New here, and please tell me I didn't waste $10

[Sock Eating Golden]

Originally Posted by Arctic wolf

Welcome aboard Sock Eating Golden!

I'm afraid I have bad news for you. Netbooks aren't usually meant for gaming. They lack the graphical juice required to run games. That's usually because of a non existent dedicated gpu (graphics processing unit). In order to play failry recent - 2005 onwards - games properly you need at least a low end dedicated graphics card. The built in Intel Chipset is just not meant for gaming. Although the more recent ones come with 512 mb dedicated memory onboard to give some extra power, it's usually only enough to play ancient games at lowest settings. Yet you might experience lags and abysmal frame rates.

Your 128 mb shared memory is not adequate to play games of the likes of SH3. Plus, the Intel Atom processor lacks the processing power of more conventional mobile processors. My sis just got a Dell netbook with exactly similar specs to your netbook and she can't even run Microsoft Office 2010 - not enough memory!.

I believe the answer is no. You won't be able to run SH3 on your netbook.

Just my 2 cents.

Great post. I was able to run it while hooked up to an external monitor. Though not well, not well at all. Especially when looking at any surface ships. Dropping all the Visual settings helped a bit. But, it's still to choppy to enjoy.

You're absolutely right that netbooks aren't meant for gaming. When I bought this one I wasn't gaming at all and this suits my needs perfectly. I was just bit by a bug lately and wanted to try to fit a square peg in a round hole.

So my next question is. Is there any sub sim games that you would recommend for my specs? And where would I find them?

[Capt. Morgan]

Originally Posted by Sock Eating Golden

...
So my next question is. Is there any sub sim games that you would recommend for my specs? And where would I find them?

Aces of the Deep (Atlantic), and Silent Hunter 1 - Commanders Edition (pacific) are both highly regarded, and would probably play fine through DosBox.

Check out the Classic Subsim forum http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=173 People there would be able to advise you

[K-61]

My previous notebook would not run the game. It had an Athlon Turion CPU, 2 GB of system RAM and 128 MB dedicated ATI graphics card, and would run the game at 1-2 FPS. Totally sucked, as I was hoping the 17" widescreen would do it justice. On the other hand, my newest gaming notebook just chews through the game and asks for more.

I've looked at netbooks but fail to see their attraction, other than their compact size. For just a few dollars more you can get into a larger lower end notebook. Still, if their size and weight appeal you get a nice, compact unit that is adequate for internet, but not much else. That's why they call them netbooks.

[pickinthebanjo]

You would most likely need at least a 2.0 Ghz processor, and at least 2 Gb of RAM. As well as a decent GPU.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by Arctic wolf

Welcome aboard Sock Eating Golden!

I'm afraid I have bad news for you. Netbooks aren't usually meant for gaming. They lack the graphical juice required to run games. That's usually because of a non existent dedicated gpu (graphics processing unit). In order to play failry recent - 2005 onwards - games properly you need at least a low end dedicated graphics card. The built in Intel Chipset is just not meant for gaming. Although the more recent ones come with 512 mb dedicated memory onboard to give some extra power, it's usually only enough to play ancient games at lowest settings. Yet you might experience lags and abysmal frame rates.

Your 128 mb shared memory is not adequate to play games of the likes of SH3. Plus, the Intel Atom processor lacks the processing power of more conventional mobile processors. My sis just got a Dell netbook with exactly similar specs to your netbook and she can't even run Microsoft Office 2010 - not enough memory!.

I believe the answer is no. You won't be able to run SH3 on your netbook.

Just my 2 cents.

I stopped reading after your post. Your Right It can't be played on a Netbook.

Basically. Not Enough Horsepower.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Sock Eating Golden

Win XP
1.6 Ghz Intel Atom
1Gb ram
DirectX 9 Installed
Video Mem 128 Mb (Shared)
Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family
PS1.1 Installed



Thanks again for all your help!

A dead ringer for the system I have. Yes, SH3 will run on my netbook, but I use an external monitor instead of the flatscreen in the laptop. Some games will not run with the limited screen resolution on the netbook (I get 1024x600 by default), but if yours came with a standard VGA port you should be able to play it with an external monitor where you will get the true screen resolution demanded by games. Wouldn't hurt to upgrade the RAM as well, and watch out for the external freecam views with that 945 chipset. They will probably be very choppy. Some OpenGL games will refuse to run on that chipset as well. But you should be able to run SH3 well enough to enjoy it.

Now I'll read the rest of the thread and see how much of what I posted has already been covered.


EDIT: And after reading the thread I am confounded as to why my machine runs SH3. It must be blessed.

This one I have will run a variety of games that aren't ancient history. The settings usually need to be reduced but overall I get the play time that I want. Haven't tried it with any newer games that have come out. Doubtful that it would handle a good portion of them.

[Arctic wolf]

Check out the downloads section of this forum for starters. There are names of some good old subsims that you might find interesting. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php

Aces of the Deep, SH2, SH1, Shells of Fury, Jane's 688(I), etc. These are all classics and should run smoothly on your system. Check em out! I think you might be able to purchase them on Steam or Amazon.

I know what you mean mate, netbooks are awesome as long as you don't plan on running (moderately) high end games on them. I almost went for one but then decided I couldn't do without a couple of games in my laptop. Am very satisfied playing SH3 on my new Lenovo.

[drakkhen20]

i've always had problems with Intel chip-sets in any laptop and the reason is because it's just not made for it. unless you actually go out and buy one that's made for it but even then the laptop chip-sets aren't just enough and limited either way you want to discuss just because of space and cooling requirements. you don't need a massively expensive computer to run it just make sure you get something that meets those requirements at that time. any 1.5ghz CPU and geforce 8800 or equivalent ati video card will run the game and most of your computers nowadays have 1 gig or more of ram in them and its a 32-bit based game. but if your getting at playing these graphical games i would recomend an upgrade.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by drakkhen20

i've always had problems with Intel chip-sets in any laptop and the reason is because it's just not made for it. unless you actually go out and buy one that's made for it but even then the laptop chip-sets aren't just enough and limited either way you want to discuss just because of space and cooling requirements. you don't need a massively expensive computer to run it just make sure you get something that meets those requirements at that time. any 1.5ghz CPU and geforce 8800 or equivalent ati video card will run the game and most of your computers nowadays have 1 gig or more of ram in them and its a 32-bit based game. but if your getting at playing these graphical games i would recomend an upgrade.

There are plenty to choose from, and as long as you want a good uptime and decent graphics card,there are option,but I share your opinion on upgrade