Vista - Subscore question

I have a graphics subscore of 3.4. It's by far my lowest score on my laptop.
How bad is this score? Is it going to prevent me from playing a lot of games?
How easy is it to upgrade the video card in a laptop? Thanks.

"How easy is it to upgrade the video card in a laptop?"
With few if any exceptions, you can't.
But you can often do something about drivers.
Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video adapter.

Instead of worrying about the numbers which are just a guide, select
games you like and find out what the game recommends.
Also communicate with other users of that game and determine what they
recommend and seem to need.

Used the right way, the numbers can be a good tool to help users know
what they have and where to begin with upgrades.
Used the wrong way, the numbers are good for the hardware
manufacturers when users upgrade simply for larger numbers.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"BCurrey" <BCurrey@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F86E4687-EBC4-4367-AFA2-B266E0FE5557@xxxxxx

"BCurrey" <BCurrey@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F86E4687-EBC4-4367-AFA2-B266E0FE5557@xxxxxxActually for a notebook, that's a pretty good score, Is that for Business
Graphics or Gaming Graphics?

My notebook I think is 3.2, it's not a gaming notebook (Toshiba A215-S4767),
and I consider it above average.

To echo a little of what Jupiter said above, You can't really upgrade
graphics on a notebook. SOME notebooks come with modular video cards that
you can swap out with another, but probably less than 1% of all notebooks
have this, it's really rare. The other 99% of notebooks have the video card
integrated on the system board, you can't upgrade it. Driver updates usually
do not help the speed score.

If you want a better score, get a better notebook. Toshiba has 2 "Gaming"
notebooks that they sell at Best buy, both have nVidia SLI video (2 video
cards linked together) and 2 hard drives in RAID-0 configuration. The low
end one is only $1300, and the high end one (with HD-DVD drive, better
video, more ram, etc) runs around $1700.

For the price they are really nice systems. They are freaking HUGE though,
probably twice as thick as most notebooks now a days, definatly less of a
laptop and more of a "desktop replacement that's easy to pack up and take to
LAN parties".

Alienware, Dell XPS make excellent gaming notebooks. Voodoo is a great brand
(if money is no object).

If you're not looking to upgrade, or Santa isn't coming to your house this
year, try playing the game in a lower resolution (like as low as it'll go),
I play TF2 on my system with a 3.2 score, and it's "Doable". I'm not scoring
amazing kills, but I can hold my own.

Good luck,
A.