GraphicFollow

My question is, I'm getting this laptop and I want to know if the on-board graphic card will be capable of running wow with atleast semi-decent graphics.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (shared) with up to 765MB total video memory.
2048MB DDR2 System Memory
2.00 GHz Intel Celeron Processor 575 with 667MHz FSB

Damn, clicked the thread expecting ****..

i'm using a Dell Inspiron 6400, intel core2 duo 1.6Ghz each, 2g ram, intel 945gm Expresschipset

pretty vanilla - but it runs WOW great. i'm operating around 1264X600 widescreen ... and it's pritty crisp rarely clips high rate of fps

pretty much any New computer/ laptop will run WOW smoothly. if you are buying a used one anything made after 2005 should run it at least okay.

It all depends on how high you have your graphic settings turned up. I kind of doubt you will be able to run the multisampling/shadow quality/draw distance very high with those specs, but I suppose you could try.

As someone said above, if you can help it, a dedicated card is always the way to go, especially with laptops. It's cake upgrading your graphic card later on down the road in a tower, but 99% of folks don't have the knowledge to upgrade graphics cards in laptops. Most of the time in order for that to even be an option, you have to build your own laptop, or buy a laptop with a dedicated card already in it. Even then, it's tough to say whether or not you can upgrade it or not.

With that being said, I would recommend buying the laptop that offers the best dedicated video card that you can afford. While you are at it, it might be wise to see if you can upgrade from a Celeron to at least some sort of dual-core processor.

Good luck.

Edited, Nov 11th 2008 10:00pm by Meatballsub

I wish it was like that.

You see, It's a gift from my parents for christmas.

I don't really care if I have the shader and what not on high.

I just want the defaults run smoothly.

Not choppy and such, Low FPS.

No they don't

But, I can't complain.

I'm using a Dell without a graphic card unable to play WoW at the moment.

Edited, Nov 11th 2008 10:19pm by DustinBerry

Yeah xD

So, Basicilly put

Give me a straight answer.

Will I be a ble to run WoW on default settings with this Laptop and be in the clear with Pretty good FPS

Compaq's aren't garbage, in my opinion anyways. My brother has had a Compaq laptop in the past as well as another employee at our company. They never had any major problems with them.

If that's what they get you as a gift, and you can accept the fact that it will not run on the highest settings, then you should be fine. My friend was content playing WoW for two years on a $400 E-Machines desktop, because he did not mind having the settings turned down a bit low.

I would try and do some research on that specific onboard video device just to make sure it doesn't have any known issues with WoW. I had buddy that had onboard video on a laptop that would play WoW alright but would make it consistently crash and recover itself, causing 2-3 second blackouts during gametime. It annoyed the crap out of him, so you might want to check on that.

EDIT: As far as it running "smooth", there are too many factors that play in on that to say whether or not it will for you. Of course, looking at the hardware itself, you should be fine on lower settings. However, things such as your internet connection, state of your hard drive, and background programs come in to play as well.

Edited, Nov 11th 2008 10:31pm by Meatballsub

I'll go out on a limb here and say that's your opinion. I should've specified this before, but I'm looking at this from a gaming point of view. While Compaq and Gateway work fine as machines themselves, they are not suited for gaming like other brands are, namely Dell and Alienware. Though this is changing as stock brand companies get more competitive parts, I don't see Compaq or Gateway joining the loop anytime soon. I'm sure you can get WoW to run okay on them, but you may have to have your video settings as low as they go.

I remember that on my Inspiron (Dell), I had to have everything on their lowest setting so I didn't lag so much in major cities. Even with the graphics turned up, most of the ground texture of the world looked like square patches of texture as though someone took them and made a quilt out of them and just threw it onto the ground.

Granted, my Dell would be a 6 year old machine now if I still had it.

Most consumer level machines are garbage. Dell is generally worse than others, especially for out of the box failures. They use some of the cheapest materials of any PC manufacturer. In meetings I have had with their engineers and salesmen they have admitted as much. I have been supporting laptops and desktops alike for over 10 years. Don't be so quick to speak on a subject that you apparantly have limited experience with.

I have worked with IBM's, HP's, Dell's, Compaqs, Gateways and a few others. I have to say the cheapest and most unreliable of these machines were Dells. Understand that the majority of my exposure is to business class machines, which, by the way, are generally more reliable than their standard consumer level products. The most reliable manufacturer of machines I have worked on in my 10 year work history are IBM and Compaq. No one, at least in the last 10 years has made a more reliable business product. Compaq's support of their product in the way of keeping up with drivers and such was particularly awesome. Their hardware was robust and reliable. That being said I would not buy a Presario line PC unless my life depended on it (EG someone held a gun to my head). Not so much because of the quality of the product, but more because of the proprietary nature of the software and OS build. They can be a pain in the *** to work on as they don't generally offer the same level of support with regards to drivers etc.

Dell picked up Alienware didn't they? Their XPS line has seen some improvement as a result. I would hardly call their XPS line a consumer level product, at least in the way I am attempting to classify them. They are a 'gamer' line of PCs and typically have better hardware in them.
Has anyone experience with any of the Asus branded laptops or any of the other smaller manufacturers that generally make top end PC parts (motherboards, video cards, etc)

Good advice to anyone buying a laptop to play games: Buy a laptop that is built for gaming! They are generally more expensive, but then, you usually get what you pay for.

IMHO - Try and give the OP what he asked for, constructive critism and advice, don't be slamming his gear. He wasn't looking for your opinion on the quality of manufacture, he wanted to know if this game will play on his PC.

FOR THE OP - I would have to say that yes it will play fine. WoW isn't particularly 'hard up' for top of the line graphics cards; obviously having a better graphics card will make for a better game playing experience with regards to the 'eye candy', but not everyone is focused on this. Do, however, ensure that you have a decent amount of RAM. I would say that 2GB is the minimum. Being that it is shared memory you might opt for more. Memory is super cheap these days though, so fret not if your laptop is not up to par :) If you must buy memory, I would advise completely replacing the memory that is in the machine currently with the fastest memory you can get for the money, but DO NOT throw it away as if you need to get the machine repaired under warranty, you MUST have the original memory in it. If you buy only 1 chip and add it to your current machine, the bios will set the memory speed to be the lesser of the two different sticks. You also risk (although this is fairly rare) memory incompatiblity. Dont settle for the cheaper stuff, 2GB is like 40$ anyhow, dont save 8$ for the 32$ set as it is signifigantly slower) Low CAS latency and high memory bandwidth are what you are looking for. Make sure that your PC will support it, most manufactuers list compatible hardware, but to be honest, memory compatibility is usually not an issue outside of buying the wrong TYPE of memory (DDR as opposed to DD2 or DDR3 for example).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227251
link to some DDR2 memory (make sure your machine actually uses it! It comes to 41$ after you receive the MIR. Free shipping and newegg is THE best.

Celeron processor is not the best option, unfortunately, but it is not likely that you will notice. Multitasking is probably going to be a problem for you though :)


Never give a man a shot in the pills, baby, that's just not cricket!

I don't like compaq, but my gateway played wow awesome...

Thank you.

Especially to Rottenjugs.

I'm not going to be able to know for sure until come the 25 of December.

So I take it it was already ordered and in a box and you can't open it until Christmas? If so, then that is too bad.


I have dealt with dozens of Compaq laptops and they have all failed in one way or another, most within 1 year if not 2, bad hard drive, motherboard etc. I work in IT at OSU and we are a major Dell location, 99% of our PCs and Laptops are Dells. Their business-class line is fine, their service is great, and don't have too many issues with them. That being said, I am unsure of their home-line of products, beyond the XPS line which get great service as well.

So unless Compaq has made some leaps they are basically the garbage brand of HP (who purchased them a while ago).


So my overall advice: if you have any options to be able to return it or get what you really want (for $100 more or whaever) that may have some sort of mobile dedicated graphics card I say go for it. I mean why get a computer that has to play a 4 year old game at low settings?