Graphics card upgrade

im not getting defensive, im just tired of arguing with a break fix yahoo with 6 years under his belt basically calling me a lier

quit turning this on me your the one calling bullshit, trolling the forum just waiting for this to pop up again just for the simple pleasure to argue

I'm not a "break fix yahoo" thank you very much (ironic that you're calling me a troll, yet you're doing all the name calling). While I do computer repair on the side (for fun, as well as profit), my primary job is network administrator at a small-ish non-profit organization. Only 50 computers on the network in total, but it pays the bills somewhat.

I do question the experience and integrity of a person who feels the need to down talk another to get their point across. A strong point should be able to stand on its own.

I would appreciate if you could not name call, though. We're all adults here (I assume, don't let the saying become true), and we're above that (presumably). Once the names start flying (and trust me, it will be one way, I don't flame.) then it just turns into a flame war. And I hope we've all seen the Internet Fight picture.

Yes, we've already determined that a video card can throttle itself in some situations.

Yay.

You two want to get a room? The tekkie-epeen thing does drag on a bit.

No thanks. And e-wang stuff is a bit too immature for my tastes, so it hasn't come up.

Also, this is the "Technical Issues" forum, a subcategory of "Technical Talk". Expect to see technical discussion.

Can anyone tell me where on my laptop I can find what kind of graphics I am running. I believe it's ATI but I am not sure... otherwise I think I meet all the requirements BUT I still crash. It's gotten so bad that as soon as I login it goes down. I know it will work because I was on for an hour or more yesterday but again, once it crashed it kept on crashing.

Ideas? Thoughts? If anyone can tell me where all I can find the information I need I will post it but I am fairly sure that I meet the requirements.

My laptop is running Vista Home Premium

Hewlett Packard Presario C500

Intel 1.73GHz

1014 MB Ram

32 bit O.S.

Under Graphics Information I could only find something that said:

Chip type Intel(R) GMA 950
Total Graphics Memory 224 MB
System Video 32 MB
Shared System Memory 192

Is there someplace else I should look? I don't think I could afford a new graphics card if this is my problem! YIKES!!

The GPU is an Intel GMA 950.

Have you tried updating your graphics drivers?

A meg of RAM is barely enough to run Vista Home Premium. Throw SL in the mix and the computer is in immediate trouble with memory.

So.... basically I am screwed right?

No I haven't... I am not technical by any sense of the word, I get an HP update that checks but clearly I probably need to do my own checking.

Not necessarily. But your system is way down there on the list of computers that will work well in SL. The biggest obstacle is your graphics accelerator. It only has 32 megs of on board RAM. Systems with 128 megs struggle a little in the game, so you can see you are handicapped right off the bat there. But, system RAM is relatively cheap. If your computer can handle it get 2 gigs. 1 will be mostly for Vista Home Premium, that leaves the other gig for helping your graphics along.

You won't be able to play SL with the "Ultimate" settings but I think you can play. At least enough to have a little fun.

The Intel GMA 950 has no onboard RAM. Everything, even that 32MB of "System video RAM" that's mentioned is stolen from your system RAM.

The GMA 950 is capable of stealing up to 224MB (shown) from your system RAM.

You've got 1024MB total RAM, which, when playing something like SL, leaves you with 800MB of RAM for applications and the OS.

Considering that SL will use up to 2GB of system RAM....it's really not enough. You can get by, but you should look into upgrading to at least 2GB.

For the record, I use SL with a GMA 950. It runs fine with the "Low" settings. I also have 2GB RAM, though.

But yes, check for driver updates.

OK everything you all said is Greek to me... though I have heard that upgrading to 2GB, until now I've not needed it for anything I do...

That said, I checked for updates last night, got them installed AND... I was on SL till 5 in the morning!

So far so good right?

I will keep everyone's suggestions in mind though, and look at pricing for 2GB.

Thanks!