Graphics card too slow

Hello,

I just installed the new GTA IV on my computer. I have a notebook with the required performance, Processor (1.8 GHz required, 2.0 GHz Owned) graphics card (256 MB Required, 384 MB Owned) and plenty of RAM (4 GB) but when the game loads, it says there is not enough video output to run the game. I have looked into why and I found the problem and was wondering if anyone could help. The problem is in the graphics memory usage. It says that 128 MB goes toward dedicated memory and 256MB goes towards shared memory. I was wondering if it were at all possible to make all of the video memory go towards the dedicated memory because in the game it says it is only getting the dedicated memory? I tried looking in BIOS to switch all of it to dedicated memory but was unsuccessfull in my attempts.

Any help would be nice and a new graphics card is out of the question because it is a notebook.

Thanks,
JB

if its not in the bio's i'm not sure it can be done...

Most laptop/notebook computers don't work with online games as the game maker doesn't configure/test the game to work with the video cards. I am unsure of games that run from CD.

Unless you are buying a 4K Gaming Laptop, you're going to be hard pressed playing the latest games, more so when it comes to GTA IV, which is believed to be one of the most Resource-Heavy Console to PC Ported Games.

Laptop/Notebooks were not ment to play games but to be a mobile workforce, the fact that they have marketed them as Gaming Notebooks is just a small scheme and even though they can play some of the games does not mean much... that's where Desktops come in.

Some of the latest games put a heavy requirements on your rig making the system run a bit hot and if you can't cool it off with some good fans, etc, you'll end up having a lot of BSODs.

The GM965 is the mobile chipset for intel. Which is the X3100. If this is what you have it does not hve any dedicated graphics memory. It is all shared...

For your information below as I own one. Great battery life though.

and additional:

JBracken

This is the recommended graphics card spec for GTA IV

Video Card: 512MB Direct3D 10 compatible video card or Direct3D 9 card compatible with Shader


.. as in 512mb 'dedicated' memory. Your laptop falls well short

Your are trying to play games on a chip that was never meant to play games. According to your system specs, Intel integrated for GTA 4? That would be like playing Crysis on a Geforce 2.

yes, they are all right, it like my with a 6 series geforce playing gta4

not going to happen!

the only hope is, buy another pc,
OR
overclock

Yeah but Intel says the 965g can play games,

Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family - Game playability on Microsoft Windows XP*

Intel's goal is to deliver the most optimal gaming experience on Intel based platforms. Individual game experience may vary depending on the game application version and computer configuration.

Click to expand...

Nothing like playing Far Cry 2 at about 5 FPS.

you can play it, not saying you cant, but you will lag so much it will hurt your eyes/

Does Intell say which games, via examples, or just 'you can play games' ?

not really. but a good way to try is using

Can You RUN It?

open ie7 and instal the plug in, for me, i cant play any games..

You can't go by what "can you run it sezes" They automatically underate a intergrated chip. They don't rate any amout of shared memory in comparing the min. specs on most games. Fact is: Many games they will tell you that you cannot play on the X3100, when in fact you CAN. Some but not all. I know this because I'm doing it. Best way to find whether you can play certain games (on the GM965 chipset) and 4 series (GM45) and etc. from intel Graphics - Intel® Graphics Gaming Guide support

Like for one my Laptops: Hp-Pavilion/dv6929nr/vista x64/vista home premium 64 bit/intel Centrino/dual core 5750 2Ghz/4gbram/GM965/x3100 /200 gb 5400 hard drive. This is list that intel provides.

Also, another good source (not sure if someone posted it or not) to get a idea of where your graphics card will do up against some of the newer games and a few older ones is here. Hopes this helps give you a better understanding of what your graphics card is capable of, but I find the best way is to try a few games out for yourself on your own rig. That way you will know what your system can do and what it can't.
Notebookcheck: Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards

I have 2 64bit Vista Laptops, both very similiar, except one has the X3100 and the other Geforce 9200M GS. Yes, the Geforce card does much better playing 3d games, but on the other hand it cost me $200 more and the battery life is not as good. All I'm saying is the X3100 is not as bad a people make it out to be and it WILL SURPRISE YOU for what it cost. Also, I might add that, as far as Video/DVD Playback and the quality of it to the screen, I can't tell the difference between my laptops nor my brothers 9600M GT.

I have tried GTA IV with 3 9800 GTX+'s, a q6600 at 3.6, and 8 Gb of DDR3 1800 Mhz. Now, the reason that this game is so slow with my config is because this game's engine "the godfather" engine is so badly put together that it solely relies on the cards video memory, not system memory, and the cpu to feed it to it. 512 is like minimum for this game. you'll need 3 285's 2 GB version with a core i7 to fully run this game...

GTA4 runs great on my rig.... but i had to mod it quite extensively to get reasonable framerates.... its quite badly coded & the official patches dont help much.. also i dont think its optimized for ''SLI'' AT ALL.

integrated GPU's are not worth the motherboard space in regards to gaming IMO... (no matter what Intel say)

& Laptops are all pretty useless gamers...unless your looking to spend 1000s on a unit dedicated for it, even then gaming on a laptop is pretty pointless.




SK