geforce 6150 help

[bananaferret]

I've been looking into Halo 2 Vista recently and have been interested in buying it, but the only machine that I own with Vista on it is an HP laptop I recently got, not really with too much intention of gaming on it. It uses a GeForce 6150 with 128 shared memory (64 dedicated), a gig of ram, and a dualcore turion x64 processor. Would I be able to run H2V at, say, lowest settings in a low resolution? The supported drivers does say GeForce 6000 series, but the 6150 is somewhat out of date and I don't know if the 128 shared memory would be sufficient for the game.

Has anyone run it yet on a machine like this?

Thanks,
BF

[Mr Buckshot]

The Geforce 6150 is an integrated video card. It'll run Vista well.

But for H2V, I don't even know if the game will even run, and if it does, I'm sure the framerates won't be nice...

Pity, your CPU's fantastic. If you want to get a new video card without buying a desktop, wait for the ASUS XG Station (http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/hands-on-with-the-asus-xg-station-external-gpu)to come out. Reminds me of the time my friend had an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ in his laptop but only a Geforce 4 MX Go as a video card - what a waste.

However, the Geforce 6150 is currently the most powerful integrated chip out there (until Intel gets out the GMA X3000, which is comparable to 8-pipe cards). It even runs Doom 3 at 640x480 on medium with 30 fps - not bad at all for an IGP. Play some other games - you'll be surprised.

[bananaferret]

I just googled this, so now I think I'm in love with you. I am just getting into the new games on the market now, I wasted the last two years or so of my gaming life on MMORPGs -- I was looking into the Tom Clancy series for some shooters, but they seemed to have gotten horrible reviews. Any suggestions? I wanted to try Shadowrun, but even with the Asus it would be tricky with the lack of video memory.

Oooooh man this is exciting, thanks a lot. :)

BF

[Varmint260]

Reminds me of the time my friend had an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ in his laptop but only a Geforce 4 MX Go as a video card - what a waste.

lol! That's my sister's laptop right there!

Anyways, if you want a playable FPS, I definitely have to reccommend FEAR. It won't run the prettiest on your 6150, but it will run (hell, I can run it on an old Radeon 9250!). I don't know a lot of good shooters beyond that, but I hear Half-Life 2 is no waste of money (especially with all the mods it has!).

And hey, MMORPGs aren't THAT bad, are they?

[Mr Buckshot]

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3591

It shows the 6150 being pushed to its limits. Pretty impressive - FEAR is playable and doesn't look like an eyesore.

[bananaferret]

And hey, MMORPGs aren't THAT bad, are they?

That's exactly the problem, they're addictive! I just don't have the time to be addicted anymore!

Thanks for the suggestions and websites guys

BF

[Varmint260]

FEAR looks that good on the 6150? Good lord... maybe I need to buy FEAR when I get my new notebook.

[bananaferret]

hmm... now to decide, Half Life 2 + expansion, or FEAR + expansion.

Opinions?

[Mr Buckshot]

Half-Life 2 will run better than FEAR will, since the Source engine is more CPU-dependent (and your CPU is good). I mean, if Source-based games can run at 800x600 on medium with 30 fps on a Geforce 4 Ti 4600, an integrated Geforce 6150 can do much better (1024x768 on medium, maybe?) It's amazing how friendly the Source engine is towards older machines.

But if you're looking for some scary piss-your-pants action, get FEAR all the way. You can also download FEAR Combat (google it), which is the multiplayer portion of FEAR, available for free (does not include single player, btw).

[bananaferret]

Thanks for the tip, this FEAR Combat is really fun... now I'll probably just get HL2 if I have this free online version of FEAR

[[I.B]Mr_Kola]

Half life 2 is a good bet for the 6150... actually any Source engine game will run fine... not sure about h2 vista though... And a quick question... In your bios.. which you can access by pressing f10 at startup... does under one of the tabs do you have your video memory set to 128 mb instead of 64? My friend has the same laptop from HP and certain games were lagging all to hell because of it... just a thought for some more performance in the future...

[Mr Buckshot]

Most IGPs, excepting the Radeon X200M and Geforce 6150, will never have their own dedicated memory. Even then, dedicated memory in IGPs is rare.

Are you sure you have 128 MB of dedicated memory in your 6150, or is it entirely stolen from system RAM? If you have at least 64 MB of dedicated video memory, it may not be necessary to allocate that much RAM to the card.

But yeah, Source-based games are exceptionally well optimized, and the 6150 can handle them on decent settings with great framerates. Won't look spectacular but won't be an eyesore. I suggest that if you do buy Half-Life 2, get it as part of a bundle (like my Game of the Year Edition) because the extras (CS source, HL2 deathmatch, etc) are well worth the slightly higher price than just Half-Life 2 alone.

[bananaferret]

My 6150 has 64 dedicated plus another 64 shared, or at least I'm pretty sure... I'll check out bios later tonight when I get home, I never had really thought of that -- thanks :)

And I'll be sure to get a package of some sort, thanks for the tip.

Now we just wait for the Asus XG Station, and if it will even work

[Mr Buckshot]

The ASUS XG station works but it requires an external monitor to display the enhanced graphical image. It is easily cracked open so you can upgrade the card inside (the station is an enclosure for desktop PCI-express cards), provided the replacement card physically fits.

The unit is available to OEMs right now - retail is still a question. You can bet that other developers will make something similar, maybe better.

[Varmint260]

On the XG Station, how hard would it be (I wonder) to modify the case so that a bigger card would fit without blowing it up?

[Mr Buckshot]

lol thread bump sorry mods.

I wouldn't dare to modify the XG station if I owned one. Make one mistake and that's more than $100 down the drain.

I guess you'd have to rip out all the internal electronics inside the XG station and put them in a bigger box with a bigger cooling fan (to cool the more powerful cards).