How does M1210's geforce 7400 fare with games like BF2/CS: source?

I've suddenly turned interested in the M1210, never imagining myself to like the small screen. But I'm going to college, and I'm not a huge gamer so I think portability and long battery life combined with good performance should be on my mind. How effective is the Geforce 7400 go with games like Battlefield 2, CS: source, Age of Empires III, Oblivion? How high can I crank it up for good performance? I was little worried because 7400 is decent but 64 MB dedicated memory with up to 256 MB hypermemory does not sound too attractive. Thanks for the advice!

P.S - Are there ever XPS coupons? Ebay has some cheap ones but I'd prefer to upgrade with good discount coupons.

 

There is a fairly lengthy discussion of the 7400's capabilities in the graphics forum. But the M1210, with the 7400, is a very capable machine. It can run BF2, CS:S without problems. With Oblivion, you're gonna have to lower the graphical settings a bit, but the game still looks very good.

 

I play Counter-Strike Source, and i dont have any problems. ive done a few tweaks in the console that i found online, and on the stress test i average around 110-115 FPS. in game i get between 70-100 FPS depending on players, map, etc. works flawlessly.

 

70-100 FPS? Holy, that's a whole lot better than I thought! I thought i was going to get 35 FPS on source!

I'm using a Geforce 6600 gt on my desktop. How does it fare compared to the 7400?

 

Im not too sure, i never used to be a user of Nvidia video cards. the 7400 works well, but i think it also has a lot to do with the video tweaks you can change in your CS console can make a HUGE improvement in your FPS. if i didnt make an adjustments i would probably be running around 60fps or so. you can just type in cs:source tweaks in google and it will show them all (dont worry none are in game hacks or anything). also you can overclock the video card. i have done a stress test on source comparing O/C'd and not O/C'd, and it made a significant fps difference.

 

CS:S runs better on my m1210 then my desktop PC...Athlon XP, ATI 9800 NP

 

Sounds good. But will there ever be coupons for this XPS? Looks like Ebay is best way to go if not.

 

XPS coupons are very rare now-a-days. Your best luck is to wait for one of the coupons mentioned for Dell SB or what not to come out, then try that out right away on an XPS system. If you get lucky, Dell did not block out the exclusions yet, so the coupon will work. But it's almost a few hours max time frame you have to do it right after the release of the coupon. This happens every few months though I think.

 

I say buy from dell outlet. Thats what I did and I save over 40% off the regular price.


Dell Outlet m 1210

 

The best deals are in the outlet, great prices if you take your time and you get the same support from Dell as ordering a system from scratch.

 

i play bf2 on my xps 1210 and the only issue i have is the skipping and choppy audio during playback.....

 

you have the a/v pack with the camera i bet.