What's the lowest laptop GFX chipset that would play WoW?

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Like, which chipset is the minimum to play at least a smooth 40fps on medium settings? I know the dell Inspiron line with like Intel X3100 graphics and the like will not work, how about the Toshibas with the AMD 6310?

Please name any chipset models found in laptops that you can think of that you know will play smoothly - as that will be helpful as well.

 

[Zap]

Well, even on my single core Atom netbook with Intel GMA 900 or whatever it comes with, WoW will... kind of work. It plays at around 10FPS.

Check AnandTech's Sandy Bridge review for WoW benchmarks. Unfortunately they used 1024x768 Fair settings, but the good news is that HD 3000 and anything discrete can probably do an okay job at it, at the usual 1366x768. Note that WoW is also quite dependent on the CPU, as evidenced by the difference in the 2500K versus 2600K when both were using the same HD 3000 graphics.

Radeon 6310 is currently available with the AMD E-350 and performance is weak in WoW. It may be due to the CPU but as a platform it is around 60% of the HD 3000 performance in WoW. See this AnandTech review of Brazos.

Basically, IMO Intel HD 3000 is the minimum, and the only integrated graphics at this time that would give a reasonable WoW gaming experience. Anything better will have to be discrete graphics of some kind.

 

[Chiropteran]

I play WoW some on my E-350 based hp dm1z netbook. I'm not sure how a 25 man raid would go, or running a ton of add-ons, but I get 20-40 fps in normal questing and 5 mans. Graphics settings medium-low, 1366X768 res. I guess if you want solid 40 fps+ it wouldn't be good enough. I agree with Zap that it's probably a CPU limitation more than the graphic chipset.

I'd suspect llano will be perfect for this sort of performance level, if you can wait a few months.

 

[Zap]

I'd suspect llano will be perfect for this sort of performance level, if you can wait a few months.

Llano should prove very interesting. I'm looking forward to reviews.