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    Mobile graphics card for Source games

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by by1990, May 28, 2010.

  1. by1990

    by1990 Newbie

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    Hi all. I am planning to get a notebook that can handle Source games (TF2, L4d, etc...) in low - med qaulity. What kind of graphics card should i look for when i get the laptop? Thanks!!!
     
    by1990, May 28, 2010
    #1
  2. mobius1aic

    mobius1aic Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    The Geforce 310M in my lappy has turned out to be quite a performer. Maxes out CS:Source with 2x AA easily. The recently updated HL2 ran well too, even though Source Engine 2007 games like TF2 and L4D are typically alot heavier than original Source. BF2 can run maxed without AA too. All in all, it's a good card to shoot for. The ATi equivalent would be the Radeon 4570, which is found in many a laptop. I've been meaning to create a tweaking guide for the 310M just for the hell of it. Gamers on the forums here always appreciate tweak guides for specific laptops and GPUs.
     
    mobius1aic, May 29, 2010
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  3. roy_nor

    roy_nor Notebook Consultant

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    ATI 4650/5650 and Nvidia Geforce 335M or higher should do the trick. :)
     
    roy_nor, May 29, 2010
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  4. ivanmmj

    ivanmmj Notebook Guru

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    An ATI 5650 will run it on 1366x768 with everything maxed on high and AA on. Even an old x3100 will run it with everything on low just not very well. Most anything new will run it at least on lower settings.
     
    ivanmmj, May 29, 2010
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  5. spaghetticheese

    spaghetticheese Notebook Smasher

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    my HD2400xt played them all on low XD
    anything more than that and you are fine (= pretty much everything)
     
    spaghetticheese, May 29, 2010
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  6. xedi

    xedi Notebook Guru

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    I believe that you can't buy a notebook which will not handle source games at low - med quality, since even an Intel 4500 manages (barely, but still) Half-Life 2 at maximum quality @ 1440x900.
     
    xedi, May 29, 2010
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  7. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    this what i would get...
     
    sean473, May 29, 2010
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  8. ziddy123

    ziddy123 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Source is still fully DX9. It never moved to DX 10.1

    Pretty much that tells you, any strong DX9 card should do the trick. A good DX 10.1 will eat it up.
     
    ziddy123, May 29, 2010
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  9. DEagleson

    DEagleson Gamer extraordinaire

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    Actually Source Engine is more CPU dependent, but even a Intel Mobile Core i3 should do the trick as long as you get one of the GPUs mention in the posts above.
    Hope next gen Source Engine will run on Dx11, but until Valve stops bulls***ting and actually releases HL2 Episode 3 / HL3 instead of teasing the fanbase. :)
     
    DEagleson, May 30, 2010
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  10. Kocane

    Kocane Notebook Deity

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    As deagleson said, it depends lots more on your CPU, than GPU, so focus on that instead.
     
    Kocane, May 30, 2010
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  11. by1990

    by1990 Newbie

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    I think i have an idea of what should i get, thank you so much guys!! =D
     
    by1990, May 30, 2010
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  12. funky monk

    funky monk Notebook Deity

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    You really don't need much to play source games, most graphics will be able to max them out quite easily. When you start using A then it gets a bit more intensive and you will probably start to lag if you don't have a decent GPU but that's true of all games.
     
    funky monk, May 30, 2010
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