ATI RADEON 3100 card question

[gadawg31]

I recently purchased a Toshiba satellite L305D with an ATI RADEON 3100 graphics with 256MB-894MB shared video memory. I was wondering if someone could explain to me about the 256-894MB shared memory. What does this mean? How do I expand the memory? I know these may sound like basic questions, but I have always been used to stand alone video cards with their own memory. Is this a good card? Will it hold up to some gaming and if so how hard core can I go with the gaming, for example, Ghost Recon, Battfield editions, Call of Duty? Thanks in advance for your help. Take care

v/r

Gadawg31

[brianstretch]

The GPU is integrated into the notebook's chipset and uses 256-894MB of system memory for graphics. Configuring more than 256MB is a waste. The Radeon 3100 is a downgraded version of the Radeon 3200 HP notebooks often use. The 3200 is equivalent to NVIDIA's low-end dedicated GPUs. I'm not sure about the 3100.

[Citizen86]

It's an intergrated video card, so it doesn't have any dedicated memory, it just "borrows" from your RAM. So with intergrated video cards you end up having a little less RAM than you would if you had a dedicated card.

[masterchef341]

it should be fine for older battlefield and call of duty games (battlefield 2, maybe the new free battlefield game coming out for the pc)

[Age of wind]

my laptop for school has the same card but instead of shared it says 256 MB Dedicated Video Ram and up to 1150 MB System Ram shared if needed.


The card should handle old PC games fine just dont expect it will cut through games like F.E.A.R. like a knife through butter, obviously Crysis is way beyond its reach.

[hayden88]

will this card be able to play command and conquer 3: tiberium wars?
my ram is 3gb
processor is 2.1 dual core

[Citizen86]

will this card be able to play command and conquer 3: tiberium wars?
my ram is 3gb
processor is 2.1 dual core

That's a couple years old now, isn't it? I'm sure it'll do alright with it.

[Hep!]

That's a couple years old now, isn't it? I'm sure it'll do alright with it.

Wrong. That game will run at 3-5 FPS tops on lowest settings on that laptop.

[Citizen86]

Wrong. That game will run at 3-5 FPS tops on lowest settings on that laptop.

Well my bad, the game was only released last year... minimum specs though call for "GeForce 4 Ti, ATI Radeon 8500 video card, Intel GMA 900", that doesn't sound like Crysis to me

3100 Radeon is I'm sure better than an Intel GMA 900... I didn't say that he should expect to crank up any settings, but on lowish settings I'm willing to bet he could get playable framerates. You only need 15-20 FPS for a strategy game like that anyways.... IMO

[Hep!]

Well my bad, the game was only released last year... minimum specs though call for "GeForce 4 Ti, ATI Radeon 8500 video card, Intel GMA 900", that doesn't sound like Crysis to me

3100 Radeon is I'm sure better than an Intel GMA 900... I didn't say that he should expect to crank up any settings, but on lowish settings I'm willing to bet he could get playable framerates. You only need 15-20 FPS for a strategy game like that anyways.... IMO

Those may be the official specs but considering how poorly it was played on a Radeon 9700 Mobility and a desktop Geforce 5200 (it was unplayable on the 5200, the Radeon played it lowest settings with occasional lag), I'm doubting it would even begin to run okay on a GMA 900. Same goes for a Radeon 3100.