Videocard Question (buying a laptop)

[Celvantes]

It seems the most common laptop videocards aren't on squeenix's supported card list for Vista.

I know there are some cards that work, but just haven't been 'officially' sactioned yet. Have any of you successfully played FFXI on vista with these cards?


GeForce 9200 series
Radeon 3470, 3200 or 311 series

Thanks.

 

[Sharpe]

It seems the most common laptop videocards aren't on squeenix's supported card list for Vista.

I know there are some cards that work, but just haven't been 'officially' sactioned yet. Have any of you successfully played FFXI on vista with these cards?


GeForce 9200 series
Radeon 3470, 3200 or 311 series

Thanks.

I play with the 9500 series (laptop) and it works a dream. Did the reg key edit to max and get no lag anywhere except Besieged, even Dynamis is smooth. I have a friend with a 9200 series and he said it ran fine.

 

[Kurgon]

I'm looking at the Gateway P-7811FX. It is awesomely priced for the specs. It has a 9800M GTS inside. Hot.

 

[Flameass]

Most laptops don't work because they get Intel GMA chips for graphics which pretty much do nothing in hardware. They are ugly and slow and smell, and don't support basic features. In my laptop, FFXI wouldn't boot, because hardware TnL wasn't available. There was a program to do it in software and trick FFXI into thinking it was in the chip, but i'd get a framerate in the 5-10 fps.

That said, most ATI chips, and 6000series+ GeForces should have no trouble. As long as it's not Intel, you're fine. I have 8800GT in my pc and it runs smooth even in dynamis(albeit, I've only been once so far and there were only 20 people in the run).

 

[Flameass]

Oh, also.

I don't know if this is common, but my friend had a Toshiba with a 6200M series chip. It would get hot, spin up the fan and then his frame rate would drop off by half for a minute. Then it would pick up again and the fan would turn off. I don't know if this is still common in laptops these days.

 

[Davion]

I would advise you try to replace Vista with XP if you can. Vista eats up a lot of resources and is just visual eye-candy.

My Asus A7s Vista laptop, before I put XP on it, would run FFXI just fine but it was a little sluggish but now that I have XP on it, FFXI runs alot better and smoother even during Campaign and Beseiged.

My graphics card is a nVidia GeForce 8400M G 128 MB. I think if you want a good smooth FFXI experience try to find a laptop with at least 2GB of RAM or more because Vista (if you choose to keep it) takes up 1 GB by itself to run. For graphics 128 MB or better.

Hope that helps.

 

[Celvantes]

Thanks a LOT guys - I appreciate the input.

 

[Euphacent]

Vista runs fine on any modern computer. Vista doesn't use more resources than it needs, it's more like Vista uses more resources than XP because XP doesn't use all of your resources that you have available.

As long as you get some sort of dual core CPU and a decent video card, you will be fine. I highly recommend getting something with Vista 64bit and 4gb of RAM. You will be impressed with how well it runs, and almost all of your stuff will work just fine in it. The only issues I've really seen with it are security/antivirus programs that aren't made for it, and really old printers.

I do setups on many brand new desktops and laptops and repairs on older ones every single day, and I run Vista at home. It works fine if you aren't trying to use ancient hardware and software with it.

 

[Daveman]

Vista's main issue is driver compatibility, assuming the people you buy your computer from aren't idiots, all parts should have drivers designed to work with vista.

 

[Celvantes]

It works fine if you aren't trying to use ancient hardware and software with it.

Like FFXI? *laugh*


I ended up getting an Intel Dual Core Processor with 2.0 gHz, Nvidia 9600 with 512 MB and 2 GB of RAM. Cost me just north of $1,100.