Intel X4500MHD - recommendations

My new laptop is using integrated gfx. I don't expect to game much on the laptop but wondering if you guys have recommendations on what nice games it will run?

I reckon old games should run fine without issues how about newer games such as Spore? I am not into heavy gfx games... thanks!

 

your card should be able to play anything release before 2006 on lowered settings. and there are a lot good games to list

 

This graphics GPU is as powerful as the GeForce 6600GT-6800 desktop graphics cards which can play all current games at 800 * 600 or below on low settings and games over two years old with high settings in place at 1024 * 768 and even 1280 *1024 with medium settings on almost all 2 year old games...

All the games using the Unreal 2 engine should run very smooth with this gpu.

 

I would go as far to say anything 2 years old or more should be playable on medium-high settings if you are equipped with 3GB's of ram and 512MB's are used for the GPU... The original Far Cry game for example was getting 60 frames per second and more on my buddy's X200 at 800 * 600 while it was getting an average of 35-45 fps when running at 1024 by 768 which is perfectly playable. Doom 3 ran well at 800 by 600 runing 20-30 fps. Chronicles of Riddick ran even better than Doom 3 did and looked better as well. This GPU is as powerful as the one in the original X-Box for example..

 

i do have 3gb of ram, but i see no way to view how much ram the gfx is using. there is no control panel to allot the memory, not even the bios (using sony sr 12)

 

I wouldn't worry about it. The X4500, like all previous GMA series, only allocates system RAM if it needs it, and it can only use a maximum of 384MB of system RAM. I don't think you will even be close to using all the RAM even if it needs all 384MB.

 

The x4500 wont be able to utilize 128mb let alone 384. Although this card is leaps and bounds improved compared to the x3100 IGP, it is by no means comparable to a 6800 desktop card. As for the unreal engine games, I couldnt agree more. UT3 you will have trouble with but 2004 and previous will work at max settings for you.

 

Heroes of Might and Magic III!

 

3Dmark05 and 06 scores really don't agree with you. Even the old mobile GeForce Go 6800 had almost double the scores the X4500 does. Sure, it's alot more relevant to today's needs for new games, but is sorely underpowered.

The mobile GeForce Go 6600 has 3Dmark05 scores of 2700+, however is about equal in 3Dmark06 simply because it favors unified shader GPUs such as the X4500. The Radeon HD 3200 certainly does beat the 6600 and comes close to the 6800 though.

However to back up others and what they say about what should play fine, yes it should play older games just fine. Far Cry, Doom 3, HL2, Counter-Strike Source......all the staples of 2004-2005. Though I wonder if BF2 or 2142 will play on it simply because they are finicky games to begin with.

 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Seriously it's not yet at the level of the 8400...

@OP: Pre-2006 games should work at low-medium settings depending on the game. Actually some recent games like spore too might run well but that's about it....

 

BF2 is a poorly optimized game so I doubt it will run smooth, maybe at low settings and lowered res.

 

BF2 ran pretty well at medium-high mixture at 1024 x 768 on my last notebook with a GeForce Go 7200 (based off the same GPU and configuration as the GeForce 6200-3:4:4:2 with added shader model 3.0 compatibility). It also used a 64 MB ded.- 192 MB shared turbocache VRAM system. Only problem was the single core capability of a Turion x2 TL-56 couldn't handle BF2, since it doesn't utilize more than one core, which made the game crash on servers with vehicles. I could generally only play infantry only servers with settings reduced to lower the overhead as much to prevent crashes. It's strange. The Refractor 2 engine , or at least it's BF2 and BF2142 releases (especially BF2) was programmed not to slow down during CPU heavy instances, but just completely **** up. I know they didn't do it on purpose, but it seems that way at times. BF2142 is alot more forgiveable about it, but still has many BF2-bred glitches.

 

I used a program to test the graphics memory usage on my X3000.

World of Warcraft 1280x1024 everything High=~160MB
Battlefield 2 1024x768 everything Medium=~160MB
Quake 3 Arena 1024x768 everything High=~90MB
Crysis 1024x768 all low=180MB
Medium=215MB
High=249MB
Doom 3 1024x768 High=179MB
Farcry 1024x768 High=~185MB
UT3 800x600 Low=90MB

If you have proper drivers and enough system memory X4500 can utilize up to 1759MB of video memory.

Vista
4GB=1759MB
3GB=1280MB
2GB=780MB
1.5GB=512MB
1GB=256MB

If you are using XP, the maximum is 1GB.

 

yep thats right, i would love to see the x4500 allocate 1759 lol makes me wonder why they bothered to do it like this

 

where do i get "proper drivers"?

 

Any drivers at least 15.9.8 for Vista.

I'm guessing its headroom for the future. Back when X3100 first came out, 384MB was more than enough. Now, quite a few games will be limited by the maximum shared memory on the X4500 if the limit was 384MB.

 

Doubt it. Even the 8600m GT can't use more than 256 mb because of the 128 bit bus. I don't know if the X4500 is any better in terms of bus width but I still can't see it using that much memory.

 

i just checked and it says:
Driver Version: 7.15.10.1489
Operating System: Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium* , Service Pack 1 (6.0.6001)
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 10.0
Physical Memory: 2938 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 128 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 1341 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 32 MB

I suppose that means it can use up to 1341MB if it needs to.

How is my driver version above?

 

That's pretty old now. Take a look at the chart at the link.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-009479.htm

EDIT: I just realized,

Physical Memory: 2938 MB

3GB system memory?? That means its 1x2GB and 1x1GB. There's around 5-10% performance sacrifice graphics-wise by using asymmetric dual channel as opposed to symmetric dual channel(for example, 2GB using 2x1GB modules).

 

yes i am using 3gb ram.

but why is my driver version not on the list you showed above? i haven't done anything this is a new laptop. how do i update the driver anyway? should the update be provided by "vaio update"?

 

I have no idea why it does not show. But I know at one time they released such a version, they are just not listing it.

Here's the link for the driver: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...dows Vista* Ultimate, 32-bit version&lang=eng

Just download and install it.

 

i downloaded but it won't allow me to install, saying that it is not validated for my laptop (sony vaio sr). does it mean that i need to wait for sony to release the driver?

 

You need to delete the driver from the device manager, and also instruct the uninstaller/deleter to delete any associated INF files if you get that option.

 

Will this graphics card play Team Fortress 2?

Thanks!

 

I tried it, on low-med settings, 1280x800, I got 20-30 fps. It will go down below 20 during intense fights. If lower resolutions and all low settings it will certainly be playable but it will look like crap.

 

Man, X4500MHD didn't improve over the previous gen at all. 2x performance my ***.

 

Guess Calpella will have to pick up the slack.

 

From a hardware specification perspective, the X4500MHD should perform close to a Geforce 8400M G/GS. I think the reason it doesn't perform as well in games or synthetic benchmarks is because of the drivers. Intel has always gone for compatibility over performance with their IGPs, and this one isn't any different. If they develop some sort of game profiles like the Forceware or Catalyst drivers, I can see this integrated graphics processor doing fairly well for what it is.

 

Hardware wise it is no where close to 8400MGS.. 10sp vs 16sp no contest, plus most games is on TWIMTBP ie NV backed games (very few are ATi's, and zero for Intel except cpu)

 

Okay, 8400M G then. I thought the 8400M GT was the only one with 16 SP, and didn't double-check.

 

I picked up a hp dv4-1028us. Has a p8400 centrino 2, 4 gig ram, and the x4500mhd. I can play all my favorite games on it at full res, med to high settings. warcraft 3 and battlefield 2 are my top playing games. I've played most of the modern games and am not very impressed with them. It seems that games are leaning more towards excellent visuals and lack in excellent gameplay (crysis included). for me, gameplay is 75 percent of a game. The best part? I only paid 599 for my lappy. Had this laptop had a discrete card I don't believe I would of been able to get the same deal. For this reason, I'm grateful for the x4500 and wouldn't want anything different. I would highly recommend it to anyone with the same interests.

for anyone who is searching around the web for more info about the the x4500 like I did before I purchased my laptop, don't listen to most of the things you hear about it. I based my expectations of the GPU off of threads similar to this and the x4500 far exceeded the negative comments.

(FYI "Can You run it" says I don't meet minimum requirements for battlefield 2 and I assure you I do)

 

Intel's SP!=Nvidia's SP

They are very different. I don't know how but they are. Why would you think they are one and the same??

And of course, its not about shader power only, other things are bottlenecking Intel's IGP.