ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 2600 graphics with 512MB GDDR3

I just bought the Gateway M-6864FX and so far it is good but when I installed WoW and logged in I expected the graphics to look better than my old crappy Dell Desktop but it doesn't. On the mobility card page it is listed under a D performance card but with all WoW's settings maxed it is hitting only 50-60 frame rate... Also the colors don't look vivid at all, sorta washed out. What's up with this?

 

It might not be the graphics card's fault ... the colors could be washed out because of the monitor. Hook it up to an external monitor and see if it does the same thing.

 

Try with a better monitor....for the performance...I have no idea too....do you have the latest drivers?

 

I don't know, I just bought the laptop like 2 hours ago. I updated all the windows stuff etc but that's it.

i do not have a external moniter except my 26" HDTV but I ahve nothing to connect em...

 

There should be a color setting in the catalyst control panel.

 

With all of WoW's settings maxed my frame rate goes from 60 exactly to low 50's... I thought this was a performance card but obviously it isn't at the moment...

 

Run 3DMark06 and post up your scores. Considering the HD 2600 can play DMC4 just fine, I'd expect better performance in WoW.

 

There are a lot of settings in the catalyst control panel but i have no idea what to set the colors to or anytihng...

 

I didn't use 3dmark but I used a thing called Virtual Marks and it came up with a 3dmark score of 2800

 

I know the computer's CPU is a bit weak but I was almost 100% sure that atleast for WoW I would be looking at atleast 70+ frame rate.

Downloading 3dmarks6 now, sorta big 500mbs, should i download the old direct 9 thing? it said for it to work i would need to download the older direct 9x

 

ati hd 2600 never was a performance card,it s their marketing trick...btw,isnt 60fps enough for you?also be shore that you are running in performance mode

 

this card runs great for me... o_o
what were the specs on your old dell?

your "problem" sounds very relative and opinionated, maybe you are asking too much for this card?

with all the nvidia problems, i am glad i didnt get a notebook with a 8600M GT...
Not only does the HD 2600 run cooler, but its not defective like many of the nvidia's cards it seems.

 

You have a better CPU.

 

You should get around 3300ish on 3DMark06. Any C2D should be fine for WoW.

 

For WoW what frame rates should I be getting?

Can this computer run Crysis? Warhammer? Spore?

Did I buy this computer that actually isn't good at all!?

 

My 8510p can run Crysis well at 1280x800 on medium settings. Not sure about Spore or Warhammer, don't have them. The HD 2600 is close to 8600 GT DDR3 in performance.

 

The difference between our two CPUs will not results in a noticeable lose/gain in gaming, especially WOW

 

I think you were excepting too much of the notebook.

But I suggest if you really feel your notebook is not performing well, go to BB, and exchange it for another. See if that one does the same. Maybe yours is defective somehow.

Otherwise, return it and tell them that its not working out for you.

Go buy the 7811 and stop whining

 

Just did the actual 3DMarks6 test and my score was 3616 3DMarks.

 

Nothing to do with whining, I've researching laptops for a while and finally bought this one, my first ever laptop and it already has a couple of issues. Maybe I was expecting too much but it is because this is my first laptop.

 

I just looked on Best Buy.com and the 7811 is like $1,500 that is way out of my price range... ALSO I JUST NOTICED MY LAPTOP WENT DOWN $100, I just bought it a few hours ago at $850 well now it's $750!!!!

 

they will price match, go back to BB

 

I can't argue now, $750 for this laptop is almost a steal lol.

 

Yea, I had its older brother, the 6850fx for like three weeks and It wasn't all that great in gaming. The 2600HD is decent, but its considered a mid level gaming card. However, considering I paid $850 for the 6850, you are getting a pretty good deal for what you paid for it. Just don't expect more out of it then what it is and you'll be satisfied. Also worth noting; the processor is easily upgradable to something with a little more "oomph" if so desired later on down the road.

 

According to this site it is considered a Performance Card only 2 cards down from 8600GT and 9600GT.

 

*UPDATE* I was searching NBR Forums and I came across Chaz's Mobility GPU Page and I read more in detail about if your computer is not running a game even though it should be able to and he listed a few tips. Well I turned off V-Sync in WoW and Changed another setting in my computer peformance from 4GB to 2GB and I'm cruising in WoW at around 130-230 frame rate. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Groovalicious! Glad you got er all fixed up.

 

glad to hear it!

 

V-sync is a setting that limits your fps to your monitor's refresh rate which is about 60fps at a LCD (although LCDs dont work that way). If you want more than 60fps in a game you should always disable V-sync or just force it off in the CCC

 

I just bought the 6864 the other day too and will be heading back to BB to get them to take the other $100 off.

@Dook, you said it can be upgraded with a better cpu with more oomph, what is the best it can do? Searching the gateway site shows it can use 800 fsb chips (currently 667), so am I right in being able to use any 800 mobile cpu?

 

How do you like it? Do you have any issues with it? What games have you played on it and what frame rates?

Also I went to go update the my ati radeon 2600 hd but there is no updates it doesn't look like it at least, does ATI do performance updates?

With all of WoW's settings turn to LOW and VSync off I ran 150-210 frame rate but when I MAX the settings I run high 30s-60s.

 

I've barely had a chance to use it, just picked it up Monday. I'm hoping to start installing some games tonight (Battlefield 2, Diablo 2, Titan Quest, ...). So far no issues with it. I've even tossed in an Ubuntu 64 cd and it worked 100% out of the box (not that I'm a Linux guy).

I haven't had an ATI card in years, I hope they continue to tweak the drivers for this card.

I just found the thread about the Mobile graphics card and will take a look into that to see how much it helps increase fps.

 

at $750 im thinkin of selling my current laptop for like 400 or 450, and spending the 300 out of pocket to upgrade.

think this 1 would be worth it?

 

Yes, very much so. You can't go wrong with a $750 semi-gaming laptop.

 

hmm now dunno if i can actually get 400 or 450 for my laptop lol oh well if not no big deal. i dont even game on my pc that much. mainly gametap free games (which it runs fine besides 3d newer gametap games) and american mcgees grimm lol maybe it wouldnt be worth it for me personally. i just have a compulsion to have the nicest thing i can afford, even when its not the smartest financial move lol

 

I hear ya, I was looking at $1,500 laptops even though I could only spend less than $900.

 

i hate to say it, but you probably did something stupid.

like you turned on vsync and expected 100fps.

vsync syncs your framerate to the refresh rate of your monitor. i'd say, dont freak out, its probably something you did (or did not do)

 

haha yea like i only got this laptop back last fall for 599 on sale, and if somehow i could magically get the full 600 back for it, i wouldn't feel bad bout spending 150 to "upgrade" to this one. but realsitically i won't get more then $450 maximum for it, and that means 300 outta pocket minimum and im having difficulty justifying it. oh well. maybe i should just stick w/ what i have, as ive had a bad habit for the past 3 years of selling laptops after only using them a year and spending money like this to upgrade haha

 

I got a extended 2 year warranty on mine so it actually cost around $1,000 but say in a year I see a better laptop in Best Buy, I will go return this and shell out the extra cash for the better laptop.

 

I'm downloading the Crysis demo now, I will post up what sorta frame rates I get. I know the demo is toned down a little but it should give me and other people interested in a computer with ATI M R 2600 HD an idea.

 

Ok, just got done playing the Crysis SP Demo, but forgot to download Fraps so I have no idea what frame rate I was getting.

Resolution : 1024x768
AA : Off
Settings: All Medium
How did it run? Smoothly, when I did get into some serious action it started to stutter a bit but for the most part playable.

Resolution : 1280x800
AA : Off
Settings: All Low
How Did It Run? It ran about as smooth as it did with the other settings but once again in serious combat it stuttered quite a bit more than the other settings.

What did I learn from this? Well three things actually, the Gateway M-6864FX can run Crysis, the ATI Mobility Radeon 2600 HD can handle Crysis, and last but not least CRYSIS IS AN AMAZING GAME!!!

 

theres also a couple of tricks to get crysis to perform better. One such way is modded inf files which manually turns off extraneous graphic options that eats away @memory to boost image quality erformance ratio. When you get the actually game and download their patch, you should also expect an additional 3-5 fps gain.
All in all, i think your hd 2600 might be able to right crysis in 1280x800 medium after tweaking with settings.

You might want to consider spending an additional 100 for a t7500 or t8300 cpu which will maximize your gaming capability.

 

You don't need FRAPs for Crysis; whilst playing the game press ` (the button above Tab) and enter "r_displayinfo 1" to show the framerate (0 to switch off).

I have to run Crysis at 1024x768 to get decent framerates (I don't like the FPS going below 20). As your HD 2600 has DDR3 it will have more bandwidth than mine with DDR2 and will cope better at 1280x800. To play the game all through to the end with decent framerates (rarely dipping below 20 fps, 30-40 average) I have to play with everything low appart from Physics, Water, Volumetric Effects and Sound (at medium). I made a system config file for the low shaders so that low shaders look much better, without a noticable performance hit.

Here is what's in my config file:

e_sky_type=1,
q_renderer=1,
q_shadervegetation=0,
q_shadermetal=2,
q_shaderfx=0,
q_shaderglass=2,
e_vegetation_use_terrain_color=1,
sys_flash_edgeaa=1,
q_shaderterrain=1,

To get a config file, I made a copy of the one here: My Documents > My Games > Crysis > game.cfg , cleared everything in it, entered my settings, renamed it "System" and placed it in the main Crysis folder (program files, not the one in my docs).

Q_shadervegetation determins the quality of the shading on trees, and at the begining of the game having it set to 1 (medium) only makes a minimal drop in framerate and has better trees that move with the wind. Once you get to the ice level though, I found it caused around a 10fps drop so I set it to 0.

You can change any of these settings in game (and a lot more) by pressing ` and first entering "con_restricted 0". Then you can change the settings in my config file by entering them with a number (no need to the "=" just leave a space). Pressing Tab after putting the first letter in shows you all the setttings in that category, so "q_" + Tab will show you all the settings under q (mostly shader settings). There is more on this at Tweakguides.

Yeah, Crysis is an amazing game (not just the graphics); I've finished it 4 times now and I'm still not bored of it.

 

I didn't have much time last night, but I was able to install the demo for Call of Duty 4 and test it out with fraps. I had the settings at 1280x800 and AA turned off (didn't touch the other settings) and I averaged mid 40s for framerates. It was 100% smooth and it looked really good (except for my dying a lot ).

Tonight I am going to try out BF2 and see what kind of framerates it gives me, but so far I am very happy with this purchase, especially since bestbuy handed me back $106 (tax included) from their price drop.

 

3616 3dmarks is standard for the HD2600 being test at 1280x800 i assume?

With abit of Overclocking, the HD2600 runs as fast as the 8600GT, whilst being cooler.

 

i just recently bought the exact same computer as you, gateway m-6864fx and it really hasnt been running games to what ive expected them to run. im pretty sure i have the same specs as you and obviously i have the same graphics card. i run tf2 on all high at 30 to 40 fps and cod 2 at only 20 fps max on all high, on all low i was getting close to 40 but it was pretty ugly still.....when i saw that you are running crysis decently i was just wondering did you tweak anything/update anything/ change anything in catalyst when you bought your laptop? was expecting to play cod4 on this thing but dont think thats gonna happen if i cant even play cod2.

 

Strange, my 8510p can easily run CoD4. It actually ran it rather well. I had it on 1280x800 with either high or medium settings. I'm leaning towards high.

 

do you have v-sync on? if so turn it off also turn off aa.

 

ummm i dont have either of those off....how do you turn them off?,also you said you changed the ram from 4 to 2 or something? how do you do that? also ty for showing me that the laptop went down 100 bucks, i bought it for 850 too but now im gonna go to bestbuy and get my 100 bucks, yay

 

Timd8988, I can't really help you, I've just been going on what other people have said around these forums.

If anyone is interested I'm downloading COD4, UT3, and DMC4 demos right now so I can give you a better look at how this laptop and graphics card run.

Results:

World of Warcraft runs smooth on MAX settings, resolution 1280x800 at 30-70 frame rate.

Crysis runs smooth on LOW/MEDIUM settings, resolution 1280x800 at 15-30 frame rate.

DMC4 COMING SOON!

UT3 COMING SOON!

COD4 COMING SOON!