get vista 64bit if you can

if you do that, youve got a good mid-range setup

no, you just do it manually through ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMs, right before you install it physically..

its basically like this Uninstall Drivers > Shut Down computer > Open up computer and install card > Turn on computer > Insert CD and install drivers > Restart Computer >BINGOBANGO youve got a new video card

lol, its sort of a plug and play process, aside from uninstalling all the graphics drivers you have already

and dont forget to attach it to the PSU!

i was using something that came with ATI Tray tools, but it might not be calibrated right.. idk..

i cant figure out how to take screenshots of the displayinfo... i just tried doing that and pressing f12 and it seems to pause to do something when i do that, but when i look in my pictures there is nothing.. and the frame were significiantly lower according to DisplayInfo.. at 1280 i was getting like 10-20, and at 1024x600 i was getting 25-35 (on the level 'core')

you guys might be right, i may not actually be getting what ATT shows... i might uninstall ATT since its crippled on a laptop anyway.

but to tell you the truth, it didnt have any hiccups anywhere other than the end when you fight the big dude...

btw do you think its possible overclock this 3100? it doesnt work with ATT, only temps and a fan control that doesnt do squat

Im going to run my laptop through 3dmark06 and see what it does.. ill post the results here when its done

well... i have a computer that has a 9600XT.. that runs spore creature creator at about the same performance as a X1600 in another computer of mine. give or take a few AA/AF settings

so if thats any indication, you may be able to run it, but it will probably either choppy or blocky

[QUOTE="vipiespot"]

no lol, its not a GMA. i made sure of that when i bought it.

its really a radeon. and it is a good GPU nevertheless, and yes it shares memory with main memory but the laptop has 4GB@ 800MHz, so im not really hurting for shared RAM

i played Crysis with all on medium at 1280x800, and it ran really smoothly. im really pleased with its performance to be honest, a bit suprised at that

stevencompton

There is no way an integrated GPU can run Crysis smoothly at 1280x800 at medium settings. You'd be lucky to get half decent framerates all on low at 800x600, even then it will become unplayable at some of the more demanding areas later in the game.

For my ATi Mobility Radeon HD 2600 (dedicated GPU) I run Crysis at 1024x768 with everything low except for Sound, Water, Physics and volumetric effects at medium. I made a custom config file for the low shaders to improve the graphics with minimal performance impact. I get around 30-45 most of the time, occasionally more and very rarely below 25fps. That's what I consider a good framerate.

well mine did.. when i say smoothly i mean like 40fps good, on least graphic intensive parts.. like floating around the alien base.. during that time i was getting 35-40fps

mind you, this is no AA/AF

i dont meant this smoothly for a computer overall, but for a laptop in general

*edit*

I played and beat crysis for the first time on my laptop, and there were no parts that became unplayable

well

i compared them on GPUreview.com and im going to go with the 280, for price sake

yeah you may be right as far as that goes with the future and native coding...

but as far as the scaling goes.. i like to think of it more as spreading the workload.. i do agree with you though, as far as now goes, there just arent enough programs that support threading the cores..

i guess for budget sake, get a dual core now, and then later if something starts supporting multicore processing, not only will the chips be cheaper, but probably better

btw, would you say 3+ cores are more aimed at office productivity? and the dual cores may not be aimed at, but are more fit for gaming?