Mobility Radeon 7500 question

[groovepapa]

I'm thinking about getting in on the Dell 10% orange discount on an Inspiron 5100. It comes with a Mobility Radeon 7500. The 7500 says it has DirectX 7.0 compatability...does this mean I won't be able to upgrade to DirectX 9 or 10 or what?

TIA...

 

[kyparrish]

affirmative...you should be able to update your system's version of DirectX, but you're video card will still only be able to run DirectX 7.0 effects...afaik, the only ATI mobile cards out right now that support DX9 are the Mobility 9600 and Mobility 9700 series

my IBM T30 (work laptop) has a mobility 7500 (w/ 16 megs of VRAM)...i feel your pain

 

[groovepapa]

So, newer effects won't be available, but I can get the newer DirectX drivers? I play Civ 3 which requires DirectX 9, but it doesn't have any special effects or anything....

So do I basically understand correctly that I could play games that require higher DirectX versions, but the effects of those higher versions won't show up?

Is that ever upgraded via the drivers from ATI? Do they ever release new drivers for an old card that enable the newer effects?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: groovepapa
So, newer effects won't be available, but I can get the newer DirectX drivers? I play Civ 3 which requires DirectX 9, but it doesn't have any special effects or anything....

So do I basically understand correctly that I could play games that require higher DirectX versions, but the effects of those higher versions won't show up?

Correct.

Is that ever upgraded via the drivers from ATI? Do they ever release new drivers for an old card that enable the newer effects?

It's a hardware issue and can't be resolved by drivers. If the effects were enabled in software, you'd get maybe 5spf. No, that's not backwards, that is "seconds per frame" 😉

- M4H

 

[Soulkeeper]

the card is fine for unreal tournament, Q3, and many old games
it just won't look as good as yur desktop
even tho it don't have dx9 or anything it can still run newer games

also you can't upgrade the vid card in these things
at most you can upgrade memory, cpu, and hard drive

laptops are a hard buy sometimes

 

[groovepapa]

yeah, I'm not interested in a laptop for gaming, as I'm in the process of upgrading my desktop for Half Life 2 and World of Warcraft

I'd just like to be able to watch DVD's decently, and keep myself entertained on a plane if I need to...(Civ3 or Massive Assault or whatever)

 

[dmbforums]

my wife and i just purchased this laptop from dell. for some reason the resolution won't go any higher than 1024x768. ive tried downloading the omega drivers and all. is this all the screen is capable of supporting or is there a fix here?

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: dmbforums
my wife and i just purchased this laptop from dell. for some reason the resolution won't go any higher than 1024x768. ive tried downloading the omega drivers and all. is this all the screen is capable of supporting or is there a fix here?

laptop screens:

XGA 1024 x 768
SXGA 1400 x 1050
UXGA 1600 x 1200

This can vary slightly, but these are usually the maximum or native resolutions.

Welcome to Anandtech.

 

[Hav0k99]

I have the video chipset on my Dell Latitude c640 and it runs games like UT2003 and Battlefield 1942 (medium settings ) good.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah it is fine for non-gaming stuff
ran ut2003 windows version for me just fine too

 

[dmbforums]

thanks sir (or ma'am). good info.