I got's an alienware....

And I'm using a ATI Radeon Mobility 9600/9700 series with like 128 meg of ram on it. Cool thing about this laptop (well this was a touted feature when I was considering buying it) is that the video card and such, are modular, meaning I can buy upgrades just like I could with a desktop, and with a couple tools, swap in a newer upgrade. My ATI Radeon Mobility works FINE sept that Shiny objects doesnt work and soemtimes water looks a little...strange (underlying pixelated rainbow colors and such) but I'm beginning to notice the more games I put on my laptop (which cost 3000 bux btw) the more and more issues it seems to have with said games. (Doom 3 crashes intermittently). Is there a better video card that I could just go buy for like 300 bucks and swap it into my alienware area 51 laptop?

SL works best with nvidia cards. ATI cards have an issue with SL because they do not support OpenGL properly. Their drivers suck
I didnt know it was possible to swap cards on a laptop since its usually a single chip tightly integrated into the motherboard.
If they claim its modular and replaceable, ask them to swap it with an nvidia one. FX5600 at the minimum. The FX5200 I have works good, but doesnt show shiney stuff either.

Yeah Most laptops are like that, but thats one of the "features" with this laptop. That if I want to, I can replace the video card or upgrade it on my own and it would be just as easy "If not easier, than replacing one in a desktop" computer, without sending the laptop back 'home' hehe. I just need to find a video card to put in it that'll work. I should prolly just contact them and be like... Yo, cough up the modular upgrades now plz k thx over hehe.

Hmm I found this =P

http://www.alienware.com/GearShop_Pages/Gear_Shop.aspx?CatId=1188

Which do yall suggest? You think the 400 dollar one would be that much better than the 230 dollar one?

Honestly, I suggest Dell. They're much cheaper, have great customer support, and Alienware just gets outdated in 4 months anyway.

=| I already OWN an alienware tho lol. I'm quite happy with it even tho its not payed off yet. I just wanna upgrade the video module to a nvidia. It sounds like.. SOUNDS Like that 400 dollar module is for peeps who are doing high end graphics rendering like.. making 3d videos/movies and stuff on their computer. And the cheaper one is just for gamers. I just downloaded hacked omega drivers tho for my mobility. I know they worked for City of Heroes but we'll see if it makes a difference on Secondlife. (not til this weekend tho unfortunatly.) If they don't, I'll take the risk and buy the new module =)

Yeah I was thinkin that about the workstation card... Soo now before I go and blow 230 bucks on a video card that so far seems to be just as good just more compatable than my current one... Has anyone USED it before and know weather or not it works in SL with stuff like shiney objects and all that? (Not to mention the ugly green blocky pixelation that happens to textures sometimes if they are over like... 1024 pixels LOL)

I have the Geforce GO 5600 on my laptop and it runs SL great. The 5700 should too.. but a bit faster

cool, with shiny objects and moving water and all that jazz? Also, pretty OT question but not worth a new post heh, where the hell are the options to like, change my forum profile a bit LOL with like profile pic and such.

**Edit- Nevermind, found the users control panel =P

Dell's have upgradeable video cards, too.

Actually, most non-super slim laptops do these days. They're in mini-PCI form factor (AGP lately, I guess). Things like "built-in" wifi, bt, and ethernet are often on this same format of card, too. Most laptops are surprisingly modular these days.

I haven't tried it on my laptop yet ... it's only a P3 1.1ghz with 32meg geforce2 card. That barely meets the minimum requirements. I'm not sure it'd even be worth it...


But this problem with the ATIs... I've got a 9700 pro in my desktop. I have shiny objects turned on. Should it be off?

No, you have an ATI Radeon 9700, I have an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600/9700 (the key word being the added "mobilty) If shiny objects works for you then thats good, but for me, if I turn them on, objects instead of having a shiny map overtop the texture, is has "Missing Image" text overlayed like a shine map would be. This happens to water too quite often. I'm gonna upgrade (Crossgrade cause really they are pretty equal) to the Nvidia GeForce Go5700 modular card for my alienware. I put in hacked Omega drivers for my mobility card and stuff seems different yes, and better in places but still no 'shine maps' and plenty of visual bugs that are indescribable =). But yeah, point of my reply being, no you're card is fine, yours is different than mine, similar name, but different =).

Just a suggestion, if you're going to change from ATI to Nvidia, just go ahead and backup, and format/reinstall your entire system. The drivers for the different companies tend to hate each other, and you will get some serious stabilty/performace issues by doing it any other way!