How good is IGP gaming?

How good are the latest laptop IGPs from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia at gaming? I've heard that the Arrandale IGP delivers "decent" performance, but are we talking about the same old 20-30 fps at 1024x768 with all settings on minimum that we've been seeing for much of the past 5 years, or is it truly decent* this time around?

* By decent, I mean a constant 40+ fps on the most demanding games available with all settings on medium at native resolution, which is always higher than 1024x768 these days.

 

Nope. Expect Low settings at a slightly higher resolution than before, they haven't really improved. A 3DMark score of 2000 in 06 still pretty much implies that most games will be low settings at 1280 x 800 or similar, depending on the game.

Honestly, if you are even thinking about gaming, I would at least get a dedicated card. You will regret getting an IGP for even light gaming (remember, subjective term, just generalizing though), as they are really not built for anything intensive at all.

 

I finished Crysis with a Radeon 3200.

With resolution 800x600, everything low as possible, and average FPS of maybe 25.

I am, apparently, a masochist.

 

IMO Arrandale is still not good enough...their drivers are not as optimized for DirectX as Nvidia and ATi's IGP.
In Nvidia/ATi's IGP dropping resolution/Image quality brings up good performance but not so much for Intel IGP.

 

Recommend getting a mid range card at least, but IGPs can play games, but not "decent * "

* By decent, I mean a constant 40+ fps on the most demanding games available with all settings on medium at native resolution, which is always higher than 1024x768 these days. xD

 

at least if you get a decent (even integrated) nvidia or ati chip, dropping the visuals will increase performance, so you can make the compromise yourself between visuals vs performance.

with the intel chip, you will be struggling to get the game to work and be playable at low settings and low resolution.

 

I used to have an old VAIO with a 950 GMA. And it was BAD. I had to use 3DAnalyze to play almost anything at lowest settings with 20fps (I went through Doom 3 like that). It had Pixel Shader 2.0, No Vertex Shader and no HW T&L.