Decent gaming laptop? (ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 ??)

Hello all,

I am currently in the process of upgrading my Dell Inspiron 8500. I just replaced the hard drive with a 7200RPM Hitachi Travelstar (after much research here) and will shortly upgrade from 512MB of memory to (at least) 1GB.

I realize after those upgrades my bottleneck (besides age) will be the 64MB Nvidia Geforce 4200 Go, so I am exploring the option to upgrade to the Radeon 9600 (and perform the cooling mod.)

My question is, with the following specs, where will I stand in terms of a gaming laptop (though this is an all-around workhorse):

2.4Ghz P4M
1GB DDR333
80GB 7200RPM HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600

Many of the games I currently play will work fine, I know, but how about games like BF2 or HL2?

Thanks,

CR

 

Dude, I think its time for an upgrade.

I have a 9600 256mb in my desktop, in does mediocre is modern games, it can run bf2 on med-low, it runs AA on medium, FS2004, on medium, oblivion on low low, I would recommend to get something along the lines of a X700, X1400, X1600, 7400, 7600, with 256mb of dedicated video memory.

I dont think 9600 will cut it too well.

 

Yes, they should run fine, but on low-med.

 

You should really consider saving your money rather than upgrading.

Start saving for a new lappy with a 7600 or x1600 with 256mb dedicated so you can really enjoy the games.

And for BF2 you might need 2gigs of RAM to play it fully enjoyably stutter less as i have learned.

 

It's better to simply get a new laptop as posted, rather than try to upgrade your current system. The Mobility Radeon 9600 is an outdated card as it is - there won't be a drastic difference going from your GeForce 4 Ti.

If you don't want a new system, then the RAM is the only part I'd recommend upgrading, in addition to the hard drive which you already did. Getting a 7200RPM drive was a good idea.

 

I'd also suggest just saving for a new laptop. Not only will it prove to be much more beneficial in the end as you will be getting a much more powerful system for probably not too much more money, but replacing the GPU would be a PITA and hardly worth it for a 9600 IMO.

 

It's just easy that you save a little more money and then buy a new laptop. Just wait a little bit and you'll get a much better gaming laptop.

 

Thanks for the prompt responses.

I think I will go forward with the memory upgrade but I will pass on the video card. I was trying to justify the $200 expense but in the back of my head I figured it wasn't worth it.

I doubt I'll buy a laptop again for gaming, but after I find an appartment and settle I will probably build a high-performance desktop.

Thanks again,

CR

 

Yeah, I think you already have the answer, but you're not going to get to do a lot of high-end stuff with that. My Vaio S360 had a similar card (a Mobility Radeon 9700 with 64 megs of VRAM); it actually was able to handle some stuff like CS:S/HL2 and WoW, and even managed to handle BF2 with details set low, but it just really couldn't handle more modern stuff at all (i.e. the only way for Oblivion to be even vaguely playable was to run in the lowest possible quality mode where everything looked terrible).

 

mine handled well at modern games...
bf2 all med settings
hl2-CS:S-DODS all high settings
AOE3 everything high