Anyway to increase performance for 4500MHD?

I've seen youtube videos of the weaker X3100 chipset performing better than my 4500MHD in some games like Fable. Is there anyway to optimise the game or whatsoever?

 

have you played around with the memory options? like setting a higher default memory allocation to the card?

it could also be about just disabling AA and watching the framerate jump up

while I dont use the 4500MHD in my Samsung Q210 for gaming, it performs ok with older games, which is to be expected

I have noticed some lag before a level in a game starts while it caches up the textures etc, this however could be a sign that I need to play with memory settings.

 

Yes.
Sell your laptop, and get one with either an honest-to-god discrete graphics card.
You will never be able to go back.

 

There's not much you can do.

 

Update the drivers. Have you tried that? 4500MHD isn't that much faster but should never be slower than the X3100. Unless your X3100 is like the mainstream GM965 and your 4500MHD is a value or low power GS45/GL40.

 

I freaking hate comments like this. If you aren't going to offer some constructive comments then why did you even waste bandwidth by replying to this thread.

And. I have 2x HD4870 on my desktop. I don't see a point paying more money getting a weak card on my laptop which is meant more for multimedia during my travels. Isn't that the reason why I am trying Fable, an old game?

 

Yeah well guess what, 90% of notebooks come with an integrated graphics card. Not everyone wants a gaming laptop and the guy just wants to try Fable. Please be more constructive next time.

 

I deserved that. That's what I get for trying to inject some levity into the situation.
In any case, my advice would be to check your drivers and see if your GMA 4500MHD has enough RAM to feed on (how much do you have in your notebook?).
The GMA 4500MHD is stronger than the X3100 on paper, but if the X3100-equipped notebook you saw online had a faster CPU and/or more RAM, that might be making a difference. Let's not forget, the Intel drivers do allow for T&L to be done in software in situations where it's faster than being done in hardware on the GMA.
(also, I've heard that the GMA 4500MHD really shines when it's got DDR3 system RAM to use. Are you on DDR2?)

And when in doubt, why not go straight to the source for advice?

 

Bottom line is integrated graphics have little opportunity for improving performance. That being said they are a lot more capable than people make them out to be if you are realistic about the games you are running and accept lower settings and resolutions when playing.

After toying around with my GMA 950 in my Eee 1000h, I am impressed with what it CAN play an even with an anemic CPU like the Atom (about half the performance of an equivalent speed Core 2 Duo).

 

Well, I updated my drivers barely 2 weeks ago and I have 3GB of DDR2 RAM. Guess thats what I get for being cheap

Also, my processor is a piece of junk on paper but I didn't think it would matter much on a game which was released in the era of single cores and HyperThreading technology.

Anyway, its Intel T4200 @ 2Ghz, 800Mhz FSB and 1MB L2 Cache.LOL.

 

Well you should give some more information about how your x4500 perform in more games and FPS in those games.
I personally have tried some games on both x4500 and x3100 like PES, FIFA, Oblivion and Call of Duty 4 and found out that the x4500 perform a margin better (about 25 to 50% more FPS) in all of those game, if I have time I will try Fable on x4500.

 

Some new updated drivers should help but no guarantee. Not much you can do really, sorry.

 

It's quite likely you have a GL40 chipset which is a lot lower clocked even compared to the GM965 used on the X3100.

 

Nope. Mine is GM45

 

Strange no-one has yet suggested changing the power-saving options for the card... at default, it hampers peformance.

 

Tell me the model for your lappy.

 

Try overclocking it. But the card is underpowered. So you can't do anything great with it.

 

Acer Aspire 6930Z.

IGPs can't be overclocked I think.

 

You can overclock but the gains are very marginal.

 

It might be overclockable with detailed knowledge of the hardware, but it won't be easy at all.

Some possible gains are there but only with hardware upgrades.
-the system is using 3GB of RAM. It is dual channel but not fully symmetric
-RAM speed is only 667MHz. 4500MHD systems can support up to DDR3-1066

Properly configured X3100 system would allow it to outperform X4500 in some cases. X4500 is more powerful, but not that much.

 

According to our good friend wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#GMA_X3100

The differences are based on the chipset. If you look at the GMA 4500 MHD vs X4500 HD though there are significant differences.

4500MHD has 533MHz GPU, X4500 has 800MHz. Sounds like the "X" makes a difference when looking for a notebook.

Otherwise it looks like the 4500 series can handle more VC-1 acceleration and the 4500 handles AVC hardware acceleration where the X3100 does NOT. Whatever that means, but I believe it's all for video.

 

Problem is, the X4500HD is a desktop GMA. The only mobile GMA on Centrino 2 notebooks is the 4500MHD (which gets called the wrong thing by oh-so-many OEMs).
And Juppy, since you're running an Aspire 6930Z (hello fellow Acer user!) on the GM45 chipset, you should be able to run DDR2-800 SODIMMS. Every little bit of memory bandwidth helps, I guess. I'll double-check for you before the night is out.

EDIT: OK, that's just flat-out strange. Acer's own documentation states that the RAM speed is limited to DDR2-667, even though the GM45 is perfectly capable of running DDR2-800. And there are a few cases of 6930s running DDR2-800 without a problem.

So here's my suggestion - give it a try! Go find a 4GB kit of DDR2-800 SODIMMs, and install them in your laptop. If it can run at DDR2-800, it will, and you should be able to squeeze a little more performance out of your system. If not, the SODIMMs will run at DDR2-667 automatically. 4GB kits shouldn't be too expensive either.

EDIT 2: Oh, and Crucial recommends DDR2-800 for the 6930.

 

Technically, calling GM45 IGP "X4500MHD" is right, and "4500MHD" is also right. If you called it "X4500HD" you would be wrong. Since the previous generation was called X3100, this generation still should include X. It's quite unlikely they will stick a desktop IGP motherboard into a laptop, all 4500/X4500 is the mobile version when used in a laptop.

Plus you can check the chipset when you are in doubt. .

As for memory support it depends on the manufacturer. There's probably minor configuration differences the laptop manufacturer can put. I don't understand the decision to use GM45 chipset and DDR2 memory though.

 

According to Everest, my motherboard supports

Supported Memory Types DDR2-667 SDRAM, DDR2-800 SDRAM, DDR3-667 SDRAM, DDR3-800 SDRAM, DDR3-1066 SDRAM

Is it true because I didn't know DDR3 slots can be used for DDR2

 

Yes to what the chipset supports, no to whether DDR3 slots can use DDR2.

The GM45 chipset can handle DDR2 memory up to 800 MHz or DDR3 memory up to 1066 MHz. And the two memory types are completely incompatible - DDR3 slots can't take DDR2 modules, nor vice versa.

In other words, Everest is a bit of a bust.
See what you can do about getting your mitts on some cheap DDR2-800 RAM just to test.