Vista - Question about Geforce 8400M-GS

I'm sure that this has come up many times. I recently purchased a new laptop and the card coming with it was the Geforce 8400-GS, not high-end but, on other forums said to be mid-range. It's supposed to play new games smoothly; just not at peak performance. The forum below categorized it as thus: The Mobile Graphics Card Info Page - Most GPU Qs answered - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

My computer specs:
Intel core duo CPU T5750 @2.0 GHz 2.0 Ghz
RAM: 2.0 GHz
32-bit operating system

Yet my Dell performance page rates me at a base score 2.6 in desktop graphics out of 5.9. Gaming graphics are apparently at a decent 4.1 out of 5.9 yet games and definitely PC game cutscenes do not run smoothly.
This computer even plays its default chess game at a noticibly choppy rate when it only demands a recommended 2.0 base score. I tried to run the 2003 game Jedi Academy and it runs though on it and other games the cutscenes are very choppy and gameplay has a very noticable FPS jumpiness. The newest game I played was a 2006 strategy game (Empire at War, I'm using the SW games for testing because they tend not to be very demanding) and it also played choppy.
These games don't demand very much and Jedi Academy is honestly pretty ancient. There are no viruses or bugs on the computer nor is it bogged down with programs. Lastly running videos is often difficult on or off the internet. Many times the frame rate on these is reduced. The graphics card is adjusted to the medium between performance and quality. What should I do? I'm confused!

quote: "...ing with it was the Geforce 8400-GS, not high-end but, ..."

8400M-GS, sry

Hey newagent89,

I don't know the card, but I have a 6600GT myself (which is also better than the one in yours--> x400 x600) and the WEI rates me 3.9. When I first got the PC it was rated at 3.4. When I installed proper drivers (not the ones from windows Update, they tend to be outdated) it swooped to 3.9 so maybe you can try that. Otherwise in my opinion you shouldn't pay too much attention to that WEI rating because it's not always accurate and sometimes even ridiculously faulty. If you want a real rating you should try 3DMark: Futuremark - Download.

Amplid

where is the best place to get the latest drivers? What legitimate websites would have these? People have said that it is hard to find new drivers for my card. I'm not very computer savvy so I really don't know much about how driver updates work. When I've typed "latest drivers" in on Google, it gives me a bunch of what look like spyware-laden sites that scream 'latest drivers, FREE!!!'. For some reason, I don't really trust that. where should I go. And why is this laptop performing so badly at video card graphic tasks?

Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers It's best just to download it from the nvidia website. just go to the link, fill in the grids and start downloading as for the last question, the x400 is a pretty old series of graphics cards, but if you don't do any serious gaming it'll be fine!
Tell me if the driver download worked/ helped! And of course add some reputation if it did (see the little balance under my pic)

Amplid

Hey, I filled in the grid but for the Geforce 8M series, but it only offers a driver for the 8700M GT. Any ideas. And is there any way to explain the low quality of game cutscenes. My old computer was an XP with much less memory and a much less powerful processor (1.5 GHz, I think) and an ATI X700 pro. It ran most things like Prey, Doom, and Jedi Academy just fine. MMORPGs worked decently enough too. Why is my machine so pathetic. The 8400M GS is a better card than the X700 pro. Also, the 8400M GS I think came out in June of last year, so I don't think its very old. Wikipedia conflicts with other sites by saying the card is not useful for much gaming at all. Many other sites (not commercial sites) say that it is useable for modern gaming but you simply can't crank everything all the way up.

I don't think you have to cut that deep, downloading the driver, just download the Geforce 8 series one (175 release). In fact I don't know how you got onto 8700 on that page... It only lists 5, 6, 7 ,8 and so on, or is this me?...

As for graphics cards, you must always look at the second number (for geforce). The performance of a card is mostly shown by this second number. For example if you have a geforce 8400 and a geforce 7600, the 7600 will outperform the 8400: x400 x600. The first number is a sign of the generation of this specific series of graphics cards and is subordinate to the second number. However if you have a 7400 and an 8400, the 8400 is better...

Let me know if the upgrading of that driver works and helps...

Amplid

Alright, I can try the 8 series driver but they do have a heading for the 8000M series drivers thats where I found the8700M driver, but nothing was offered there. I just want to make sure that the series 8000 driver won't hurt anything whether it works or not (because my card is intended for the laptop I'm using and the standard 8000 series is for desktops, not mobile)

Yes, I see what you mean now. I suggest you send an email to the nvidia support or maybe try calling them, for I do not know much about laptops and the separate software and do not know whether you can use the normal driver, but, as there is a separate section for the mobile series, I assume not. Another thing you can do is go to the dell webpage, look for your laptop model and see whether they have an updated driver. (What is your laptop model?)

Let me know what you found out

Amplid

I ha a quick look and found this: Dell - Zoeken - Alles op Dell.com

Check the current driver of your card by going to the device manager-devices-search for the card in the list and then rightclick-properties.
If you find an updated one on the dell site, download it, restart your pc and check your WEI again