Integrated graphic card for Neverwinternights

[Swifty]

hello everybody,
this is my first post here!
i was going to build a linux box, basically a multimedia hub,
but i still wanted to play my favorite game, neverwinternights,
that runs natively on linux.
as i wanted to use integrated graphics chipsets i was wondering
which one could make me play the game better... has anybody tried?
the monitor i'm probably going to buy is wide with resolution either 1440*900 or 1650*1040 depending on the model.
any chance to play at those resolutions with at least some detail?
thanks for the help!!!

[Michael]

Welcome to the forums.

I don't run Never Winter Nights, but it should be very easy to find a motherboard with a built-in NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Chipset. That Chipset should be able to get you by very well with NWN. It should have no problems at the stated resolutions with great detail. Intel has some great IGPs as well, but their drivers are still under development. The ATI Radeon Xpress 200 is notorious for its support.

[Svartalf]

Originally Posted by Michael

Welcome to the forums.

I don't run Never Winter Nights, but it should be very easy to find a motherboard with a built-in NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Chipset. That Chipset should be able to get you by very well with NWN. It should have no problems at the stated resolutions with great detail. Intel has some great IGPs as well, but their drivers are still under development. The ATI Radeon Xpress 200 is notorious for its support.

Infamous, you mean...

The Xpress 200M is a mixed bag- some things work well, others don't. Some things are just embarrassing- put a brown paper bag over your head in shame embarassing. A Mobile Radeon 9000 in a P4M 1.7 GHz laptop will outperform my Mobile Athlon64 3200+ laptop with the Xpress 200M in it on things using the Unreal engine and a few other engines. Something about what they did to cripple the RS480 for laptop service combined with what's going on in the drivers produces a really suboptimal result with many things.

If you can get something like an integrated X600 or better, you'll be better off if you're going the AMD/ATI route- they perform much, much better.

In order of preference based off my not so humble opinions:

GeForce 6150 (Best supported under Linux with actual performance)
X600 or better IGP configuration (Decent performance...)
Intel X3000
AMD Xpress 200M (RS480) - supported but runs suboptimally for many titles.

I'll install NWN on my laptop tonight and report back on the quality of results. It might be that the chip will perform well enough for NWN to be playable.

[Swifty]

the choice will be mainly between an intel box with ASUS P5B-VM
mainboard (x3000) or an AMD box with ABiT NF-M2 nView (6150).
actually i have a laptop with 9700 mobile, how the chipsets
compare with my card?

[Michael]

The GeForce 6150 should be much faster than the 9700 Mobile (are you using the open or closed drivers?).

Personally I would go with the NF-M2 nView -- it's a terrific board.

[Swifty]

Originally Posted by Michael

The GeForce 6150 should be much faster than the 9700 Mobile (are you using the open or closed drivers?).

actually in my laptop i play under windows.
i searched for comparisons between the two cards without luck but i fear
my aging discrete card is still faster than 6150.

[Svartalf]

Originally Posted by Swifty

actually in my laptop i play under windows.
i searched for comparisons between the two cards without luck but i fear
my aging discrete card is still faster than 6150.

Heh... This is pretty much the case for most configurations on laptops in existence- if it's an IGP with UMA, it's going to be slow compared to pretty much everything but the bottom rung discretes and in some cases even they're faster. I know for a fact that the driver for AMD's offerings will run about half again faster under Linux when the IGP is ran against dedicated graphics RAM. Unfortunately, while they appear to have gotten the closed drivers back working for the "Sideport" or "Hypermemory" RAM on some laptop models, it's still less stable, causing kernel oopses on a regular but random (as in often, but not consistent) basis, so it's left off for right now.

If you're looking for a laptop, a 6150 is going to be your best bet right now unless you've got the budget for a gamer's or road warrior's desktop replacement laptop- where they use a low-power discrete part instead of an UMA based IGP part.

[Swifty]

i'm not looking for a laptop but building a new desktop,
and i don't wanna buy a dedicated graphics card (at least
for now) as it's supposed to be a budget and silent box.
i guess i'll go for the AMD it seems more reasonable.