Friday, July 9, 2010

The capability of an Intel GMA X3100

For most users with a laptop configured on an Intel G*965 chipset platform, are equipped with the intel GMA X3100. The card has its own 384MB dedicated memory, and you might have tried a few games on it. Though its capabilities are basically dependent on the processor and the RAM, but we should not forget why is it there for. It is the successor of GMA 950. Its core speed/shader speed are 500Mhz/500Mhz and most interesting is the integration of a fully programmable pipeline and the integration of DirectX9 and DirectX 10 and Shader 3.0 features - it is ready for Windows Vista /Windows 7 (supports Aero Glass fully),


And with the combined power of your processor and RAM this device will let you play the following with ease:

- GTA 3,
- Half Life 2 (all episodes)
- NFS Most Wanted,
- Warcraft 3 (ROC and Frozen throne),
- Age of Empires 3 (all expansions),
- Age of Mythology (also Titans Exp.),
- and all OpenGL 2.0 previous releases.

Though you will suffer a debacle at the pinnacle like no rendering or a complete crash if you try a few games like, Fallout 3, NFS Shift/Undercover, COD4, Crysis, BFBC2 etc. but then it depends on the processor also.

So for the medium range laptop owners, if you want a few joyous moments with your "lappy", don't doubt its capabilities, you'll have a handful of addictive games at your disposal.

GeForce 9500GT 512MB DDR2

It might not be the latest GPU from Nvidia's shelf, but it still lets you indulge in the latest game releases. Though for some games you might have to compromise with the resolution it still lets you play in a descent quality graphics setting.

Since target here is the budget conscious gamer I expect a budget PC e.g:
- A medium row Core 2 Duo
- 2GB DDR2
- 160GB or Higher HDD
- GeForce 9500GT 512MB DDR2

You can play the following without any hiccups:-

- Far Cry 2. - 34fps @ 1280x800 (8xAA)
- NFS Shift. - 26fps @ 1024x768 (No AA)
- Crysis Warhead. - 22fps @ 1024x768 (Mainstream,No AA)
- Fallout 3. - 60fps @ 1024x768 (No AA)
- Command and conquer: Red Alert 3. - 26fps @ 1280x800 (No AA)
- Resident Evil 5. - 29fps @ 1280x800 (No AA)
- Battle field Bad Company 2.
- Call of duty 4.


All in all its a capable card for the budget conscious gamer and with an upgrade for around ~Rs.3000/- you can enjoy the latest games for mew more months to come, meanwhile you can kill your time with the already awesome releases available.