shared-video card

Sony VAIO PCGK23 Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz Notebook, 60GB 4200RPM, 533MHz, and a ATI Radeon IGP 345M 64Mb-shared video card. What exactly does a shared video card mean and can I play new games like Half-life 2 on it? Thanks

Welcome to SysOpt :t

It means that the "video card" (if you can call it that) shares memory from your system memory. For example, if you have 256 megs of RAM in your laptop, but have a 64 meg shared video system, when you right click on "My Computer" and select "Properties", you will only see 192 megs of RAM available. This is a common occurance with respect to laptops, and unfortunately, results in mediocre gaming performance. You will not be able to run cutting edge games such as Half Life 2 on it.

thanks, that's too bad b/c I just got the game and was hoping to be able to play it, but is there anyway of giving the video card more memory b/c I read that someone with the same specs as mine was able to play HL 2 by playing around with the shared memory

you can try playing HL2, but don't expect to run it at max settings.

do u guys think I should keep the game?

dude, try it. if it's not running well, then return it.

you can try using a different catalyst driver with this:
http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/

thank you