Dworkin Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 Hi I know that something like this has probably been asked many times but... For a variety of non CM reasons I need to get a laptop but on a budget. Most of the machines that I am looking at seem to use either a ATI Rage mobility (4 or 8Mb) or the SIS 630 or 630s. Can anyone tell me their experiences with these chipsets. Like 'IF' and 'how good'. Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Oberst Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 I use a Dell CPx 650, which has the ATI Rage P/M Mobility AGP 2X, and it has served admirably for "diversion" on business trips. Not the greatest 3d "card" around, but eminently playable. The Dell hardware has been rock-solid as well with zero hardware issues in about two years. I have no experience with the other chipset mentioned since I use the nVidia chipset at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 My experience with the SiS video chipsets is less than stellar when it comes to 3D performance. Many of the SiS video solutions are "memory sharing" schemes that have limited bandwidth and don't perform very well in CM terms (probably the amount of textures being moved around causes this). I don't think I've tried out the 630 chipset specifically, but based on previous iterations the SiS video chipset family, I would not recommend them for game playing. The ATI chipsets are very common on laptops nowadays. I believe that there are some models out there with up to 16Mb of VRAM. They should work fine, but you'll not see any fog with the ATIs. If you could afford it, I'd suggest laptops based on the NVidia GO chipset, which is equivalent to the GeForce (MX ?) family on the desktop. I think these will come in 16 and 32Mb varieties. However laptops using this chipset are probably on the expensive side. The video drivers will also be different from the desktop versions, so the features/performance won't exactly be the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nowotny Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 IBM Thinkpad 560X, NeoMagic 128 graphics chipset. CM is unplayable on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffsmith Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 The Laptop I use has an 8mb ATI Rage Mobility Obviously its not as fast or as graphicly detailed as my tower but CM is very playable (and I run the Same Mods on both) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorak Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 I bought an HP laptop for my CMing away from home. P3 850 and a 8 Meg dedicated Savage video card. Obviously it can't do transparencies and I have to use the quick ugly smoke. But other than that it runs CM just fine. Lorak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dworkin Posted July 31, 2001 Author Share Posted July 31, 2001 Thanks for the feedback guys! I was kinda hoping that someone was useing the SIS 630 chipset as altough it steals system memory, it can go upto 64Mb which MIGHT let me play CM:OB too. The online blurb says that it can do bump mapping and other cool stuff but who can trust that?! If nobody can help me out with the SIS I guess I'll have to trust to ATI Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claymore Posted July 31, 2001 Share Posted July 31, 2001 Gateway 600MHz Celeron w/ ATI Rage graphics set under W98. Very playable if you don't mind working around some small issues. Namely: 1. No fog - ATI does not invoke fog tables 2. Ugly smoke - see above 3. Disappearing Cursor at Game start solution: hunt and peck until you invoke the PBEM BUTTON and thus get the FILES WINDOW. Thereafter the cursor is visable as long as you don't jump to the desktop 4. 800x600 graphics (low res) Other than those issues I have never experienced drop outs or hangups even when using files up to 3MB in size. Cheers Murray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Private Pike Posted August 1, 2001 Share Posted August 1, 2001 Ive got a laptop with a sis630 chip set and a PIII 933/128meg RAM. CM seems to run fine with the video memmory set at 16meg. I haven't done any serious testing just used it to play the game, I'll try some fog games when I get home from work and let you know. The graphics card works ok for things like Thief, Delta force landwarrior & AOS II, but nothing stunning. The 1Ghz /32meg Geforce desktop we got at the same time runs much smoother. The only problems I've had with the laptop were serious clipping when I tried to run Delta force II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralsaw Posted August 1, 2001 Share Posted August 1, 2001 Used to have a Compaq Armada with an ATI 8MB chip, and CM worked well for small battles (no smoke though). Now I have a Dell Lattitude 400, ATI AGP2X with 4MB chip and CM is absolutely unplayable. The perils of portability... /coralsaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ckoharik Posted August 1, 2001 Share Posted August 1, 2001 Dell Inspiron 5000e P3-700 w/ ATI RAGE Mobility 128 16MB video system, UXGA screen (1600x1200 capable...sweeet). Runs CMBO in 1600x1200 with a few mods thrown in pretty well. Of course, no fog table support. What kind of "budget" are you looking at? Me, I'm hoping to get my grubby hands on one of the new Dell Inspiron 8000's with the 32MB GeForce GO chips in it. [NOTE: This systems even plays CounterStrike pretty well too.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty's Double Posted August 1, 2001 Share Posted August 1, 2001 My HP Omnibook (700MHz, Savage Graphics) just about manages with a few glitches, though the game installed straight into my Windows directory, which confused the hell out of me when I was trying to stick the mods in. Now it's there I'm too scared to pull it out. I think I'll wait for Halloween and draw a pentagram round it or something. Hate to say it, but I bet the new G4 powerbook runs like a dream. I might sneak the CD down to the Apple shop on Saturday for a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dworkin Posted August 2, 2001 Author Share Posted August 2, 2001 Thx for all the info everyone! Panzer Boxb: My budget is £1000-£1200 so no Geforce for me I suppose that the next best choice in this sorta price range would either be a 8Mb ATI or S3 Savage. Private Pike: I would be really interested in the results of your CM test!! The problem as all you laptop games know is that You are stuck with the graphics subsystem but with memory in freefall right now so I don't care if the graphic steal from the system as I can increase it. Sheesh don't these laptop designers understand that CM compatibility is part of the minimum spec! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Saunders Posted August 2, 2001 Share Posted August 2, 2001 I have been considering a laptop, too. Now will have to see it the sales reps will allow me to install and run CM to test "basic" required compatability mode! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Private Pike Posted August 3, 2001 Share Posted August 3, 2001 sorry about the delay, my girlfriend nicked the laptop as soon as I got home so I wasn't able to check out the CM fog, will try again tonight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dworkin Posted August 3, 2001 Author Share Posted August 3, 2001 Private Pike Thanks man but it looks like I'm going to find out myself. The choice came down to either a HP Omnibook X3 (S3 Savage IX chipset) or a Hi-grade Atlas flyer (SIS 630). The flyer won as it had the higher spec:- PIII 800 14.1 TFT DVD etc cost £997.58 I'll resurect this thread when it's delivered as it may be of some use to any CM players who want a laptop in the future. Once angain thanks all for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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