Gma 500

Hi,

I'm interested in some pocketable PCs to carry GW with me everywhere, but I have no idea if they can run it even at minimal settings.

Anybody has tried GW on one of these devices :

Eking i1

Sony Vaio P

UMID M1

They all have the intel GMA 500, which is said to be ... oh so bad, but yet I haven't seen any comment about running GW on it.

Thanks for comments.

I wouldn't bet on it.. Though I can't speak on the GPU, I can on the CPU. Those were listed as two 1.3Ghz Atom's, and one 1.1Ghz Atom. At that speed you will have trouble breaking 10 fps, at best. No, not even that since it doesn't have a half decent GPU.

I can say this since I own - and game (GW, CS:S, WC3:FT) - on an Asus n10j-a1. It's a netbook, specs: 1.6Ghz Atom - overclocked to 2.05Ghz, 2GB ram, selectable graphics nVidia 9300M GS (can turn it off and go to a GMA xxx something or other, I don't game with it).

Now, overclocked fps ranges from around 25 fps during heavy action, to 60+ in calmer spots. Not overclocked (1.6ghz) it tends to drop below 20 fps during intense spots.. Now, mind you I haven been playing GW since release, though just recently purchased this netbook (old laptop died and I needed something portable). My old laptop was an Asus z80k Athlon 3700+ DTR, with dedicated ATI 9700m card, 1GB of ram. It ran GW flawlessly - I would say 30 fps average during intense fights, 60+ otherwise. Old laptop I ran at 2/4 detail. New netbook I run at 3/4 detail - though reflections off, shadows off, post-process effects off.

I hope this helps.

unless you have to have a glorified Blackberry, why not get a 13.3-14" laptop, some of them only weigh about 4 lbs, which isn't much and the options with them are infinitely better.

my 2 cents - someday the netbooks will be more powerful then they are now, but even then, who want's to game on a 7" screen?

Thing is, I'm traveling a lot for the company I work for, they already provide me some notebooks but I find that anything larger than these UMPCs is like a full luggage, since you have to carry it in some briefcase.

And a laptop isn't really comfortable unless sitting at a desk, so in airports, train stations, ... not very convenient to grab at any moment for a quick RA.

I'd go for that eking i1, it has the mouse pad, the keyboard, 6hours battery, fits the pockets of a coat, i wish it could run Guild Wars.

Primus, i checked about the Asus n10, it has the intel gma 950 as a secondray, which is said to run 3D better than the new gma 500. Did you try GW with this one?

I hadn't before, but just did. I took the settings down to bare bones, rolled a pvp char and went for a round of JQ. The game looks a bit.. cartoony.. but I guess that is to be expected. I played just one round, and the fps numbers I got were from 5 fps (heavy fighting) to 14 fps (baby sitting turtles). I hovered around 8-11 fps most of the time. So I could give you a bit closer numbers to what you should expect, I did not overclock, so it ran at 1.6ghz. Here are a few screenshots I took. screenshots

I have to say though, I use this card very little, and I just noticed an icon on the system tray saying that the gma gpu is in power saver mode. I get the option to switch it to high performance but for some odd reason it doesn't seem to want to change.. I do believe there are some updated drivers for it, I'll see what I can come up with.

The Sony out of the box only got 8FPS and that was with all the graphic levels turned to low. I don't have the technical know how to overclock.

Hi,

Thanks a lot Primus for the exhaustive details, that's really nice of you, and maybe you made me save money.

Satu-Wyvern, was that on 1280x1024? Did you try tweaking the res down?

Hi, no problem Jolas. If it was me asking the question, I'd like for someone to do the same for me. Though I'm sorry to say I have not had luck with the gpu driver update.. Nor with switching it to high performance.. I'm asking on some n10 forums to see if they have a direct link or driver versions, I hope they respond soon.

In any case, good luck with your research and purchase.

I got that at 1152 x 864.

Hi Satu,

Would you mind testing a few more things with the Vaio P? This would be very very nice.

Did you disable the antialiasing from the video settings? As far as i know, this is a big bad fps eater.

Then, can you please try the lower resolutions, like 1024x768 and 800x600? (Maybe that's the 960x600 best fitted for Vaio P).

Regards