Urgent graphics card help

Hello,

i am thinking of purchasing a laptop to play games on.
the one i am looking at is HP Pavilion G6 Series 15.6" Windows 8 AMD A4-4300M 6GB RAM 750GB HDD Laptop - Black : 15" Laptops - Best Buy Canada

Processor Type:AMD A4-4300M
RAM Size: 6 GB
i think will work for games

but when i google the Graphics Chipset
AMD Radeon HD 7420G

i find a website that says
"Radeon HD 7420G is an embedded GPU on the middle-class Trinity CPU A4-4300M recently released by AMD.
Since the GPU doesn't have dedicated memory, the bandwidth will depend on the system ram speed which can be up to 1600MHz (the max speed supported by the CPU).
Gaming Benchmarks indicate all modern demanding games are unplayable at the lowest settings and other games will still require very reduced settings to achieve fluent frame rates...."

is the website true, in that this laptop wont be able to play games?

thanks for any help or advice.

 

It will play games.


Just depends what you want to play.

 

well for example : Left 4 dead 2 recommended (max) would require...

intel core 2 duo 2.6ghz or better
ati x1600/ nvidia7600 with shader model 3.0 or better

will the graphics card in the laptop be able to play it on medium settings or low settings even?

also i was considering playing ArmA 2.
Minimal PC Requirements

CPU: Dual Core Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz / Intel Core 2.0 GHz / AMD Athlon 3200+ or faster
RAM: 1 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / ATI Radeon 1800 with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAM or faster
OS: Windows XP

Optimal PC Requirements

CPU: Intel Core 2.8 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or faster
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT / ATI Radeon 4850 with Shader Model 3 and 512 MB VRAM or faster
OS: Windows XP or Vista

would it be able to play ArmA 2 on low/medium/ high ?

 

It won't play arma 2 at any exceptable frame rates.


Left for dead at medium settings.

 

so, no arma 2 at all??? i would just be getting it for DayZ ....... and i dont mind a little lag?

also is arma 2 a no because its one big game world that the laptop cant handle?

can i still buy/play games that are smaller levels/maps? (like left 4 dead 2) ?
games like counterstrike?

 

It's on the lower end of the trinity apus (bit higher than the Llano chips), but you should get some 500 points or so in 3dmark11 without forcing it. Dual channel ram at 1600Mhz with high bus-speeds, and so on, and you might get a bit more, but not completely sure how much. Basically, you get a low end graphics card.. around an intel hd4000. That (unlike an intel card) will support all the shader models, graphics/video-acceleration and dx11 and so on. That also can be underclocked a long way when you're using it for browsing, watching film, that sort of thing..

So.. good enough for Psychonauts, Nexus: The Jupiter Incident and Sword&Sworcery - without any weird artefacts and missing effects. BF3, etc., will work only on low detail and resolution, and probably will stutter anyway without forcing higher clockspeeds than standard.

 

dumb question : would there be any way to replace the graphics card in this laptop to a better one?

 

May I ask why it's urgent that you need to know how this gpu performs? If you're wanting to play modern games at decent settings, I would recommend saving up and getting something with a better gpu. The nvidia gt 650m can handle most games at medium settings, with less demanding games at higher settings. Otherwise, I'd just setting on a console for gaming and buy a cheap netbook for web surfing/word processing.

 

its 'urgent' because the sale ends in 5 days

also another question, im looking up laptops and they have for example a I5 or a I7 processor which ive read are good for gaming, but then in stats it says processor speed is only like 1.5 ghz

should i be looking at the GHz only, and be ignoring the I5 / I7 processor name ?

 

the 7420G performance is below HD 4000, and it seems the HD 4000 cannot run ARMA 2 even at 1280X720 with lowest settings, thus i wont expect 7420G to be able to even run the game at any level that would give any entertainment value. at that price i rather build a desktop that would have the power to run battlefield 3 at medium settings. the hard ware on that laptop is really low end

 

Not a dumb question at all. Usually the processor is soldered to the motherboard (the apu is a cpu/gpu on the same die), so no. But the g6 chassis is so roomy and standard (+lots of used spare parts available), so it might not be very difficult to change the entire motherboard.

Put all other hobbies on hold in the meantime, though..

 

Wow, it doesn't even match intel integrated graphics? Yeah OP, do yourself a favor and stay away. A console or cheap desktop would be a much better choice for gaming.

 

hmmm yeah, i guess i wont be buying a laptop any time soon

still ill go to my local NCIX and ask them about it all

 

They're going to tell you whatever you want to hear in order to make a sale.

 

You can't just look at clock speeds. They don't tell the whole story.