Radeon 9000 IGP isn't bad...

I got this laptop about a year ago and so far the integrated graphics card has impressed me every time! I know that it's a piece of crap, but maybe its b/c I upgraded from a Celeron@450MHz w/ 128MB of RAM and a Rage Pro card to a P4@3GHz w/ 512MB of RAM and the current Radeon. With 64MB of VRAM that's actually mooched off the system RAM, its able to play HL2, CS:S, and AoE3, all at medium-high settings. Are there any other Radeon 9000 IGP owners?

Anyway, I was wondering, if I upgraded from 512MB to 1024MB of RAM, thus making the IGP automatically jump from 64MB to 128MB of VRAM, would I see a good increase in performance and playability? What does more VRAM signify in terms of gaming?

Also, I've understood from previous threads that the GPU speed matters a great deal. My Radeon runs at 300MHz, and I'm tempted to overclock it, however there are setbacks. With a Pentium 4 Prescott core operating at 3GHz (the hottest of the P4s) and both fans always running on low at idle, I don't want to burn out my laptop. Is there anything I can do to remedy this shortcoming?

 

Use a cooling mat when gaming(that thing should never be on your lap btw ). If you go into your BIOS settings, you can see how much memory can be used for graphics.

 

it's likely the graphics card will not support 128mb of memory...

but i could be wrong..

 

Don't worry Bhatman, its usually on my desk! I'm trying to find a way to cool it without fans, like Arctic Silver gel. Problem is I have no experience in using it. For the IGP, though, an idea came to me when I was in a tech store and I spotted some really small, flat heat sinks (2cm long, 1cm wide, 0.5cm high). Use Arctic Silver, apply these small heat sinks, overclock... does this sound crazy or is it really plausible?

When I right click on the desktop, go to Properties, Settings, Advanced, I access the Catalyst Control Center. From there, I have a tab entitled "UMA Frame Buffer" that allows me to set (w/ reboot) how much memory the Radeon takes, from 16MB to 128MB.

 

if the card can use 128mb then go for it, it will only tax a bit more than the system ram(if you get 1 gb you will be fine)

 

The AS5 is possible for the GPU and CPU, but since its a laptop, and even with cm heat sinks, it might crowd up the air flow for the fans. The AS5 I would say is the best option. As it cures over time, it gets better and better.

 

No it wont help video card performance. With a gpu that slow, any game that actually exceeds 64 megs of video ram is going to be pushing more polygons then the gpu can handel anyways.

 

It's good idea to add Artic Silver, you can find Satellite A70/A75 dismantle guide at www.irisvista.com. there are many good and concise toshiba laptops dismantle guide and easy to follow...DIY