x3100 HP DV6500 + CS Source = sadness

After reading weeks of posts and trying to make the decision about battery life vs. gaming, I purchased a HP DV6500. T7300, X3100, 2GB, 15.4. I had hoped that I would be able to play some of my older games on the road, mainly Steam HL2 engine stuff and perhaps UT GOTY. For all my business apps, the machine works great. Today I decided to go ahead and try CS:Source. It installed fine and the only "feature" that seems to have a problem is the online voice system doesn't work correctly, something drives the mic wild (probably a driver incompat), so I turned that off.

With video attributes set to medium, low, and simple, the game is barely playable due to the video. There are no texturing or rendering errors, it is simply choppy during movement, especially when in "open" areas that have multiple objects and textures. I tried at native 1290x800 as well as at lower resolutions in full window and windowed modes. Unfortunately I would have to say that it is little to no improvement from my corporate laptop with GMA 950. Sadly, the way the game runs (or fails to run) makes it so I would rather not play the game on this computer.

My latencies are fine, so no problems there. Although no problems with the sounds (except mic), I went ahead and set it to low quality. I tried adjusting CPU affinity, no difference.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone with a better experience and maybe some advice on if I missed something. Otherwise, this is going back in the box for a return and I'll wait it out a bit for SR systems with upgraded video.

Cheers.

 

The intel x3100 was really never meant to be a gaming card. Any integrated GPU is mainly used for helping with video encoding, HD content, minor graphical applications, and tools like some basic photo/video editting programs. I think you might have the impression it was very good based on what people were saying about it, but they were only saying such good things when comparing it to the intel's previous integrated GPU. But it also may be that the video drivers are not optimized as of yet.

I personally would have waited for the 8400M which is supposed to appear in that model soon.

 

Vista does use a lot of RAM. I assume you're using Vista. If you're not, that's extremely weird. Why not install Windows XP? It should be considerably faster.

 

Its not a RAM problem limeeater, he has 2gbs.

 

Even if thats true, Vista takes up as much ram as it can. I read an article not too long ago that many games run sluggish on Vista even though the specs are right.

But, you are probably right. It's most likely the graphic card than the RAM.

 

Link - yes, I did know the X3100 is just a low-end integrated card, but based on specs; I expected it would be able to run HL2 games in a playable fashion with settings dialed low.

Lime - I did check utilization of resources and RAM seemed to have some overhead left over. I have Aero turned off too.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

The problem with the X3100 right now is that there are no drivers that allow the GPU to use its hardware T&L feature - that is what sets it apart from the previous Intel GPUs like the GMA950. Right now the X3100 is doing everything in software. Once the drivers are available I think you will see some improvement although I don't know how much.

 

Chaz - thanks. I recall a thread that discussed new drivers on the way, but it was an old thread and wasn't sure it was still the case. I've got about a month to return this laptop, so perhaps I'll wait it out and see if magically Intel releases new drivers, but not really counting on it.

Thanks.

 

I just ordered the DV6500t. I don't do gaming. I use the Adobe CS2 suite for photo editing and I do some web design (nothing professional I assure you). Beyond that, I use pretty standard programs (Office, Internet, and etc.). I want to be able to do home video editing (again nothing professional or heavy). Is this setup going to work for me? I did order 2G of Memory as this seemed important with Vista. However, I am now wondering if I am going to regret not having a dedicated graphics card. Can someone tell me if this setup should work well for my needs? Thanks!

 

Hi there - if you could complete the FAQ for us in the What Should I Buy forum, we could offer some helpful suggestions. There may be a better option than the HP dv6500t.

 

Thanks. I will do that. I was just trying to get an initial response on this thread since this thread was discussing the laptop that I ordered. This setup is currently being built by HP. I can still cancel it if necessary. I like a lot of what I read about the DV6500t. I'm just concerned about the integrated graphics. If anyone wants to give input here, that would be great. But I will try to complete the profile that you suggested. Thanks.

 

Demonstrations of said drivers showed HL2 running on high settings, so don't give up hope yet, it might be worth the wait.

 

That is a good thought - let's hope it's true.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=109314

 

I've got a few more weeks before I have to decide if I return it. In any case, I thought I'd share that I found a game that does run well on it... Unreal Tournament GOTY'99 using OpenGL. Maybe Intel should package this with X3000/X3100 systems until they decide to provide "real' drivers.