Simviation Forums

Ok So looking at these pics, I realise my graphics card on my laptop is terrible.

I'm wondering whats the minimum graphics card from ATI I could use to make it look nice (not looking for perfect)

I really dont want to go back to Nvida (had some troubles on my desktop)

YAY!! another ATi fan  ;D Okay, well I'm guessing you have an AGP slot, so I'm going to reccomend a X800GTO For $170 this card packs quite a punch, and due to the fact that it is built on the R460 core, flashing to the X800XL is a breeze. However something to take into account is that HDR isn't supported on ATi cards until you get into the X1K series, which are all $250+ nVidia cards from the 6200 and above all have HDR support. If your looking nVidia I suggest the 7300. Also nVidia has fixed alot of their older driver problems with the 8X ones.

Cheers
Cameron

He's got a laptop/notebook Cameron.
Look for anything with the "Mobility" prefix for ATI cards KurtangleTN.
Good luck,
Rob.

Wow, that shows what speed reading can do to ya. Okay then, a 9800, X700, or X800/850 should do nicely. However again consider that all nVidia chips have HDR, and usually a few frames better (ATi usually takes the benchmarks). Also notebook chips seem to be about $180 (for a 9700) to over $300. Also they are very hard to find (I had to resort to eBay) .

Cheers
Cameron

Wow, that shows what speed reading can do to ya. Okay then, a 9800, X700, or X800/850 should do nicely. However again consider that all nVidia chips have HDR, and usually a few frames better (ATi usually takes the benchmarks). Also notebook chips seem to be about $180 (for a 9700) to over $300. Also they are very hard to find (I had to resort to eBay) .

Cheers
Cameron

Yeah I was looking at ebay. Thanks alot. Ill check it out.

I'm a definate ATI fan, same with AMD.

Hopefully I can get some extra money for one. I should have around $90 from a return soon so maybe I can borrow some from somone to get it.

Another thing you must figure out is what interface you have. If its AGP than you are going to be limited to the 9700, and 9800.  What lappy is this going into? My friend is putting a GO 7800 into his dell, so if we ever figure out how to get the damn thing open, I'll share how we did it.

Cheers
Cameron

PS: I did eventually get that Compaq three months ago open. Notebooks are rathar intresting pieces of kit, and unless its the HDD or RAM, I prefer staying away from upgrades. They are absolutely horrendious to get apart and together (although their vitals are easy) I would never want to have to replace a CPU in one.

You'll be lucky to upgrade to anything at all I would think.

Have you looked on the support website to see if you are able to upgrade and what is compatible?

The pics you see on this site are not a direct result of good graphics cards. Most cards will produce good screenshots, it depends on the users familiarity of the settings used to obtain those pics.

Good cards allow flying at those settings, poor cards can often get good settings but frame rate while flying is bad.