The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Notebook Upgrade

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by sbalian, Oct 11, 2004.

  1. sbalian

    sbalian Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I own a Compaq Presario 3250EA and I was thinking of upgrading the IGP video card. Is that possible??? Its an ATI Radeon 9000/9100 128 MB DDR. Games such as Sims2 dont run smoothly. Should upgrading the system memory balance out the enhancements provided by a dedicated video card??? Should I contact HP for a video upgrade or is it something next to impossible????
    Seto
     
    sbalian, Oct 11, 2004
    #1
  2. Striker

    Striker Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    From what I know, you can't upgrade notebook video memory, or the video card at all. It's built into the motherboard. But again don't take my word for it, I could be wrong. A Radeon with 128MB of memory should be plenty enough for Sims 2 though. Perhaps the lower performance your seeing is of another factor?
     
    Striker, Oct 11, 2004
    #2
  3. bootleg2go

    bootleg2go Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    99
    Messages:
    1,230
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    It's possible on a few notebook models to upgrade the video controller, but none of those models are HP or Compaq.

    Jack

    "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
    http://pbase.com/joneill
     
    bootleg2go, Oct 11, 2004
    #3
  4. Big Calhoun

    Big Calhoun Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    52
    Messages:
    597
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I was thinking the same thing, 128mb is plenty and should be more than enough for Sims 2. Do you have the maximum amount of system ram? fast hd? Those two factors could improve performance. You could also gain a little more by doing things like turning off file indexing and the swap file. But 128mb...you should be golden!!
     
    Big Calhoun, Oct 12, 2004
    #4
  5. sbalian

    sbalian Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    i know 128 mb ddr is enough but its shared memory. is that any different than 128 mb ddr from a dedicated memory graphics card of the same type ie mobility radeon 9000 128 mb ddr ???? if its not then i should simply add more ram.
     
    sbalian, Oct 13, 2004
    #5