CS 1.6 smoke

I've played the game on a quite few setups, ranging up from an aging Thinkpad T41. Generally on lower end setup, while normally the frame rate is constantly above 30 fps, even on an old thinkpad; as soon as I join large servers, or run into smoke nades - the game stutters (without decent GPU).

And so far I know that Ati MR 7500, MR X600, and Intel GMA 4500 just aren't enough, there are massive drop through smoke, in the frame rate, basically rendering it temporarily unplayable. But something like 7900 GS go definitely is power enough.

I'm just wondering, what's the minimum spec GPU required to smoothly run through smoke nades in Counter strike 1.6? Pretty sure I need to get a second hand laptop for uni, and CS is the only game I play, so any help would be great.

 

Heres my experience playing CS 1.6:

Intel GMA X4500m @ 800x600: Major fps drops, but runs CS:S and L4D with no problems. (Low fps is to be expected in L4D since the prosessor was a 2,0 GHz Intel Celeron)

ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 @ 1920x1200: CS 1.6 runs great at 99 fps constant.

Intel GMA X3100m @ 800x600: CS 1.6 runs great but some fps drops.

ATI Mobility Radeon X600 @ 1400x900: CS 1.6 runs great and no fps drops.

Nvidia FX 5600 (Desktop version) @ 800x600: No fps problems.

ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 @ 800x600: No fps problems at all.

Remember to run the game in OpenGL mode, always use the latest GPU driver (Not the OEM version since they tend to be old and outdated) and if you have troubles with smoke nades, set it to worst looking and as a last resort play it in 16 bit instead of 32 bit.

 

how much do you plan on spending on another computer?

 

good to see another cs player on NBR

 

I dunno what laptop to get yet, saw one with T2300+X1400, seemed okay but thought might be a bit low spec'ed.

Might get a desktop instead.