16mb GeForce2GO

[Donatello]

My original post (Scroll down past the quote for the current issue):

Okay, this isn't about NBA Live, but it is a tech issue, so I'll just say it's about NBA Live and we'll all get along.

I've been staying at my mom's for a few days, and trying to play World of Warcraft here (....errr......NBA LIVE......heh.....) and the connection lags like all hell- it's an online only game. Her computer meets the requirements, the only ones that are maybe trouble is 256mb ram (which is the minimum, on mine at home i run 512), and it's just the onboard graphics, no other video card installed. I'm not sure if it's the computer or the connection that is the problem. She has wireless highspeed internet, and it ran NBA Live 2004 online matches fairly well. Here's the results of a speed test:

491.9 kilobits per second
Communications 491.9 kilobits per second
Storage 60 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 17.1 seconds
Subjective rating Not bad

Which doesn't seem so bad.

EDIT: I was going to ask which was the culprit, the connection or the video card.....but I just found out that the video chipset or whatever on here is a 16mb GeForce2 GO....the game's minimum is 32mb video card.....but the game actually ran fairly decently at times, so this leaves me with two real questions:

1) is there anyway to drastically improve the performance of this 16mb video? i've heard of 'overclocking', not sure what that is.

2) is it even possible to put a new video card in a laptop?

[threatlockz]

you can't overclock an integrated chip as far as I know, at least not with notable improvements.

it's possible to put a new videocard in a laptop, but i think you can only replace one, not add one like would be the case here. if the laptop has an integrated chip i don't think it's possible to add a graph.card to it.

[Donatello]

well crap. two things now,

1- can anyone confirm threatlockz's conclusion (that there is pretty much nothing i can do in terms of adding (or replacing) the onboard graphics?

and

2- is there any sort of an external video card?

[threatlockz]

2 - no.

[curious101]

Onboard graphics refers to a graphics card built into the mobo, so if you want to replace your onboard graphics you're gonna have to replace the entire mobo. An onboard graphics card can be overclocked, IMO. However, I extremely discourage it. A built-in video card doesn't have cooling at all and this can increase the risk of damaging the entire mobo. Overclocking the onboard graphics card involves increasing the AGP bus width, as well as the PCI bus width from the BIOS. In the overclocking world, increasing means more HEAT and that proper cooling should be the greatest concern.

As for adding/upgrading a graphics card for the laptop, it's better to hand the laptop over to where it was bought or to a bonafide laptop technician. Laptops are fairly different from desktops in terms of hardware and are more expensive. You don't wanna risk on that.