What is a good video card to put into a Dell E1505 that has 2gb memory and a 2GHz duo proccessor? Thanks.
Heh, I dont really know what either of those mean. The current Graphics card is a 256MB ATI MobilityTM Radeon® X1400. That isn't sufficent for lag-free play is it?
Well i would reccomend somthing like an ATI Radeon X1800XT and above, or for nvidia 7800GT and above. i run oblivion on max settings using an X800XT PE and can run it with lag sometimes, but i cant use HDR, i need x1xxx series card for that. x1900xt are what you want for future proof, but the cheapest at a decent place like overclockers.co.uk is about £270, x1800XT's can be picked up at maybe £170-£230, but they have been phased out, dont know how much £270 is in $, maybe you could get one of those tho, i noticed that in USA stuff is vv cheap compared to the UK.
So I have a PCI - Express 16x/ but whats HDR? But can I run Oblivion on max settings by tweaking my memory and using this graphics card?
with a 6600GT, probs not, HDR is High Dynamic Range, makes everything look brighter, and its amazing, i think you can use it with that 6600GT if it has SM 3.0. But you do need a better graphics card to run it on max, 6600GT is only like a mid range card now.
I don't have a 6600GT, I have a 256MB ATI MobilityTM Radeon® X1400. What about that with tweaking memory?
darn soz, i got this post mixed up with another post, mybad. anyway, with an x1400 you can use HDR becouse they have sm 3.0, i dont know if you tweak your graphics memory, maybe the memory on your card wont overclock higher and i wouldent really reccomend overclocking a graphics card in a Laptop due to temperatures.
Haven't heard of an X1400 before, but my guess it's likely a low-end current-gen offering from ATi, and probably a mobile application exclusive. Oblivion is pretty much the toughest game on video cards right now. Given that you're running a laptop, you're pretty much going to have to look to Dell for video card upgrades. I haven't looked at the specs myself, but you should probably check to see if it's possible to upgrade. Do you know that there is a physical PCIe slot in that laptop or not? If there isn't one, your card is most likely soldered onto the motherboard and can't simply be swapped out. If you do have the option of an upgrade, then check with Dell about what's available to you.
Oblivion seems to be cpu limited as i have an X800XT PE, and i can run the game pretty good inside and outside, outside i hardly have any lag, and my CPU is running overclocked at 2.8ghz and then you see some higher end cards than mine that are suposed to be running at high settings with super low framerates :\