Direct X 10 and mobile VC quesiton.

Hi,

I have a few questions about mobile video cards. I’m looking at getting a new laptop within the next month. I’m wondering about the VC, specifically how important is it to get a card that supports Direct X 10?

These are the cards I have been looking at: GeForce 8400M GS, GeForce 6150, Intel GMA X3100. The 8400 looks like the only one that supports direct x 10. The 6150 supports direct x 9c. I have heard that GMA X3100 supports direct x 10, but does not have updated drivers to this effect.

The GeForce 6150 for example, is it possible that in the future it will support direct x 10, or is the direct x version a card supports set in stone?

I’m wanting to play games like Half Life 2, Empire Earth 2, and 3, WC3 and Starcraft 2 when it comes out. They don’t have to run at max settings, but id like them to run smoothly. High FPS is irrelevant to me, I don’t know about your eyes, but my human eyes can only see at about 28 FPS so that’s as high as I need. For the resolution, I’m not picky either. I know SC2 has not released their system req yet, and its undecided if it will have special features that utilize direct x 10.

If the 8400 has the best performance, what would it be able to do that the 6150 and GMA X3100 can’t in terms of gaming?

Thank you for your help.

 

Ok, let me help you out as much as I can here. First of all, throw out the idea of getting the X3100 if you want to game. It's an integrated card, the best integrated card.....BUT...it's integrated. They are not good enough to play any new games, trust me.

The 6160 will NEVER be able to support DX10 features. It's just not built to...just like any other card like the 7950 GTX or 7900 GS. As powerful as those cards are, they will NEVER support DX10 effects.

Out of those 3, I would go with the 8400M GT preferably...but I see the 8400M GS more often. You should be able to play the games you want to run pretty well with that.

 

From your list of games, I'd say you proibably need a Geforce 7400 or better to play Half Life 2 at all. Although we don't know what Starcraft 2 will need, with a bit of a guess based on the general speed of progression of required specs for graphics cards, I think you will need a GeForce 7600/ATI X1600 or better to play that at all. From the list of cards you give, the GeForce 8400 is really the only one to consider.

I got a laptop with one of the standard integrated cards in 2004, and some months later Civilization IV came out - note this game is not a very graphically demanding game like FPS and RTS games (such as those you wish to play). I couldn't play it at ALL without a cheat/hack as the card did not support some features required that were standard in every dedicated card of the time. If you want to play games available now, an integrated card like Intel's will play most at low settings. If you want to play practically ANY game not yet released, you must have a dedicated card like ATi or Nvidia's. Technology keeps moving too fast, and without something decent now then you get left behind with the next set of game releases.

 

yeah agreed. you might be able to get starcraft 2 / half life 2 to run on the nvidia 6150 or intel x3100, but you will have to do a lot of work disabling settings and the like. it might even require you to edit files from the within the game folders to further disable settings beyond the in game menu's... www.tweakguides.com ...

and thats just to get it to RUN. bear in mind it will already look ugly at this point. no word on how many frames per second you can hope to achieve. less than 30 would be my guess, in 640x480, with some things disabled manually outside of the game menu and everything set to low. after all that, less than 30 frames per second.

the 8400 gs is a powerhouse by comparison. you can probably run half life 2 in 1280x800 with a lot of settings on high and still maintain 30+ frames per second.