***The Intel x3100 is *NOT* an acceptable gaming card!***

Let this be the final post about this topic. In the past week I have seen no less than half a dozen threads asking if the Intel x3100 is good for gaming, or better than (insert nVidia/ATi integrated card here), or even if it was better than an 8600M GT! It's clearly explained in Chaz's thread that all Intel cards will be out-performed by any semi-modern nVidia or ATi solution. But since no one obviously reads the "READ THIS FIRST!!" post, just look at the title of this stickied thread and don't you dare ever ask if any Intel card is decent for gaming ever again! Or it's off to the dungeons with the lot of you!

 

True lol,

The X3100, once it will get his full driver support, should perform like a Geforce 6600 with his memory speed underclocked from 550 to 266mhz.

Spec-wise

 

Yes, I agree--it is NOT a card for gamers and is horrible!

 

Well, it's not horrible. It's just not suited for gaming and is there for a budget pc and also for those people that do basic stuff like surfing the web, email...

 

I dunno, I had a somewhat crippled vanilla 6600 (333MHz) and it would eat my current Go 7200 for breakfast.

 

intel released a new driver for the x3100 a few weeks ago that supposedly allowed pretty smooth battlefield 2 game play. they also demoed crysis/farcry (i don't remember which) and that was playable too.

i'd say it is a decent offering that's better than ati's integrated solutions.

 

X3100 and Crysis? HAHA wow thats the last thing I ever expect from the IGPU.

 

Only decent way to play solitaire at under 30 fps.

 

Solitare doesn't even really need "FPS" at all..lol

 

While the GMA X3100 doesn't offer much competition against modern discrete GPUs, with the latest drivers, it does appear to be a decent IGP.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showpost.php?p=4252499&postcount=384

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=148045

Comparing an IGP against a discrete GPU is very lobsided, but I don't think that nVidia's or ATI's IGPs have as much an advantage against the GMA X3100 as they had with the GMA 950 generation. There are rumours that the desktop G35 chipset with the GMA X3500 will finally launch on October 21st (being delayed from September) and so we'll probably be seeing 2nd generation hardware DX9.0c drivers in the next 2 weeks. Once those drivers are out there is every chance the GMA x3100 may turn out to be the fastest IGP on the market. (Although still not matching a decent discrete GPU.)

 

The X3100 is NOT a gaming card and should never be considered one even if the benchmarks show otherwise.

 

somebody is angry

 

It can run games pretty decently at low settings, it is acceptable to me as a basic graphic card.

 

It's just that people flood this forum with thread about this topic. Probably the biggest reason is people want to know if they can get by without shelling out 100 bucks for a discrete GPU.

In my opinion, if the $100 is even a factor at all in your buying decision, Gaming is not a priority to you. Mobility, form factor, price are bigger priorities for you.

For example, gaming was a big priority in building my desktop. It contributed to a solid 33% of my computer's budget. And that's conservative compared to other computers i've seen.

 

its acceptable if your using a 12" laptop, F.E.A.R. looks quite good at 640x480 on a 12" screen, and on a x3100 it runs for me an average 35fps which is good enough, thats with particle effects on medium and cpu on max, on ultraportable it has to be acceptable because theres often no option to get anything faster, for example id pay an extra 500 easy for an X series thinkpad with a dedicated card but they just dont exist, so like the above poster said, as a basic graphics card the x3100 is completely acceptable

 

then lets just all agree to that for those who want portable, yet enough power for a decent gaming, the X3100 is the way to go.

 

Isn't this an ATI oem card?

 

No. The mobility RADEON x 1300 was a low-end ATi dedicated card, the GMA X 3100 is an intel integrated part. The ATi x1300 is markedly faster than the GMA X3100, though itself still a rather poor card for high-end gaming.

 

Erm, there are many repetitive questions here but that doesn't mean that you should make useless threads like this one just because you feel like that...if these questions bother you, then just don't read them and move on...

Plus, now this section looks like a christmas tree again, exactly due to the dump stickies.

 

There's gaming and gaming.

The X3100's strength for Solitaire has already been noted and the same will apply for other non-3D games such as strategy games.

Vista's WEI puts the X3100's desktop graphics performance above the 8400M G which must show something.

John

 

On the flipside, WEI also favors the GMA 950 over a Go 7200.

 

Problem with stickied threads is no-one ever even glances at them. They've been stickied for god-knows how long, often are stupidly long, and thus likely to be out-of-date, even if you can wade through and find the info you're looking for. Having administered a few forums before, I know this well.

 

X3100 isn't terrible. Some people need to calm down a little, and accept that not everyone can afford a high-end gaming PC, or are willing to sacrifice portability for performance. It will most likely become the fastest IGP on the market, depending on exactly how fast the 7150 IGP is. IGP does NOT mean no gaming. It means gaming on year old games + with reasonable settings, and maybe on slightly newer games at barebottom settings. The IGP is not meant for people who want 50FPS in Crysis, and it delivers according to its expectations. In that sense, it is a decent card.

 

If you think a stickied thread (or a thread linked in the General Index Sticky) is too long, out of date, or other please tell us by posting in there or PMing the original creator of the thread.

 

WEI was never accurate to begin with .

 

So "gaming" means just paying more?

 

Do you think that the x3100 is acceptable for a well skinned Ubuntu laptop w/ a c2d 1.6ghz 2gb ram?

 

If you're not gaming, then yes it's a great choice.

 

What is this Ubuntu you speak of?

 

are you being serious about the ubuntu thing?
if so, here you go:
http://www.ubuntu.com/

I don't know too much about it but friend got me interested in it

 

haha, nah just playin, I know what Ubuntu is.
Anyways, I played World in Conflict w/ X3100. Got about 9-12 FPS.

 

It doesn't matter to me... I still play Rome Total War. I rarely play the new games anyways.

 

Exactly my point.

 

Its not accurate to say that X3100 isnt a gaming card at all.
If you want bleeding edge games at high settings, then of course not.
If you'd like to play some Unreal Tournament, Hitman: Contracts and the like at medium settings now and again then its perfectly fine. Its not a hardcore gamers card, but for what its meant to do, it does the job fine.

 

For ubuntu it is great, since it have open source drivers

 

I wrote my own drivers. My X3100 now gets 16,000 in 3DMark 2006 - Runs Crysis 2 at 400fps.

If you buy an integrated solution expecting to play the latest games, you deserve at minimum the pain and disappointment of realization.

The only game I've tried so far has been AOE III, which is playable at full resolution with med-high graphics (Boat battles kill my CPU though)

 

People can always follow your 'guide' and upgrade the card, no?

 

Can I have one?

 

My guide? Sure, but I offer no guarantees. here's the thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=173152

 

No one offers guarantees these days, so don't worry.

 

Seriously, either the title of this thread needs to be changed, or it needs to be unstickied, as what constitutes an "acceptable gaming card" is entirely subjective, and depends on the needs of and the options availble to the person who's asking. And for the record, I'm not sure what posts lowlymarine is referring to; there have been posts about the x3100's performance in certain games, or about how much better/worse it was then a certain dedicated option, but those are legitimate questions. If a mod feels they are repetetive, all you have to do is close the thread and direct the OP to Chaz's guide, or to the x3100 gaming thread.

Also, the x3100 is notably better than the Go6150, which had a guide devoted to the fact that it was an acceptable budget gaming solution.

 

wot ever happen to the 7150 nvidia intergrated card that i have.i havnt seen it in the chart of other cards.its been out awhile now,or should i say a couple of months.

i thinks it better than the x3100,if only abit

 

You have it? Would you mind doing some gaming benchmarks on it and posting in Chaz's GPU Guide thread, so he can decide where to place it in the charts? It's not there because we don't have enough benchmarks of it yet.

 

a new vista driver 15.6.1 has been released

 

I think we need a pictures here, it will make this thread a bit more...erm.. can it be more useless than it is now?

 

Based on Intel's info on the new 15.6.1 driver... still no HW Transformation/Lighting Support.

 

from http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=128777&page=13

The 15.6.1 driver is available. I dont see any mention of "Automatic HWVP/SWVP selection can get stuck in SWVP mode" in the release notes....


*edit* these drivers suck. I am still getting half the frame rate in Galciv2:dark avatar that I got with the 15.4.4 drivers...

Also, Europa 3 still won't launch...
Aoe3 still gets better FPS with 15.4.4

This driver sucks. This card just isnt strong enough to support its own hardware shaders. There should be an option to create profiles for games and a "force software shader" mode.

*another edit*
Oh, and when you play games in resolutions lower than Native, they image does not stretch. Instead there is a black border around the screen. LMFAO @ THE NEW DRIVERS

 

Has Intel ever been listening to the voices of the Vista users of X3100?!

 

it depends, where you voicing your complaints? if it's on a notebook forum, then no. if it's emails/calls to Intel, then yes

 

well your doomed, they cant help you, YOU bought an IGP to game with on a laptop, what did you really expect, they hide an 8800gtx in it or soemthing?