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What should an ATI HD 3200 Mobile be able to run?

SidUK

SidUK

SidUK

Associate
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
210
Location
Nottingham
Hi folks, as the title says really, what should this graphics chip be able to run?

The reason i ask is that its the chip my son has in his new laptop and the first game he's installed, Sid Mieirs Railroads, wont run at all with all graphics settings on low.

The chip in the laptop isnt too clever, only Sempron 2ghz but he has 3gig of RAM now as i got another 2gig for him yesterday but its made no difference to the game whatsoever.

Any help?
 
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Motherboard-integrated chip. Will struggle to run any recent games. Even then some older games still aren't designed for onboard graphics.
 
Sorry, meant to say graphics chip as i know its integrated.

I've read reviews on it and various posts on other boards that state it is quite capable of running a lot of games, but will obviously struggle with newer graphics intensive games....however Sid Mieirs Railroads????????????
 
Just checked the minimum specs for the game and it only requires a 64mb gfx card, surely an onboard chip with 384mb should easily be able to cope with it?
 
SidUK said:
Just checked the minimum specs for the game and it only requires a 64mb gfx card, surely an onboard chip with 384mb should easily be able to cope with it?
Click to expand...

Shared graphics memory is largely useless. Mainly because the bandwidth sucks compared to a dedicated card. Sorry, he'll have to play it on a better specced machine.
 
Aye, I would have expected Railroads to have run on that machine but it does indeed sound as though onboard graphics just won't cut it.

I'd put Heroes of Might and Magic III on it and enjoy :)
 
Hmm, doesn't sound right that it's not running correctly. Integrated or not, it's still SM's Railroads... :D

Is there an option in the bios to see how much memory is being shared to the graphics card? Latest ATI drivers also?
 
From what I read, the HD 3200 (RS780M) is based on the HD2400 graphics core, it is slightly slower then the HD2400 as it lacks the dedicated memory. It is much faster then a GMA X3100.

3DMark01 = 8588

3DMark03 = 3155

3DMark05 = 2591

3DMark06 = 1446
 
I'd suggest upgrading video drivers and trying again. 8.12 with mobility modder or one of the other sets like Omegadrive that support mobility chips; manufacturer drivers tend to be dire, designed for stability not performance/features.

What is the error it gives?
 
There is no error at all, it just lags like a bitch and is completely un-playable.

I downloaded the latest catalysts last night but didnt bother with the control centre, now the control centre wont work so i'll download the lot later again.

Believe it or not there is no option whatsoever in the so called BIOS to increase or decrease the available memory, although it is stating in system info that its using 381mb.
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
The 3200 has hardware shaders and can have the required amount of vram can't it?
I don't see why it wouldn't run it nicely.
Click to expand...

It isn't a discrete videocard though...same thing happens with KOTOR, it just doesn't play nice with the whole shared memory thing.

The sideport versions with dedicated memory are miles better.
 
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My old mobility x1300 128mb used to play hl2/CS:S and such at acceptable framerates. Hell, it even used to try and push its way through oblivion on lowest settings but was let down by the 1.7ghz pentium M.

Then it melted.
 
I've played quite a few games on integrated graphics and, although there is no denying that they're choked by far slower memory, they're not as bad as they are made out to be.
Unless there are some driver issues, I see no reason why the integrated HD3200 would not run Sid Mieirs railroad.
 
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I would have thought that would run games ok. My old laptop had ATI X300 integrated with the system ram and ran things like Trackmania ok.
 
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