How badly screwed am I?

Post » Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:36 pm

I recently purchased a laptop from New egg that I thought was the exact same model as one on amazon that would take 1-3 months to arrive. After it already shipped I realized that there was one little difference. Instead of having a Nvidia GT 540M it had a AMD Radeon HD 6370M. I cannot return the computer so I am stuck with it.

Will this card run New Vegas and Fallout 3? By the way the computer has a i7 core processor and 6GB of ram.

How badly screwed am I?
User avatar
Lily Evans
 
Posts: 3401
Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 11:10 am

Post » Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:16 pm

It will work fine. you are not screwed at all it's more than acceptable for new vegas and 3.

If you are still in doubt use this site: http://systemrequirementslab.com It's very a good tool for seeing if your computer can run a game.
User avatar
Alyce Argabright
 
Posts: 3403
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:11 pm

Post » Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:04 pm

I read it can only do starcraft 2 on low for a decent frame rate which isn't too big a deal, and the same for some of the higher end games that I don't even play or care about. Now if it can handle Skyrim when it comes out then everything will be fine. If not then there is no use being upset over something you can't fix...........Unless dedicated graphics cards in laptops can be replaced. I am not sure if when the call something a dedicated card whether that means it is not integrated, and if it is not I wonder if it is replaceable. Yes I know desktops are much better and cheaper for gaming, but I need a laptop for college and cannot afford to buy 2 separate computers.
User avatar
TIhIsmc L Griot
 
Posts: 3405
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:59 pm

Post » Wed Aug 31, 2011 7:54 am

It's ranked in the top 100 on this site:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

It will work fine with New vegas and 3. I dont know if the specs for skyrim have been released but i doubt it will be unplayable with your graphics card even if you had to turn it down to low settings.
User avatar
Unstoppable Judge
 
Posts: 3337
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 11:22 pm

Post » Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:59 pm

I read it can only do starcraft 2 on low for a decent frame rate which isn't too big a deal, and the same for some of the higher end games that I don't even play or care about. Now if it can handle Skyrim when it comes out then everything will be fine. If not then there is no use being upset over something you can't fix...........Unless dedicated graphics cards in laptops can be replaced. I am not sure if when the call something a dedicated card whether that means it is not integrated, and if it is not I wonder if it is replaceable. Yes I know desktops are much better and cheaper for gaming, but I need a laptop for college and cannot afford to buy 2 separate computers.


I think there were some really high laptops that had the capability to change gpu's to an upgrade from the same laptop manufacture. But anything close to mainstream you're not going to find anything.

The biggest thing is how much video memory does it have and is the memory dedicated or part of the laptop main memory. Another aspect is the operating system 32-bit or 64-bit. A 32-bit operating system puts a real cramp on the total memory the unit can address. More than likely it's got a 64-bit OS and hopefully it has at least half a gig of video memory.

As a case in point, I'm running a nvidia 8800gt, which is about 5 years old now, and it has 512 MB of video memory. My system is running an older quad core intel cpu with 4 gigs of system memory. I'm also running Win 7 64-bit. I run Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas just fine in fairly high video quality settings without a problem. Occasionally I'll get a little stuttering but I'm guessing that has more to do with Fallout than my system because it doesn't do it all the time, and it's fairly random, meaning it doesn't matter if I'm indoors or outdoors, action or walking. The only issue I think I'm having that may be related to my system is when I'm in an intense fighting scene and sometimes it will crash or the actions slows down significantly for a few seconds.

I tried to check Tom's Hardware for comparisons, but that's hard to do because laptops have odd series number gpu's. But if the GT 540 is anything close to current PC models, that a fairly fast gpu and as noted, you should be just fine.
User avatar
Jarrett Willis
 
Posts: 3409
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:01 pm

Post » Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:20 am

.
User avatar
Dragonz Dancer
 
Posts: 3441
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:01 am

Post » Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:09 pm

I think there were some really high laptops that had the capability to change gpu's to an upgrade from the same laptop manufacture. But anything close to mainstream you're not going to find anything.

The biggest thing is how much video memory does it have and is the memory dedicated or part of the laptop main memory. Another aspect is the operating system 32-bit or 64-bit. A 32-bit operating system puts a real cramp on the total memory the unit can address. More than likely it's got a 64-bit OS and hopefully it has at least half a gig of video memory.

As a case in point, I'm running a nvidia 8800gt, which is about 5 years old now, and it has 512 MB of video memory. My system is running an older quad core intel cpu with 4 gigs of system memory. I'm also running Win 7 64-bit. I run Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas just fine in fairly high video quality settings without a problem. Occasionally I'll get a little stuttering but I'm guessing that has more to do with Fallout than my system because it doesn't do it all the time, and it's fairly random, meaning it doesn't matter if I'm indoors or outdoors, action or walking. The only issue I think I'm having that may be related to my system is when I'm in an intense fighting scene and sometimes it will crash or the actions slows down significantly for a few seconds.

I tried to check Tom's Hardware for comparisons, but that's hard to do because laptops have odd series number gpu's. But if the GT 540 is anything close to current PC models, that a fairly fast gpu and as noted, you should be just fine.


The laptop has a AMD Radeon HD 6370M 1GB card. The mention of the Nvidea GT 540m was that a computer on Amazon I was eyeing had that in it, but Amazon said there was a 1-3 month wait to get it, so I thought I had found the exact same one on NewEgg, but there was one little difference I missed. It had the AMD Radeon HD 6370M card instead of the GT 540m. It was only after it shipped out I noticed it and thus I am stuck with the computer as it cannot be returned for a refund. It gets here thursday, but I guess it will be good enough for me. Honestly I pretty much play Bethesda games exclusively on the PC because of the mods, and as long as it can take skyrim it will last long enough for me. I have no problem upgrading in about 3 years so I think everything will still be ok. It isn't as good as the GT 540m, but it will be good enough. No sense getting down about something I can't fix.


Also it is a huge upgrade from my 6 year old Dell Inspiron 1100 with a single core 2.3ghz processor, integrated 64mb graphics, 1GB of ram maxed lol. Even beats the desktop I was playing fallout 3 on before the graphics card died.(Stupid dell techs put a graphics card into a PC with too weak a power supply). That PC is 4 years old and is my parents. Still live with them while in College.
User avatar
Tracy Byworth
 
Posts: 3403
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:09 pm

Post » Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:27 am

nah, you should be able to run it. I am pretty sure that starcraft 2 was released a while after NV any ways so its graphics are probably more demanding.
User avatar
Carys
 
Posts: 3369
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:15 pm


Return to Fallout: New Vegas