How good is an Intel GMA 4500 video card for gaming?

[HerrKaputt]

Hello,

I use a laptop mostly for work, but enjoy playing games. I am very happy with my Fujitsu Lifebook s6120, but it has been getting quite slow for my work needs (needless to say it is VERY slow for games). So I am going to buy a new one, and was looking at the Lifebook s7220.

So I would like to know: how good is it for games? Naturally it is worse than a notebook with a dedicated video card, but I've heard that Intel's GMA 4500 chipset is actually surprisingly good for gaming. I don't want to play games like Crysis, but would like to play Guild Wars and Age of Empires III, for example. I would like to play also Oblivion and Fallout 3, even if at medium or low settings. I am very happy with framerates of 30, I don't need 60+.

So, all of you who have a laptop with this videocard, please let me know how good it is. Thanks in advance!

[Melody]

By general terms, the HD4500 is a bad bad gaming GPU. The HD4500 is only able to run older games comfortably. Guild Wars and Age of Empire should run without much issue, but Oblivion and Fallout 3 will struggle, even at the lowest settings.

I believe the HD3200 was the IGP with the "surprisingly good gaming performance", not the GMA4500.

[HerrKaputt]

By general terms, the HD4500 is a bad bad gaming GPU. The HD4500 is only able to run older games comfortably. Guild Wars and Age of Empire should run without much issue, but Oblivion and Fallout 3 will struggle, even at the lowest settings.

I believe the HD3200 was the IGP with the "surprisingly good gaming performance", not the GMA4500.

Okay, thanks for the tips. +rep

By the way, how about the Nvidia 9300? I know it is also integrated, but since a) it's Nvidia and b) it has some dedicated memory, is it any better?

[Big Mike]

9300M GS is about twice as fast:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

has a good list of notebook graphics.

X4500 is surprisingly better than X3100 and the other previous intel graphics chipsets, but it's still not great (it smokes nvidias bottom of the barrel entry level 7150GO though for example)

[Andy]

Go for the NVIDIA 9300, if into mild gaming, though battery life would be much better with the GMA.

[Melody]

Isn't the 9300M GS dedicated though? I think it's the 9200M GS which is integrated >.>

But yeah, the 9300M GS will provide a definite improvement over the HD4500.

Intel just isn't really into the GPU business. They mostly stick to CPUs and let Nvidia and ATI make GPUs lol

[IntelUser]

By general terms, the HD4500 is a bad bad gaming GPU. The HD4500 is only able to run older games comfortably. Guild Wars and Age of Empire should run without much issue, but Oblivion and Fallout 3 will struggle, even at the lowest settings.

I saw a review about the GMA X4500HD desktop motherboard review and they said it ran oblivion decent at medium settings.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mother...ntel-DG45ID/p2

"Just for larks we decided to see whether the extra performance of G45 yielded any tangible benefits apart from an inflated score in a benchmark and were staggered to find that we were able to play Elder Scrolls:Oblivion at 1,280x1,024 on Medium Quality settings."

[Melody]

I saw a review about the GMA X4500HD desktop motherboard review and they said it ran oblivion decent at medium settings.

Hmm well admittedly an integrated GPU's desktop and laptop counterparts must be similar(as compared to a desktop dedicated GPU and a notebook dedicated GPU) so maybe that also applies to the HD4500, but I've heard stories from friends who had trouble running Oblivion on an HD4500.

[Andy]

Both 9200M and 9300M have their own dedicated memory. The 9100M is a mGPU, without dedicated memory.

[Veno(V)]

I get 50-100 fps in CS 1.6 and about 40avg on Source with the x4500. With the 7150go, I got 40-60fps in 1.6 and 15-30 with Source.