Dell XPS M140 and gaming

This is my second post about this laptop. I really like it but the only thing that worries me is the GMA 900 . I've never seen the performace of this card and I am afraid it will be very bad. I am not a real gamer , I play mostly older games from time to time. I would like to see if somebody has tried some of these games on the GMA 900: Diablo 2 , GildWars , Warcraft 3 , Quake 3 , Counter Strike etc . If so how do the games run on high resolutions. Also to have some idea , has anybody tried Half Life 2 on it GMA 900 - does it run at all and if it does , how bad.
Also is the laptop getting warm/hot when playing some older games.
And the last thing is , I had a desktop with a Radeon 9550 AGP with 128 MB , which was fair enough for the gaming I do. I am not an expert and I would be happy if somebody can compare this Radeon to the GMA 900 so I can have some idea what I will be getting if I order the notobook.
And the bottom line - is the GMA 950 much better than the GMA 900.
Thanks in advance.

 

Neither the GMA 900 or 950 are really good at gaming - the performance difference is there (in favor of the 950), but in the grand scheme of things, not by much. Older games will run fine, but you won't be able to play at high resolutions - it'll probably bog down the GPU too much.

 

Why is it even a XPS then?

 

XPS is about the "experience" these days; service, support and whatnot apparently. In the case of the M140, it's more of a media/entertainment "solution".

The GMA 900 is not nearly as bad as its reputation, IMHO. For most of your older games, it should run ok, particularly without all the bells and whistles running. There are a couple of old threads in the gaming section about what people have gotten to run on the GMA 900/950, if you poke around a bit.

 

i also want to get this laptop but am wondering if it can run counterstrike: source and warcraft3: the frozen throne

 

The M140 runs those games at about 3fps (literally), so no...

 

http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel945gm/sb/CS-021400.htm

 

That's strange. My 1 yr old Toshiba 1.3 celeron + intel integrated graphics can run WC3 and call of duty 1 (not 2 though). I guess if you aren't too particular about graphics and detail it will be ok.

 

Yes, it can play Call of Duty 1, but DEFINITLY can't touch Source or any other decent graphic game...

 

My E1505 with X1400 runs Source flawlessly, well to me it does. I barely ever lag, and I run it at about 50+ fps.

 

Yes, the E1505 can...

 

Well the link that titaniummd provided shows that it supports even World of Warcraft on default , which means it will run ALL the older games in a very good res. Although the information shown is for 945 chipset , not for the 915 one that m140 has , so I am not really sure. And isn't there atleast one person with M140 that plays / tried playing games on this laptop, to give some further information about gaming on it?

 

Dem, there are a couple of threads in the gaming section that can help answer that question; several GMA 900/950 users have posted what they can run on their respective integrated options.

I can personally vouch for FFXI and Galactic Civilizations II running fine on the GMA 900. FFXI is a few years old, but still looks good, and the GMA is running it at a fairly good resolution, with some of the extras turned down just for good measure. Gal Civ II ran fine right out of the box, though space battles can get a bit choppy (to be fair, it runs choppy on my old desktop with a Radeon 9600 as well). For those games, at least, I am satisified with its performance.

I don't usually do much PC gaming, so I don't have much to throw at the GMA 900 just for fun. If I get a chance, maybe I'll dig up some demos or something just to see how it goes.

 

Thanks Elderlycrawfish , also thanks to all the other guys who gave their opinion. I have read some GMA 900/950 reviews and I got some idea what I will expect. It is a little bit "not enough" for my needs since I like the 3d gaming but unfortunatelly there is no other laptop that will offer what i need - 14" , 6-7 Hours battery life with 12 cell , Decent graphics , around $1000.
I first panned on buying Compaq v2000z / HP Dv1000 but I have read that people having problems with it - battery life (even when it uses Ati 200m) and heat , wireless lan , and also the price with dell is better. So I guess I will stick with GMA 900 , put 256 ram in it and hope that it will run good the older games like Diablo 2 , Gildwars , Quake 3 and the regular Counter Strike , not the CS - Source. And yet if anybody has tried these 4 games on his XPS M140 please let me know how they run. And last - will anybody know if Radeon 9550 AGP 128 MB will run much better than the GMA 900. I just want to compare the GMA 900 to my old desktop graphics , which was fairly enough for the gaming I do. Thanks again guys.

 

http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel915g/sb/CS-011967.htm

Here's the link to the 915G family.

I was suprised that Guild Wars runs "perfectly" - what is considered "default"?

 

I have an XPS M140. It runs Warcraft 3 frozen thrown and games like that great! I also play a little Counter-Strike 1.6 and Condition Zero. It runs both those games at 70FPS! Very playable. I do play HL2. It runs quite well for the most part at around 40 FPS. If you get into a big "shoot out" the framerates can drop to 5-10 FPS. Still hardly playable but for the most part it runs ok.

 

So let me understand something here. It is just with intense action scenes where frame refresh rates are important to run a particular 3 D game? Or will something low intensity like Tiger Woods hitting from the teebox will cause major issues?

 

Frame refresh rates are always important; anything less than 30 fps is not really playable. This is especially crucial for action games, where objects on-screen are moving rapidly. For something like turn-based strategy games, this is not so vital.

However, if your video card doesn't have the technology needed for the game (e.g. Vertex Shaders 2.0, 256MB video memory), the game may not even run at all.

 

Games like CS Condition Zero should play fine on a GMA, but I'm doubtful about WoW and HL2 playing smoothy on one.

 

From personal experience, I know NFSU2 can run on low everything, and Call of Duty 1 can run fine.

I also tried Source, and that's unplayable.

In case anyone is trying to get an idea of gaming, I had the M140, and I'm a medium gamer, I had to exchange it for the E1505. I just needed the dedicated graphics, and although it's bigger I'm satisfied with my switch to the X1400.

 

Say about me what you want but ive got a four year old hp comp that wasnt even specced well when it was made and i hit somewhere around 80 fps on hl2 and slightly lower on cs source. It has a geforce mx440 with virtual memory for gods sakes. Not that you dont need a good gpu but i can play that and call of duty 2. I might just be lucky but i think you are seriously overestimating the needs of the source engine. It utilizes system resources very well and i was extremely surprised at how my pos ran it. Dont take my word for gospel though i would speak with someone with first hand experience first. FEAR on the other hand, not a chance in your life.