Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, How Good is this Video Card?

I want to play games like World of Warcraft and The Sims 2 Especially, as well as Zoo Tycoon 2.

Is the Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 excellent for these programs?

Thanks for the advise.

That is the only choice of a Video Card for Dell XPS M140, so is it good enough to run these programs?

 

In a word no, it is the rock bottom of the line graphics solution. If you want to play any newer games with good resolution avoid the integrated graphics card altogether. You would be much better off getting a dedicated 64MB or 128MB card, with the 64MB being the bare minimum. The GMA900 uses RAM from the system for graphics and thus has less RAM to use for the system tasks. I would go with something like a HP dv4000 with a 128MB X700 video card, it will play games quite nicely and should be right around the same price as the M140. It will probably be able to run them, although it will be choppy if you turn up the resolution.

Matt

 

Actually I found that it didn’t fair that badly, in fact, paired with a Pentium M 750 and a gig of ram, I was able to play half life 2 rather well and Doom 3 at lowest resolution. FarCry may have worked had the demo I downloaded not been corrupted

 

True, it will play older games, 2 years or so with little problem, but if you want to play FEAR or any other modern games with good resolution, you will need a dedicated card. It all depends if you want to play the newer games or not in good resolutionl.

 

The GMA 900 is far from excellent at those games. I hear it runs Sims 2 very, very slowly and can run WoW at a pretty slow speed.
I would HIGHLY recommend getting a dedicated graphics card, anyone will be better than the GMA 900. It is a shame that the XPS 140 only has this card, real shame.

 

If gaming is even remotely a consideration in buying your laptop, the graphics card should be the first thing you look for. If you see an Intel GMA 900, move on.

Unfortunately though, about 70% or so laptops I'd say, have the chip, so your options are slightly narrower. This means it's unlikely you are going to be able to buy your laptop from a retail chain. It's just the price you pay for gaming...

 

Yes, it is most unfortunate that there are many retail stores selling notebooks with otherwise impressive specs that are hobbled by the graphics card. Of course, only a very small percantage of all notebook users use their machines for gaming but anyways, get a dedicated graphics card, avoid any integrated graphics solution at all cost, except for maybe the ATI X200M.

 

IMO if you are searching budget notebook but you wanna play today's game you should go with ATi Radeon Xpress200. However, bear in mind since many Radeon X200s are shared, you'd better add few bucks by buying the lowest but acceptable good dedicated GPU,the mobility radeon 64mb or go with 128mb if you could. MR X300 would not run newest game with high detail or something like eye-candy, but with low to mediuml detail your game will be fine.
FYI,I played NFS MostWanted in Satellite A80,Pentium M 1.86GHz,768DDR,X300 64mb with almost highest setting(90%) the game run smoothly, no lagging at all. So don't expect more if you wanna play FEAR or FarCry. It seems MR X300 will run those game with low to medium setting with same spec.

 

From what I gather from the past month of shoppping around for a lappy, it seems that if you go with an centrino chipset, your stuck with the crappy 900, whereas if i buy a celeron or AMD, i,m almost guarenteed a better video option. Why is intel letting this happen, heck they should make the 900 a requirement in the centrino package.

 

There are a few centrino laptops with good dedicated video cards. Like the MSI-1032 for example. There are plenty of other options as well.

 

Actually, it's the other way around. There are far more centrino laptops with good video cards vs. the AMD ones. I can count the number of AMD notebooks with a gaming card [by todays standards] on my fingers.

You won't find that great of video cards in a mainstream computer, but if you look at an Asus, you have a good deal of options.

At PowerNotebooks.com, they have an excellent selection of Centrino gaming notebooks.

 

Maybe so, I’m holding out for the MSI MS1012 centino (260) to come to Canada. Currently only the AMD version (270) is available and everyone tells me to get that because the processor is just as good as intel and it has a better GPU, whereas the centrino model can only come with the 900… what to do … what to do?

 

Are you mixing up celeron and centrino? I can see there being a lack of graphics options for the celerons, but as far as centrino goes, they are top of the line and usually if a good gpu doesn't come stock, it's an option. I've seen a lot of celeron books that have no or very limited gpu options though.

 

This videocard is fine for most mainstream games. It just won't play the newest resource hungry games, but many laptops with dedicated videocards won't play them well either, soooooo yeah.

This videocard will be okay for everyone, but gamers. Thing is hardcore gamers won't be playing games on laptops anyways.

Cheers,
Mike

 

I can play San Andreas / DOOM3 comfortably on a Radeon 9600.

You can't play them comfortably on the GMA 900.

There's the difference.

 

I have it along with the x700. It runs well Imperial glory, older 3ds like Half Life (1) engine and stuff. No new games. It scores 170 points in 3dmark05. x700 can be made up to 3100 with 128 MB DDR. Numbers say it all.

Cheers,