Boosting gaming performance on my work laptop?

[Eeezee]

I know that there's not much I can do in this situation, but the laptop is only 6 months old. What can I do to boost gaming performance?

The display adapter is a Mobile Intel 965 Express. Indeed, this is what really destroys me. What can I do to boost performance? Will a software solution really do anything here?

I have 2x 1GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667MHz, what kind of performance boost can I expect by upgrading my memory?

How about the hard drive? It's a 160GB 5400 RPM, what if I upgrade to 7200 RPM?

And at the end of the day... would I be better off just buying a different laptop for leisure?

 

[FleshLight]

7200 RPM hd will improve application loading times by a few seconds but will probably have a negligible impact on games. Buy a laptop with discrete graphics.

 

[IlllI]

yeah not much you can do.
any intel integrated graphics are horrible, unless you fancy playing solitaire and minesweeper

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: clandren
yeah not much you can do.
any intel integrated graphics are horrible, unless you fancy playing solitaire and minesweeper

Dawn of War works well, and I played through Vampire: the Masquerade last summer. Yes, these games are a bit less graphics intensive, but they're fun. I was hoping to get Bioshock working, but it's stuttering too much to play. Left 4 Dead is playable, but at that speed I'd just be a liability to my team.

Anyway, Intel graphics have seemingly come a long way. I was surprised that I could even play a game like Dawn of War. Obviously Intel integrated is still shitty, but I'm hoping to get just a little more speed for maybe Bioshock, or at least get L4D working better.

 

[Brainonska511]

You could look into finding the latest Intel video driver. Last I heard, they were continually trying to tweak it to get the most out of the graphics on that chipset and pull the performance away from the abysmal GMA 900/950.

 

[vesuvius333]

If you decide to go for a new laptop. You can usually find a powerful laptop at a cheap price at dell outlet.

 

[Eeezee]

Thanks for the tip, there do seem to be a fair number of pretty good laptops at dell outlet if you're willing to look. But still, I'd rather avoid having to spend $700+