HP laptop, poor graphics, shared memory

spence

Hi there, I have a HP laptop a zt1121s, its not great and i'd like to play some fps shooter games (ut2003/4) on the net, I can play on total minimal settings, but not very well. I do have DSL but I have heard that if you edit settings you can take the shared memory up a bit. its 32 megs at the moment, and im hoping the max is 64+ 128 would be ideal. I have 384 megs of ram total which is ample for a laptop. please help?
Thanks in advance

-spence

versello

spence wrote:

Hi there, I have a HP laptop a zt1121s, its not great and i'd like to play some fps shooter games (ut2003/4) on the net, I can play on total minimal settings, but not very well. I do have DSL but I have heard that if you edit settings you can take the shared memory up a bit. its 32 megs at the moment, and im hoping the max is 64+ 128 would be ideal. I have 384 megs of ram total which is ample for a laptop. please help?
Thanks in advance

-spence

Hey, I hate to say this, but 384 megs is not very ideal for ut2k4. I reccomend at least 512 megs for it.

For the shared mem, you need to access your system's CMOS. To access it, push either the F1, F2, or DEL key when you see the "HP" logo. It's different with each vendor so you'll have to try one of them until it works.

Poke around in the CMOS until you find an option relating to shared mem, but 32 is prolly the max.

spence

I have tried this, and I cant seem to find anything I think HP are the kind of company that would restrict this... I think 384 megs of ram is alright for game play. its nothing fantastic, and I am playing on minimal settings. I might buy a cheap 1024 meg chip and upgrade. damit laptops are so annoying, I wish I had an alienware

versello

spence wrote:

I have tried this, and I cant seem to find anything I think HP are the kind of company that would restrict this... I think 384 megs of ram is alright for game play. its nothing fantastic, and I am playing on minimal settings. I might buy a cheap 1024 meg chip and upgrade. damit laptops are so annoying, I wish I had an alienware

Yeh, thumbs up for Alienware for interchangable parts. Dell is also good with replacable/upgradable cards too (been doing it long before Alienware).

spence

argh its so frustrating, 'cause I have my GCSE's coming up in a month or two I think I might be able to ask my parents if they will let me sell this rig, chip in my xmas money and they pay the rest, and hopefully I can get a dell, I know my dads works offers laptops with 3 years warranty and theyre all top of the range buisness dells, cause his company buys loads and loads of them. and I can get one of them.

does anyone know if all the dells have upgrade-able cards?

I know you have to buy special cards from nvidia or ATI or whoever, like the NVidia go! thingy, theyre a bit smaller for laptops.

Alienware might be a bit out of m budget

versello

spence wrote:

does anyone know if all the dells have upgrade-able cards?

I know you have to buy special cards from nvidia or ATI or whoever, like the NVidia go! thingy, theyre a bit smaller for laptops.

Yea, dells have upgradable cards (the old 3xxx series is the first that I know of with removable gfx, up to the 8xxx series). Like I said, they've been doing it long before anyone else I know.

I have an 8200 which I upgraded from a GeForce 4 Go to an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000.

I don't know about any others besides the 8xxx series (minus the new XPS), but you should check out Dell's support forums. A lot of peeps as gfx upgrade questions.

(I'll prolly be selling my laptop too btw if you're interested coz im building a desktop )

rapture

If you want to play games like UT 2004 then you need a highend desktop.
Most laptops just dont have the graphics or CPU to push that kind of game along at a decent rate.