Is Intel GMA X3100 Adequate?

[SnowLeopard2008]

I need to play Halo on Windows. It's the first Halo and I was wondering if my Intel GMA X3100 will be able to play it; one of my friends has a Toshiba laptop with the Intel GMA 950 graphics card and Vista to play Halo. I'm assuming I can run a WM (any ideas which VM app will do it better? i.e. Fusion vs Parallels?) and play Halo with my X3100, as it is better than the 950. Which VM should I use for Halo? Fusion or Parallels?

 

[Eric5h5]

Which VM should I use for Halo? Fusion or Parallels?

Neither. 3D on VMs is pretty lousy for most games; you have to run natively (as in Boot Camp).

--Eric

 

[TSE]

Do not run with VMWare Fusion or Parallels as that slows the computer down immensely. Use Boot Camp. Have atleast 2 GBs of RAM. You will probably have to turn down most of the settings. The Intel GMA X3100 and GMA 950 are both horrible for gaming, but yes they can play Halo with lower settings.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Ok thanks, I was going to use either Vista or XP with Boot Camp and either Fusion or Parallels on the Mac end. I am unable to decide on Vista or XP, since I have licenses for both. I'm leaning towards XP, since it's lighter than Vista.

 

[TSE]

Either one works fine. I have Windows Vista Home Premium on my MacBook Pro and it runs great.

 

[redsteven]

I'm thinking XP would be much better considering he's only got the x3100

 

[TodVader]

I'm thinking XP would be much better considering he's only got the x3100

The GPU has nothing to do with his choice of OS. I'd be more concerned with RAM but 2G is OK on Vista. Vista x64 with 4G runs extremely well.

 

[Zortrium]

The GPU has nothing to do with his choice of OS.

When the OS is employing lots of GPU-using graphical effects (ala Vista), it can.

 

[TodVader]

When the OS is employing lots of GPU-using graphical effects (ala Vista), it can.

They aren't there when he plays his game and my Vista looks very old-school. I deactivated everything that's not needed for my apps & games.

 

[stone315]

new, slightly related question about the intel gma x3100. i've got the white macbook that came out just before the aluminum ones, with 4gb ram and a 2.4ghz processor. i'm running xp natively using boot camp. can the x3100 handle counter-strike?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

new, slightly related question about the intel gma x3100. i've got the white macbook that came out just before the aluminum ones, with 4gb ram and a 2.4ghz processor. i'm running xp natively using boot camp. can the x3100 handle counter-strike?

should be able to. anything thats older than 1-2 years is able to play on the x3100. I'm playing Halo with the highest settings. No lags, just the occasional internet glitch.

 

[TodVader]

should be able to. anything thats older than 1-2 years is able to play on the x3100. I'm playing Halo with the highest settings. No lags, just the occasional internet glitch.

1.6 will run 100% but Source is a different thing. I don't think he's going to get a high FPS with that "******" card. (It REALLY sucks for gaming)

 

[stone315]

1.6 will run 100% but Source is a different thing. I don't think he's going to get a high FPS with that "******" card. (It REALLY sucks for gaming)

yeah, I wanted to play Source. so I'm screwed if i want to play Source on the macbook?

 

[bstreiff]

CS:Source will run decently well (as one of the first Source games, it doesn't require all the shader stuff that, say, TF2 uses); I don't recall the settings I had it at, though-- 800x600 or 1024x768, but it seemed to run okay on my GMA X3100 BlackBook.