Forgive me - I'm n00b

[MuIIet]

Can you help, I have a new laptop (lucky me! although before you say it, i'm well aware that if I wanted to play games I should have got a desktop with the correct spec)?

My graphics card is a Mobile Intel GMA900 - Having checked the Intel site they list compatibility with a series of games that work however, even why I search for my GMA 900 and click compatibility it still takes me to the GMA915 "and family" page... Which states all the cards in this "family" are "fully compatible with Direct X9", a statement which I believe to be lies as I do not think that the Intel Chipset (not the old Extreme 2 the new "Express" that I have) supports Transform & Lighting.

I can't seem to contact Intel direct unless I write a letter so could someone with more knowledge than me confirm whether it's worth me even thinking about (for example) the Sims 2 which says you need min of 32MB Graphics with 256MB RAM + T&L Support... It does state that Intel Extreme 2 is not supported but doesn't mention the new Chipset that I have.

Does anyone know whether it will work as I don't want to spend the money then have to take vouchers or whatever cos "it says the spec on the box so no refund".

If it helps I have 1024MB RAM + 128 MB (Shared Graphics - boo) running 1.74G Intel Centrino with 2MB Cache.... I'm guessing I'll get away with the Sims cos it "off loads" the T&L to the CPU if the Graphics card doesn't support it but would like to know for sure if possible - Thanks!

I did find this, but I'm still not 100% sure, it implies that it will fob off any T&L request to the CPU and deal with it via "software":

http://www.intel.com/products/chipse...900/gma900.pdf

[MadPistol]

should work fine, but don't expect anything beyond "decent" performance. If you want "good" or above performance, you should have gotten either an nvidia or ATI graphics chipset with your laptop. that's just the way things are. sorry.

[MuIIet]

Thanks for the reply.

I know what you mean about choosing ATi etc but when it came down to it I could either have a good 3D graphics card and sacrifice the amount of RAM etc or get the spec I wanted and compromise on graphics. From the ones I was looking at I'd have got 512MB RAM at most with 128MB Shared ATi (or similar) graphics "eating" into that so just went for more overall RAM - at the end of the day I didn't buy it for gaming anyway.

Cheers for your help though.