getting the most of a intel intergrated gfx chipset in a laptop...

[Mana]

hi there,

i recently purchased a packard bell laptop with the following specs:

intel M 1.60ghz centrino cpu
512mb ram
intel intergrated graphics.

now i know that this isnt the latest laptop but i only paid around £600 for it. i am not planning on playing any games on it as i just wanted it for surfing, checking emails and general downloading and windows usage. i understand that 512mb ram should be sufficient for windows usage but things do tend to get a bit slow when i have about 5 apps open but i put up with. i recently downloaded a screensaver called Flurry (recommended as its awesome) but was disappointed to see that the intel gfx ran it as a slideshow. now i have tried setting the gfx mem to 128mb in the bios but the screensaver still runs at the same slow speed. i previously had it set at 64mb as i wanted to maximise the amount of ram available to windows...

are there any tweaks etc that people suggest that will speed up the intergrated gfx or am i just stuck with it being slow. it is fine for playing xvids and dvds so no complaints there. i guess that flurry is just a little bit tooo demanding.

ps: anyone got any winxp laptop based tips that i can use or are the ones for desktop pc applicable to laptops as well.

pps: will i greatly benefit adding an extra 512mb ram and if so does anyone know how much laptop memory costs.

thanks in advance.

mana

 

[Mana]

heh i did go to the land of purple men but i was in a rush and couldnt really wait for the time it takes to ship... seems like your mate got a good deal. this laptop has a screen size of 15.4tft widescreen with 50gb so i guess that could be why it costs a little bit more.

the price of the memory is nice and low, i think i will invest in an extra 512mb of ram as it does take a wee bit too long for this laptop to startup when u first switch it on... it isnt that slow in windows altho i do notice a bit of slow down when i open up say more than 5 apps.