What games can be played on a PC with just integrated graphics?

Just curious:

What games can be played with integrated graphics?

 

That depends a lot on what kind of IGP is in your computer. I can only speak from my experience with my Intel GMA 900 on a 915GMS with 128MB shared memory in my Sony Vaio S54B. Here is what I currently have on my machine:

Civilization IV
Fahrenheit: The Indigo Prophecy
Half Life 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
The Godfather
Thief III

All of them are prefectly playable at medium to high settings, except Oblivion. Civ IV, PoP, Godfather, Fahrenheit and KOTOR can all run at high settings without a problem. I get about 30fps at low settings with HL2. Thief III runs great at medium settings. I installed Oblivion just for fun, to see if I could get it working. I was able to by editing the ini and using 3D Analyze, and I get around 24 fps in inside locations but it drops to around 13 when I am outside or there's a lot going on. Most gamers would say that it's not playable at that level, and I would probably agree. It seems like an awesome game, but I'm not losing any sleep over not being able to play it perfectly. I don't have that much time to spend on a game like that anyway.

Despite what all of the graphics card enthusiasts out there will tell you, modern IGPs are just fine to run about 90% of all games, and lots of modern games will run just fine too. No, you're not going to run F.E.A.R at 90fps with all the settings maxed out, but then again I highly doubt anybody can acutally see 90fps and if you wanted to run a game with all of the goodies on you would have gotten a dedicated graphics card.

One thing that annoys me is I think too many times hardcore gamers tend to treat those of us who own computers with IGPs as computer illiterate. There are lots of people who know something about computers and choose for an IGP over a dedicated solution. I think many times they get a lot of flack on forums.

Anyway, you can play lots of stuff with integrated graphics. If you are a light to moderate gamer and don't care about playing every new game that comes out at the highest possible settings, I think IGPs are just fine.

 

The Intel 915 is a chipset, not a GPU.

 

Yeah, you're right, I should have read what I wrote. I have the GMA 900.

 

Whaaaat!? Oblivion runs on a GMA 900? Not sure I beleive that.

 

Flight Simulator 2004 runs with medium graphics on the ATI Radeon Xpress 200M with 1GB system RAM and a 2 GHz processor.

 

My experience with the Intel GMA900 was that it absolutely sucks for playing modern games. That's one of the reasons my laptop is on ebay right now. I thought it was decent until I got a 9600XT for my desktop. The 9600XT is outdated, but is still like 5x faster than the GMA900. That may sound like more power than you need, but modern games can really test it. My GMA900 scored 946 in 3DMark03 while my 9600XT scored well over 4000 with two year old drivers.

I played all of HL2 with the GMA900 though. While probably over half the game was playable at lowest settings, there were plenty of parts that were tough to get through because of choppy framerates.

If you're gonna do any gaming on integrated graphics, the ATI Xpress 200m is easily the best option.

 

Running Oblivion on a integrated GMA 900? That is a good joke...

Man, I have problems running Oblivion at 1280*800 with my X700 overclocked!

Charlie-Peru

 

Arcanum84

Thanks for the reply. I was wondering about how Godfather played. I have the Intel 950 with a dual core computer for work. It would be nice to break up the monotony of working all the time.

 

I can't see why Arcanum84 would lie, and decieve someone. It may run on his laptop, I know it's hard to believe but a game might work on one system, but be pants on another, even if they have the same graphics card. it's how well the integrated card will work with his current spec. I believe it. i'd like to see it running though. I'll be testing a few games on mine shortly, and will be making a brief review on the forum just for people who wonder.

 

They're not particularly intensive games, but you can play FFXI (haven't tried the newest expansion yet) and Galactic Civilizations 2 on a GMA 900.

FFXI's a bit old, and Gal Civ is a Turn-Based-Strategy game, so neither of 'em are particularly cutting edge.... they run fine for me so far though.

 

FFXI looks beautiful for how old it is though. Especially the areas added in the expansion before this one and this one's as well.

They'll probably keep the lowest settings just low enough so that the GMA 900 will play it at default though.

 

Ah, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking FFXI's graphics. Just acknowledging that it is a game that originally came out almost 3 years ago, 4 in Japan. (wow, has it been that long?)

The GMA 900 still runs FFXI better than the PlayStation 2 though, which impressed me a good deal. Mind you, I'm not making a comprehensive comparison here (it may run smoother with more settings on the PS version, I've never really stopped to do a full side-by-side comparison), but it looked pretty slick to me.

 

Probably because the PS2 has a horrid resolution.

I know you're not saying anything bad against them, I was just commenting on how good it still looks ^^;

 

I am very interested in finding out if my Dual core Pentium M 2 Ghz, 1 GB, intel 950, and 100 GB HD can handle the Godfather.

 

Just as a side thought, I don't think you should have gotten the GMA 950 if you had any even feint idea of playing games...

With that said, according to arc, it plays fine on a GMA 900, and the 950 is better than the 900, so...

 

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intel945gm/sb/CS-021400.htm

Here is a list that I came across. The only games I would play:
Tiger Woods
Sims 2

 

i would suggest playing games 2-3 years old. they will be your best bet. most newer games you will either have difficulty running them, turn settings down somewhat, or will just not play.

pb,out.

 

my last laptop had a intel 900 and played several games fine, not at the top setting but I was able to play them. Halo runed fine at low setting and resolution, GTA vice city did good to and most of the strategy games will run fine too. You just have to warry about if like higher resolutions or palying newes games, because the intel 900 won't do it man.

 

Besides PS2 is 6 years old already. Its GPU would be closer to a Riva TNT than to a Geforce 3 or 4 (which were the videocards to which it was written to)

 

You could play GalCiv2 on your GMA900? Dang my ATI Radeon 9000 is more outdated than I thought... it would run it but not without ALOT of delays... one of the reasons I went for a new notebook.

 

Yeah, that too...

 

I had the idea. The intent is another story. I haven't played games for 6 years; I suppose I don't need to start now.

 

Well... Since FFXI plays on a GMA 900 play it, get a world pass from me, and get addicted ^^;

 

To be fair, battles are a bit choppy. I have yet to play around with the settings though, so maybe it'll get better. Then again, I used to play it on my 5 year old desktop with a 9600; battles were equally choppy, so I really can't complain.

On a whole, I think my lappy is running the game better than my old desktop. Now that the 1.1 patch is out, my interest is piqued again, so I'll see if I can get better performance......

 

I got Oblivion running on my machine with 3D Analyze with all the settings on low. The frame rates were very low, I'm not sure how low because I didn't check, but it isn't very playable, especially in open environments. My point was that I was at least able to get it to run. The same was for Doom 3, though again it had low fps which would make most serious gamers run away. I even got the Prey demo running.

What I was trying to say, though, is that so many people come out with statements like "no modern game will run on a GMA900". That's simply not true. Currently I have Call of Cthulhu, Dreamfall and Tomb Raider Legend on my system. While they don't have the settings maxed out, they are all very playable on medium-low settings, get great fps and are all modern games. And for all of these games, srstest.com told me I wouldn't be able to play them. What will or will not work on a particular system is not so black and white. That's why I think it's very misleading to say no modern games will work on the GMA 900.

I completely agree though that the GMA is not for hardcore gamers. But for those of us who aren't (I only play games about 2-4 hours a week and am not an fps junkie), an integrated solution like the GMA will work fine and will be able to play many of even the newer games. Also, there are so many great older games out there that will run awesome on the GMA900. System Shock 2, NOLF, Thief and others will still be good no matter how old they are.

Anyway, that's just my two yen.

Oh, titaniummd, The Godfather runs very well on the GMA 900. I only played it for a short time, but it was smooth and looked good.

 

I've got the GMA 900, and probably going to be getting a new laptop with a dedicated card when this baby hits one year old.

 

The GMA is ideal for playing games from about 2002/2003 and below

Call of Duty United Offensive, Castle Wolfenstein, GTA Vice City, C&C Generals etc, all these games work great on the GMA900 and 950.

Yes, it DOES work with some new games, some better then others, but generally at poor enough levels not generally worth playing...

 

Thanks for the reply, Arcanum84.

I actually got the notebook with an NVIDIA card subsequently. However, I chose the game Mafia instead of Godfather for the sake of playability - after reading the mixed reviews.

 

have you played cod united offensive on a gma 900? im asking because while cod1 playes great on my m140 which has a gma900 it says on the intel web site that united offensive will not play..i thought this was wierd because cod uo is just an expansion pack. im just wondering if anyone has really played it.


but im very happy to say that i have been suprised by the playability of the chipset. i bought this nb for general comp. use and not gaming but being able to play a little here and there is nice and still being able to have the great battery life is even better.

 

A little bit of benching with the an HP zv6245ea (zv6000-series)...

AMD Athlon 64+ 3200
512 Mb RAM
ATi Radeon X200M

Freelancer = 1280, all maxed out = ~50 fps
Mafia = 1024, all maxed out = ~30 fps
TESIII: Morrowind = 1024, all high, no filters = ~55 fps
Need for Speed Underground 2 = 1024, all medium, no filters = ~35 fps
The Movies = 800, all medium, no filters = ~30 fps
The Sims 2 = 1024, all medium, no filters = ~25-30 fps
FS2004 = 800, all medium, no filters = ~25 fps

All were playable, if we consider 25-30 a threshold of decent playability. That depends on the player, of course. Haven't tried Oblivion, but if it does play on a 900... lol... it'll definitely play on an X200M.

 

well for me, i consider "playable" 35+ fps with eye candy on, theres not much point with it off

And my comp gets about 40-50fps in oblivion at 1280x800 with alot of the candy stuff on, but no AA/AF.

Ohh and i tired Oblivion on my mums laptop with 1gb ram, x200m GPU, it was not playable, with MOST turned down & off, it barely cracked 15fps, theres just too much detail in the game. Even if it did run, theres not much point without having most of the details on.

The GMA 950 would be fine for older style games, by older i mean upto 2003ish, but it does struggle with newer games.

For interests sake i tried AOE3 on the x200m, playable....but only just with eye candy on. Certainly not enough for me

 

On my Inspiron 6400 I run HL2 @ High and its sexy, but I can't run CSS or DODS to a playable level [ie. I'm stuck @ 10fps]

 

HL2 is very forgiving to hardware, same as UT2004

the type of game that will run on The GMA950/x200m

modern games will not (fear/oblivion etc)

 

I wonder about FarCry, being in the same league as HL2 (but with a less "forgiving" engine). Doom 3 I think is out of the question, at least not at high-res. I'm going to have to try.

I, too, expect to play recent games with at least some eye-candy on: is why I have an Xbox 360 and a gaming desktop, after all, and keep the laptop for older stuff.

 

It all depends on what you define as modern. Fear and Oblivion are two modern games that are very graphically intense, thus they won't run or will run very poorly on a GMA 900/950. Tomb Raider Legend, Dreamfall and Civ IV are also very modern games that will run just fine without all the eye candy on.

 

I guess what im saying is, ok those games may be "playable" at low res, with eye candy off...but to me that kinda destroys the point.

to me playable is 35+ fps with eye candy on @ native resoulution, which is 1280x800. Now a very forgiving game like Ut2004 will play fine with everything turned up on my older 9700pro, but then again ut2004 is very friendly to hardware. AOE3 plays OK on low res's and low detail on a x200m, but then ur missing out on all the great eye candy that makes the game look awesome.

Some games are friendly to hardware, some arnt, i guess the trick for the IGP'ers who want to game is finding games that are friendly to hardware

 

Far cry 800 some mising textures download patch
age of empires 3 800 it runs better with lastest patches
rome total war and barbarian 1024 medium
fifa 2006 1024 high
lord of the rings battle for middle earth 2 800 medium
mafia
vietcong
ut 2004
san andreas 800 i use widescreen low
the sims 2
winning eleven 9
with hl2 i couldnt have a stable fps but i didnt try configuring it with directx7
galactic civilizations dreadlords
need for speed most wanted 800 there are some guys saying this cant be played with the gma 900 ,but in the system requirements it says you can as in the godfather
americas army trying with 1024

 

You are right, some games are really friendly to hardware while others aren't. That's good news if you have an IGP and want to play HL2, but bad news if you want to play Oblivion.

As for gaming in general with IGPs, I think it comes down to what makes an enjoyable playing experience for you. For cbrviper, having all of the detail and eye candy on and a high framerate is important, so an IGP like the GMA 900/950 isn't acceptable. For people like me, where eye candy isn't so important and we can still enjoy a game without everything maxed out, an IGP solution will probably work fine. I can enjoy Tomb Raider Legend on medium settings without the next generation content on, while others may not even want to play it at those settings.

Two games I've been enjoying a lot lately, Call of Cthulhu and Dreamfall, are running great on the GMA 900. I play CoC at 1024x768 with no AA and Dreamfall on medium settings. They don't look as pretty as they would with a better graphics solution, but I'm having fun anyway. Though I wish CoC had a better save system.

 

but once again, like HL2/ut2004 , those games u mention, are rather friendly to hardware, well coded and dont require much grunt at all, hell ut2004 plays on my Gforce2mx from 5 years ago!

my point was to find games like this for the IGP'ers

 

LOL does it really?! Man, I should try on my Matrox Mystique... now that was a cool card.

 

lol yeh

duron1k, 512ram, 64mb gforce2mx400........runs ok that was my 1st ever pc i built myself......seems like such a long time ago!

 

anychance any of the splinter cell games would run on my gma915 chipset

thanks in advance

 

you can play the first splinter cell, i havent tried the other ones but it seems that it cant be played

 

Has anyone tried Medal of Honor: Allied Assault on an Intel 900 or 950?

 

Runs at 1024x768, all options on high, no problems.

Medal of Honor only actually requires a 16mb OpenGL compatiable card to run, and performs excellently on even a basic 32mb card.

Still looks nice enough after all these years too.

 

How would something like Sims 2 be with GMA 950?

Cheers

 

On an X200m it runs very well at 1024x768 medium details, no filters, no shadows. The GMA950 is less powerful but not tremendously so. It should be just fine at 800x600 on medium. I haven't tried in person, though; maybe someone else has.

C.

 

i had played the sims 2 in my 900 and it runs pretty good i dont remember what settings but it is playable.
Why dont they made a post like this an sticky as there is A LOT of people asking what games can i play with integrated graphics.