Inspiron 6000 gaming

Hello Everybody.

I purchased a dell Inspiron 6000d, almost exactly one year ago, based alot on some of the feedback I gathered on this site.

I've recently been trying to play Company of Heroes, and I have 1 gig of RAM, the 1.6 pentium M processor, and the ATI x300 128mg, and I can barely run it on the lowest possible settings.

Now, I know that I'm stuck with the ATI card and I can't upgrade it, but, what CAN I do? I was under the impression that the whole idea of 'dedicated graphics' was that I could upgrade SOMETHING along the way??

Thanks!

 

Nope, looks like you're stuck. But then given that company of heroes doesnt look very good on even X1600s, it's not completely your fault.

 

1. run the omegadrivers if you aren't already
2. turn everything off; a/v, etc.
3. defrag (and make sure you aren't running 90% capacity or something on your hD)

by comparison; i have the x300 128, 512, and 1.6 and have played hl2 and doom3 all the way on the recommended settings perfectly fine

 

you could try overclocking the ati x300 is a downclocked x550 so you can get around 30% performance increases both memory and core, i've stretched it to 40% and use i8kfangui to monitor temps. but really, it can only do so much

 

Yeap, you're pretty much stuck, you can downgrade to the 900GMA though

 

Do the omega drivers really improve that much? I just downloaded the updated ones off of the dell website.

I will try deFragging, that might help a little.

And yeah, both doom and Hl2 actually worked really well (I was ecstatic after I bought the computer and they did), but CoH runs like a lazy three-legged donkey.

Bah,
I suppose this is one of those 'downsides' to portable gaming, eh?

What WAS the 'dedicated graphics' capability then?

 

dedicated graphics, even a weaker card like the x300 run far better than say the gma900. the omegadrivers translate to around 100 3dmark05 points, a few more stable fps. no harm done in trying them, but if you want to overclock you cant get the two latest ones, they don't let you.

3dmark05 wise, the omegas got me from like 1120 to like 1250 and overclocking got me pushing 1900s, stable. so it might be worth a try. i'd say get 18kfangui and monitor temps though, every comp is different, just because my i6000 can get those scores doesn't guarantee much for you, though there was a guy who pulled 2050 or something...

 

It's one of the downsides of wanting to play a modern game on a slightly older system, and a midrange one at that. The X300 isn't a performance card. It's a mid to low range card that's not as bad as integrated graphics.

That being said, yes, the Omega drivers are worth it. They install the ATI Tools program which allows you to overclock, as recommended above. You can probably squeeze some more performance out of your machine by doing so, might even make the game playable.

 

I have heard of people getting CoH to run smoothly on lowest settings on the X200 - you should, with good drivers, be at the very least able to get the game running at decent fps on low settings with your x300...

Even with my 256mb 7400 in my laptop I have trouble getting over 30fps on medium, some on low settings...

On that note, does anyone else have trouble with CoH and Fraps? On both my laptop and desktop I just get '999' in the corner of the screen...unless it dips into the 20's in which case the correct fps is shown but anywhere above that it seems to go to 999, which is annoying...

 

Uh, I was using the built-in "performance test" option in CoH, and getting 6-8 FPS... which was bizarre because it didn't improve even as I toned down the settings

 

"I have heard of people getting CoH to run smoothly on lowest settings on the X200 - you should, with good drivers, be at the very least able to get the game running at decent fps on low settings with your x300..." thats compleate BS as im running CoH on my x200 and its LAGY!

Dissable your vertical sync, set you graphics to high performance and put everything on LOW! That helps a little.

 

It's a downside to buying a weak dedicated GPU. Just because it's dedicated doesn't mean it's for gaming.

 

Its not fair to call it a "downside" to portable gaming. Even at release the X300 was a budget card. You can't expect a budget mobility card thats about 2 years old to still play the latest games.

You opted for it, you should have gone for something better if you wanted more lastivity in your notebook....