* Don't waste time in 3D games using integrated graphics *
*Author* *The-Kiwi* Joined: 07 May 2001
This originally appeared on the Self-help Tech Support Forum at Bioware, and is not a matter of opinion. This is easily verified by benchmark tests for the onboard chips at reputable sites, readily reached through a simple search, using Google or any popular 'Net search engine.
Logged in as: *The-Kiwi* Art and Graphics Engine (there've been a couple of edits to S-C's original, and those already appeared on BioWare's Forums)
* You won't be able to run NWN2 on integrated graphics *
*Author* *s-c* Game Owner
(GameSpot's Editor is broken today, and won't handle a Quoted Block correctly, so blame the bad formatting on them, not on me.)
| OK, a lot of people seem not to get this, so I thought I'd make a new thread.
| (Q) What's integrated graphics?
| (A) Anything with the word "Intel" in it, or pretty much any graphics chipset maker besides ATI or Nvidia. Or the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 or 200m. Or Nvidia's GeForce 6100 or 6150. These aren't graphics cards, but small graphics solutions built into the (Chipset on the) motherboard.
| (Q) Wasn't one of these originally on the official supported list?
| (A) Theoretically, the ATI and nVidia IGP's run the game. But with the large graphical load NWN2 puts on the GPU (beyond Oblivion-level), there's NO WAY one of these things is going to be able to render the game fast enough for you to actually play it. (Yes, the NF6100 appeared on one list or another for a time.)
| (Q) Well, what now?
| (A) If you have a laptop -- oops. Not much you can do. But a desktop, unless you're really unfortunate, should still have a slot on the motherboard that you can plug a graphics card into. You have to figure out if that slot is AGP or PCI-E, and buy the appropriate card.
| (Q) How can I tell if it's AGP or PCI-E?
| (A) If your current graphics solution is the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 or Nvidia GeForce 6100 or Nvidia GeForce 6150, it's PCI-E. Otherwise, either look in your manual or find out what your motherboard chipset is and google it.
| (Q) What card should I buy?
| (A) Well, read the other threads here (about that). Note that if you have an AGP slot, you may have to pay a premium of $50 or more to get a card with equivalent performance. Note too that if you buy a powerful card, you may well need to upgrade your power supply as well.
| /Edited By s-c on 09/26/06 17:38/
According to a relatively recent article published on a PC Hardware site, as part of a review of the lowest powered video options, including IGPs, the author claimed to have read some sales figures for the desktop PC market in 2006 that showed fewer than one PC in ten had a discrete video card. Supposedly, over 90 % of current sales were systems offering only onboard video chips.
That 90 % figure has been accurate for laptops, practically from the beginnings of that category of personal computer. Of the remaining 10 % of laptops, a similar one in ten ratio, approximately, represents the number that can have the video circuit boards replaced to upgrade the performance.
Intel's chipsets are the ones used in the majority of the cheap no-video-card desktop systems, and Intel refused to add the T&L capability to their chips until late in 2006 (the X3100), and even then, offered no drivers to enable that function until now (and the drivers they did make available just don't work). ATI had offered a far better onboard chip than anyone else, but with the merger of ATI with AMD, discontinued development of the chipsets for Intel PCs (the bigger market), although there are still excellent ATI IGPs (at least compared to Intel) for AMD-powered PCs.