Mobility Radeon HD 3650 Performance on Counter-Strike Source

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2[H]4U
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Jan 14, 2008
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I've been reading around a bit about my laptop (Compal IFL-90, AKA Sager NP2090) and apparently it's on the MXM-II spec for its graphics card. Currently, it's running on an 8600M GT (the garbage one that is doomed to die according to Nvidia), and I've been finding its 512MB DDR2 on its 128-bit bus somewhat lacking for gaming on any high resolution settings (screen is 1680x1050).

I'm not expecting to play the most modern games on this or anything, but if I do take this laptop for travel I'd at least would like the possibility to play Counter-Strike Source at above 60 FPS at 1680x1050. The 8600M GT has difficulty doing even that.

Which is why I'm asking [H] if anyone has a Mobility Radeon HD 3650 in their laptop with 1680x1050 monitors and report your experiences with Counter-Strike Source, if you play it, or any games for that matter. I can find the MXM-II HD 3650 on Fleabay for $100, and the IFL-90 is known to be upgradeable to this card (while the 9600M GT on the G96 is somewhat flaky due to no BIOS support, and is more expensive). Would it be a worthy upgrade and worth the trouble and time to upgrade the 8600M GT to a Mobility Radeon HD 3650?

Thanks. :)
 
I just tried a 4650 at that res, and on fairly high settings with no AA, only gets like 140 fps on video test. Not too impressive. I doubt the 3650 is any better. This is all on a desktop of course, so I dont really know how it would turn out.
 
Eh, as long as it's silky smooth as my LCD is probably limited to 60FPS due to its refresh rate anyways. I just don't want the semi-stutter that I got with the garbage 8600M GT like I do now on my laptop.

Other specs:

C2D T7300 @ 2.0GHz
2 x 2GB RAM
Windows XP x86 (probably will go Win 7 x64 if I decide to upgrade)
WD2500BEVS
15.4" 1680x1050 Chi Mei 1520 (pretty good screen for a laptop; matte, the only way to go! :D)
 
ClearM4 said:
If you can find a Mobile HD4650 Laptop, its about x3 stronger.
Click to expand...

Not worth the price to upgrade with a $300 purchase, IMO. Like I said, I'm not looking to play the latest-and-greatest, but good enough for CS:S at 1680x1050.

That's what I have a desktop; for the latest and greatest. This is just for mobile thrills. :cool:
 
The mobile HD3650 is pretty equal to the 8600M GT, but both cards vary quite a bit with core clock speeds and memory speeds (DDR2 or DDR3). I doubt the upgrade would be noticeable.
 
Try running CS:S in directx 8? The graphical difference is tiny and the performance increase is very noticeable on slower video cards.
 
aZn_plyR said:
Try running CS:S in directx 8? The graphical difference is tiny and the performance increase is very noticeable on slower video cards.
Click to expand...

I suppose that's worth a shot, can't say I ever tried that.

I'll report back to see what it's like.
 
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