laptop playing games? looking for advice

[dajones]

right first off i know its the devils work to play games on a laptop:rasp:

my sister has this toshiba laptop and shes playing the sims 3. its quite laggy as expected is there anyway of improving this? would a increase in RAM be noticable.
the laptops running the windows 7 trial thing so would it be worth going to xp? all she does is play this game lol

 

[Cookie]

Spec of said laptop?

Sims 3 is ropey on lots of PC's, even high end ones

 

[Mike_182]

It'll be strapped mainly by graphics due to the nature of the game.

It won't get any better - turn detailing or AA down...

 

[dajones]

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe....advision.session.new=Yes&PRODUCT_ID=1056292#0

 

[Brazo]

Shared graphics are the problem mate!

 

[Mike_182]

Yup. X1250 isn't particularly capable...

 

[dajones]

so would a ram upgrade make any difference? were not going to go out and get a new laptop for the sake of it shes only 11 lol
am i right in thinking only the ram and hard disck be upgradable

 

[Griff]

so would a ram upgrade make any difference? were not going to go out and get a new laptop for the sake of it shes only 11 lol
am i right in thinking only the ram and hard disck be upgradable

You can upgrade the ram all you want but the crappy GPU is the problem. Unfortunately short of a new laptop she'll just have to get used to it.

 

[Brazo]

Yep you need a half decent graphics card in there, many laptops nowadays have separate GPU's with 256, 512 and even a gig of their own dedicated ram!