ATI Radeon xpress 200

I am looking to purchase a laptop since I'll be on the road alot this summer. I found one by HP, the HP DV8210US. It has the power and memory I need but I am wondering if anyone can tell me if the ATI Radeon xpress200 video card is capable of running SL. I am aware of laptops with Nvidia cards but they are way out of my price range at the moment. So I would be appreciative if anyone can tell me whether or not the video card would run SL. Thanks

The card will run it, sure. Just not well. I'd recommend avoiding the card if you can and going with an Nvidia or a higher model ATI card, among the X1000s and above if you want a really good experience. From what I know ATI works well with DirectX but not OpenGL, until you get to the later models, which work well on both rendering systems. But if you do end up going with the X200, stock up on RAM and CPU power for even a relatively smooth framerate. And hopefully you don't mind minimum graphics settings

Besides the Radeon xpress 200, try looking for other forms of integrated graphics such as the GMA900 or even better, the GMA950 found in current low end dual core laptops. Though its like nothing compared to dedicated graphics, its the best for the price & battery life ratio.

I am currently running SL on a laptop with GMA900, & its still largely bearable, not to mention single core laptops being very much cheaper now. So maybe you can look in that direction.

The Radeon XPress 200M (the version found in laptops) works with Second Life, though (like all integrated graphics chipsets) is not officially supported and thus could stop working at any time. It's very slow; you can expect typical frame rates of 5-7fps if you set your preferences appropriately for the card. (Your numbers will vary a bit depending on where you go, and on how fast the CPU in your laptop is.) The frame rate is bearable only if you turn the detail sliders and the draw distance way down, and you'll have to avoid really crowded areas. It gets even slower if you turn on lighting and/or shiny, and you can't enable bumpmapped avatars or ripple water at all.

If a laptop with that graphics chipset is all you can afford (and some of them are indeed very affordable; I've seem some for $500 or less after rebates), it's possible to live with one. In particular, if it is your second SL system so that you have one for SL on the go, but you also have access to a faster desktop system when you really need it.

Wow guys thanks so much for the answers. It was really helpful in making a decision. I have one other question. I'm pretty sure from what I've read that laptops with video cards can not be replaced is this true? That is another thing that is somewhat affecting my decision on the purchase of a laptop with a low end video card. Thanks alot

Don't even bother. I have a laptop with a 1.8Ghz Sempron and 2GB of memory with a Radeon Xpress 200M and I barely hit above 7 fps. It's pertty much unplayable. In understand that my video card isn't that great but you'd think with all of the graphical options turned down low and with 2GB I would atleast be able to achieve 20fps.

Nearly always true. On most laptops, the video interface is included on the motherboard, so there is no way whatsoever to replace it. On some others, it's on a separate card, but the card is proprietary, so there isn't anything to replace it with other than an identical replacement.

There are a very few laptops that have upgradeable video interfaces. For example, the Dell Inspiron E1705 can have either integrated Intel graphics, an ATI Radeon X1400, or an NVidia Go 7900GS. But even then, your upgrade options are limited; you don't have a completely free choice of video card like you do in a desktop system. And it's not clear whether Dell will support upgrading that system after purchase, or will only offer the options at the time you buy the system. (Upgrading should in theory be possible; I believe that the non-integrated options are on separate cards.)

Unfortunately, getting a decent video interface increases the costs of a laptop -- a LOT. In today's newspaper, I saw a CompUSA ad for a Compaq notebook system (an AMD Sempron system with a 14" display) for $400 after rebates. You'd have to spend another $100 to add another gigabyte of RAM (it only came with 256MB, which is hopeless for SL), but a useable laptop for $500 is still not bad at all. But to get one with decent non-integrated video (say at minimum, an NVidia 7400 or ATI X1400), you'll have to spend at least $1000. To be fair, the $1000 system will probably also have some other good stuff that the $500 system won't have (faster processor, bigger hard disk, DVD burner, media card reader) -- but the $500 system plus another $100 build cost for video would be a decent $600 laptop for Second Life, if only you could buy such a machine.

The more expensive machine will probably be bigger and have a larger display, which might be a negative if you plan to carry it a lot. It's just about impossible to get good video in small form factors; the laptop makers don't seem to think anybody is interested in such a thing. I don't know of ANY ultraportable with good non-integrated graphics. (Power budget may be one reason; the separate video card will use more power, which means less battery life.)

I was going to come in here to ask if there was a way to improve performance with this card, but after seeing this thread, I guess not.

I'm using this card in a Toshiba Satellite M55-S139 laptop. Not a bad notebook, but not to be used for gaming, it seems.
I've updated my drivers and turned off/down every graphics option I can find. I get about 10 fps max.

The card works OK with Direct X stuff, but lags horribly on OpenGL applications. I think I read someplace that it only has two channels for some critical function OpenGL uses. Turning down draw distance helps a TON, but even changing it to SecondLife's minimum setting is still too far. Also, run the game in as small a window as you can live with; less to render means more fps.

If you get this card, don't expect to play ANY major OpenGL games. SecondLife works well enough I might stick around for a while, but Knights of the Old Republic is completely unplayable.

Don't even bother with the Omega drivers. I didn't see a performance increase when I tried them, and my laptop got rather hot.