers that it needs much more than 64MB and so steals up to 448MB from Windows to run your game (448+64=512). Thus the manufacturer can claim it as a 512MB video card.....

To make it even more fun....laptops that look equivalent often aren't. Two laptops of differing brands may have identical specs on paper. Both laptops may have say a GeForce 7300 - 512MB. Laptop A however might just have 64MB dedicated, whereas laptop B may have 128MB dedicated, hence needing to steal less memory from the system to take it to 512MB. Then again...laptop B's GPU may be clocked at 300MHz....but laptop A may have a 350MHz clock.....

You can see why it is very important to research why two laptops that are perhaps comparable on paper, but for some reason one looks like a much better deal when really you are still getting what you pay for.
Its all clear now thanks. The x1700 graphics card i have , has 256meg on board memory and can use 256meg of system memory . That is why it is important to upgrade to my maximum of 2gigs of system memory .