Chipset problems..

Regular Visitor

Okay any techy's about?

Right, so I wanted to play Halo 2 for ages now. Now I finally have a decent enough laptop to play it, I thought why not try and installing it. But unfortunatly, my base score isn't high enough to play it... You need minimum of 3, and I got 2, let down my graphics...

So I went into DXDiag and heres what I found:

Code:: Card name: Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) GMA 950
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27A2&SUBSYS_54051558&REV_03
Display Memory: 251 MB
Dedicated Memory: 0 MB
Shared Memory: 251 MB
Current Mode: 1400 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)

So my initial thoughts were, 'hang on, I got 251 MB shouldn't I be able to play a 128 minimum game? So I went about updating drivers if that helped, but they were updated... So I went into display and looked at intels software thats built in, everything had checked out so I couldn't understand.

I went into device manager and the it hit me. I looked at the properties and heres what turned up:

Code:: Driver Version:    7.14.10.1437
Operating System:    Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate* , (6.0.6000)
Default Language:    English
DirectX* Version:    10.0
Physical Memory:    1013 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 251 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 69 MB
Processor:    x86 family 6 Model 14 Stepping 12
Processor Speed:    1861 MHZ

So I had only 64 MB of dedicated video memory, and I needed 128 to play Halo 2. But Since I could display Aero, which needs 128 MB I was a bit confused... Obviously Video and Display are different then...

I was thinking about increaseing RAM to 2 GB since I had 1 in, and then increasing shared video ram to 128 in the BIOS, which then I could play HALO 2. Any of you guys think about what I should do? Is that the right thing to do, or should I look for a graphics card for laptops, or a PCI-Express?