Video Card Question

[Anxe]

I'm all excited for Skyrim, but I fear my computer may not be able to run it. I've seen that I should get a video card that has 512Mb. My current one has a measly 64. I have heard that I can "donate" the RAM that my system uses as a whole to the video card. I have 3Gb, so with 0.5-1 donated to the video card I'll still have enough to run Skyrim. So my question for the internet is, how do I do this and should I do this?

Specs: Windows 7, Processor: Dualcore T4400 @ 2.20 GHz, Laptop, HP G60-630US Notebook, 3Gb of RAM (More will be added to the first post if requested)

[tyckspoon]

That kind of function is usually handled automatically; if the graphics chip has more need of the RAM than the main system, it will be allocated for use by the graphics. That said.. you're probably boned. Your laptop most likely has the Intel integrated graphics unit of whatever generation. Integrated graphics are typically not up to any kind of serious gaming application, and the Intel ones are notoriously poor even in that limited field. You can try it if you're really desperate, but I would not expect a satisfactory experience with the game and I'd be somewhat surprised if it loaded anything past the opening menu screen at all.

[factotum]

I'd have to agree with tyckspoon--any sort of graphics chip with a shared memory architecture (e.g. uses main system RAM instead of dedicated graphics memory) is going to be absolutely appalling as far as performance is concerned, no matter how much system RAM you allocate to it!

[Anxe]

Thanks guys! I'd feared as much. I'll just skip on the game until I get an upgrade.

[Winter_Wolf]

I got a 1GB GDDR3 video card from Amazon for about fifty bucks. Sapphire ATI 5570 HD, in fact. You can get comparable nVidia cars for about the same price, if that's your preference.

Mind mind boggles at, no wait, I see it's a laptop. Nevermind then. Trying to upgrade laptop video cards is like trying to pull teeth from a chicken's beak, unless there have been some major advancements in laptops in the past 6 months.

I tell you I loved having a laptop so I could be mobile with it, but desktop is so much better for upgrades and raw power on the cheap. You could probably get an Asus laptop for under $1000 US that meets spec.

[Anxe]

Yeah, I know upgrading laptops is impossible. I'm not interested in buying a new just yet though. I actually specifically got this one so that I'd focus on schoolwork instead of games. It seems to be working so far. I'd rather not get a new laptop just to play Skyrim. I can wait the year or two for this one to break and get a better one then. Thank you for the suggestion though.

PS. I do need the laptop as I go back in forth from college and home pretty often.

[Mando Knight]

What's your laptop's manufacturer? Some, such as Dell, do actually make it possible (this is not to say it is easy...) to replace the video card, though it might only be on higher-end laptops with dedicated video cards. An integrated graphics card is pretty much a part of the CPU, so if you didn't get a dedicated card (which is likely given that it has 64 MB dedicated memory), there may either be a dummy card or no room for a dedicated video processor at all.

Also, if you intend on buying more RAM, I'd recommend looking at the RAM you've got installed already: my laptop came with twin 512 MB chips, so in order to double its RAM I had to buy two 1 GB chips instead of just one.

[Anxe]

It's an HP because I'm cheap. It has 3Gb of RAM right now, and I think that's the max for the motherboard. It is an HP G60-630US Notebook if you'd like to do more research on it.

[Mando Knight]

No, there should be 2 GB chips you can use. A pair of those would give you 4 GB RAM, which is the maximum on an x86 (that is, 32-bit) system and possibly the most the laptop is designed to handle even if it is using an x64 processor. CNET also states that the system should be able to go to a 4 GB RAM maximum.

[factotum]

No, there should be 2 GB chips you can use. A pair of those would give you 4 GB RAM

Some laptops actually have a chunk of RAM soldered onto the motherboard and only a single extra RAM slot for expansion, so it's entirely possible 3Gb is the most he can have (if he has 1Gb on board and a 2Gb SODIMM).

[Gourtox]

Well I have video card question for all of you hardware savvy people out there. I have a Intel® Pentium® Processor E5200, but the graphics card I have, sucks. I like PC gaming, but as of yet haven't been able to do too much of it. Anyone have some suggestions for a reasonable video card?

EDIT: Also I'm worried about my ability to play Skyrim on this thing, would i need a new CPU to run it effectively?

[Gnoman]

If you have an intel processor that doesnt begin with the letter I (I5 I6, etc.), you're going to have problems.

[Gourtox]

If you have an intel processor that doesnt begin with the letter I (I5 I6, etc.), you're going to have problems.

I was afraid of that. I like computer gaming, but I'm afraid I mihgt not be able to afford upgrading my computer or building a new one.

[tyckspoon]

I was afraid of that. I like computer gaming, but I'm afraid I mihgt not be able to afford upgrading my computer or building a new one.

It's not *that* bad. You would ideally be able to get to the newer series processors, but the Core 2s are still quite capable; put a functional video card in there and you should be able to play. Speaking of.. need more information to recommend a card. Approximate budget, current stats/model of the computer, and especially whether or not you are willing and capable to change out the power supply if budget permits; that tends to be the biggest limit on what kind of card you can use on an OEM box.

[factotum]

A Pentium E5200 is effectively a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, and those are still perfectly adequate for most gaming, certainly when married to a halfway decent graphics card. However, without knowing what sort of system you have it's impossible to offer upgrade advice--your machine might not even *have* a separate graphics card slot!

[Winter_Wolf]

It's not *that* bad. You would ideally be able to get to the newer series processors, but the Core 2s are still quite capable; put a functional video card in there and you should be able to play. Speaking of.. need more information to recommend a card. Approximate budget, current stats/model of the computer, and especially whether or not you are willing and capable to change out the power supply if budget permits; that tends to be the biggest limit on what kind of card you can use on an OEM box.

Wait, how would you even change a power supply in a laptop? That would be of interest to me. OP did eventually specify laptop.

[tyckspoon]

Wait, how would you even change a power supply in a laptop? That would be of interest to me. OP did eventually specify laptop.

Laptop? You don't, mostly (although if you could it'd probably mostly involve swapping out for a different transformer block; most of a laptop's power supply is external.) I was responding to Gourtox, who was talking about desktop parts.

[Winter_Wolf]

I clearly have a hard time keeping up. :smalltongue:

You seem knowledgeable on the subject of PCs. Or you fake it well. In any case, do you know of a reliable device/method for determining at PSU's actual output? I think it might have been you when I was debating on my own vid card upgrade who was explaining that the reason some hardware has such high requirements, eg 550W/18amp, was because the actual quality of the PSU was such a wild card factor. Happily the PSU I have in my old clunker is rock solid, since it's keeping up with my new hardware quite handily. I can even upgrade my CPU to the max my motherboard can handle without touching PSU. But I'm probably really lucky on that count!

[tyckspoon]

Your basic tools would be a multimeter and some adjustable device for putting a measured load on the PSU; you hook in the multimeter, dial in the load to the value you want to test, and read the meter to see if the PSU is actually transferring that much energy. More detailed testing requires stuff that I don't actually know the names of, and probably costs more than you really want to pay (a multimeter and an adjustable load are fairly basic electric hobbyist items that you could probably acquire without too much difficulty, although I don't know if they'll usually go up to the relatively high values computers use compared to something that can run off standard batteries.) An electrician or a good computer repair shop should have the right gear if you're really curious.. note *good* computer repair shop; I wouldn't trust the tech group of a Best Buy/Staples/etc to necessarily have the correct equipment or know how to use it if they do.

[factotum]

The main issue with PSUs is that the manufacturers quote the total power available on all voltages. A PSU supplies +5, +12, -12, -5, and 3.3V rails, and the +12V rail tends to be most heavily used, especially by modern graphics cards--but a cheap PSU might well supply a lot of power on the other, less used, rails, so would need to have a higher overall rating to be able to supply enough to keep everything humming nicely.

[Gnoman]

That's actually a secondary issue. I've personally seen PSUs that, on all rails, max out at a third of their rated voltage. Cheaper capacitors are the main culprit, I thing.

[tyckspoon]

That's actually a secondary issue. I've personally seen PSUs that, on all rails, max out at a third of their rated voltage. Cheaper capacitors are the main culprit, I thing.

Low-quality components tested in unrepresentative conditions. Good brands will test their PSUs under conditions resembling actual use, so in addition to better parts their stickers are pretty accurate to reality. Cheap brands will test their PSUs in a freezer in a clean room and then put those results on the voltage chart, which lets them scrape out all kinds of performance that is impossible to repeat in the heat, dust, and general maltreatment of a typical end-user computer.

(And then there's some that are just outright mislabeled.. last time I went delving for PSU reviews I came across one where the 300W and 500W units of a line were the same unit except that like one capacitor in the 500W was replaced with a slightly heavier-duty one. You'd expect that the 500W wouldn't give its stated power, and it didn't. The 300 didn't either, I think it got to about 250 before it went out of tolerance.)