hmmm, oblivion,hl2,fear,etc

I've just ordered a laptop at these specs:
Dell E1505
T2300E 1.66ghz Duocore
80 Gigs 5400RPM HD
15.4' WXGA Screen
1GB ddr2 ram
ATI X1400 256mb

So, I want to know a couple things. First of all, ive ordered the WXGA because it is 70 dollars less than that of the Ultra WSXGA. Will I see a huge difference due to this screen? Is it really worth it to upgrade the screen?

Also, will the X1400 play all the games above at fairly good settings?

Lastly, will the settings probably last for a decent amount of time in regards to playing high end 3d games? I mean if this card struggles hardcore on oblivion already, then what can i say for later?
Thx for the input

 

hl2 runs great, but fear will only run on really low-res/ low detail. Don't know about oblivion though...

 

Oblivion runs on low-very low settings.

 

For your laptop, HL2 will run great as GTR said, FEAR however will not that great (for that game is a system hog) but you will be able to run it at low setting for disable some features. Oblivion is another system hog and i havent play it so I dont know (going to download it soon) but i think you can play it at low setting and low res.
For the future, some games you can play and some you can not.
How scary are games now these day, they require alot to play them.

 

So what about the 2nd part to my question regarding the screen?

 

The difference in your screens are the resolution they support. If you got the WSXGA, you would be able to have a higher resolution of your system. Thats good for notebooks because a higher resolution makes things on the screen smaller, allowing for more stuff in the same screen. But with that setup I wouldnt worry about being limited with resolution and games, you have the lowest processors, 1 gig is ok now but not enough for the future, a slow hard drive, and the card is as good as it gets for you, but its no where near top of the line. HL2 will run great like said before. I dont know about FEAR. Now oblivion, I play that game, barely. I know it is a CPU hog and a HUGE RAM hog. I mean that game eats RAM for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

My Dell 6400 specs are almost identical to yours (see sig) and Oblivion runs OK on medium settings - I've not overclocked but have set driver settings to "performance" rather than "quality" which helped but I'm sure you could get more out of it. HL2 seems to run well except I'm having what I think are overheating problems with it - as yet unresolved.

 

Hey ahemsworth, you say that you run Oblivion at medium settings but at which resolution. That can be 800*600, or 1280*800. Thats a big difference...

Charlie

 

So definitely playable without frustration?