Anything with those GPU's in it would have been either a gaming laptop or a desktop replacement and would have come with a higher resolution screen. I doubt anything with a 1024 maximum resolution would have shipped with what would have been considered a high end video chip back then as the 1024 screens would have been put in cheap laptops with cheap video chips.

sliderider wrote:

Anything with those GPU's in it would have been either a gaming laptop or a desktop replacement and would have come with a higher resolution screen. I doubt anything with a 1024 maximum resolution would have shipped with what would have been considered a high end video chip back then as the 1024 screens would have been put in cheap laptops with cheap video chips.

It's a real dilemma 😒

I've never understood why those older laptops bothered with high-resolution screens. None of those GPUs would have been able to handle newer games at high resolutions. Older games would be playable, but most don't support non-4:3 resolutions. Seems like a lose-lose scenario.

The best you're going to get is a Thinkpad T43 or something with an X600 Mobility.
Those are hard to find though. x300s are more common.

Your best bet is to find a T42 and settle with a 9600 Mobility.

Dell's panels scale pretty well with a lot of resolutions especially their 17 inch 1440x900 native panels. Thinkpads are pretty decent in this aspect but have lower end gpu so gaming is limited in that aspect. You could look at a cheap inspiron 9300/xps gen 2 or a e1705 with the upgraded gpu. I got a 6800 go ultra in my 9300 with a 1440x900 panel and performance is great despite being limited cpu side. e1705 with the right cpu upgrade can top modern budget laptops in gaming with ease with great audio quality to boot.

The 6800 Go (non ultra) uses DDR1 and is noticeably slower than the Ultra, we all know how the x300 and similar performing gpus perform so it is not worth mentioning. The GTX7800 Go and 7950 are a lot more powerful but need at the least a c2d t7400 to not leave them starved.

Thinkpads like the T60p will do 4:3 outright and are good for older titles that are not too demanding. FireGL v5250, anything less than that is way too slow for dx9 gaming.

Alienware of the same age uses similar if not the exact same panels so scaling won't be an issue but not always cheap. Usually ends up needing both mechanical and cosmetic parts aside from normal upgrades.

Avoid anything that is HP/Compaq and Toshiba due to often being very low end.

Just pounced on a Dell 7800 GTX Go for my 9300 as it was only $33 and change shipped. Excited 😀

nforce4max wrote:

Thinkpads like the T60p will do 4:3 outright and are good for older titles that are not too demanding. FireGL v5250, anything less than that is way too slow for dx9 gaming.

Yep, I played Sins of a Solar Empire, and King's Bounty on my T60P with only minor slowdown. It's decent enough.

nforce4max wrote:

Just pounced on a Dell 7800 GTX Go for my 9300 as it was only $33 and change shipped. Excited 😀

I paid $300 for that board when it was hot. I put it into a 9300 with a 1400x900 LCD and it ran games pretty well. The Pentium M is a bottleneck with games like Oblivion and SupCom though, which made me want the similar Inspiron E1705 that two friends had.

However, these GF7 boards can have the solder joint failure issue. My card didn't, but I knew of a few dead 7900s. Usually it manifests as graphics artifacts and eventually the board stops working. I resurrected one with the oven trick but it was temporary.

Also, that 7800 Go GTX is quite a little furnace compared to the 6800 Go! Even with the dual heatsinks it will run 90-100 C. You also need the bigger power adapter of the XPS version of the 9300. And a hacked BIOS...

$33 is a nice deal. 😉

Already modded 🤣, I only use the 130w adapter for my Dells. With the cold weather these days running hot wont matter especially on some days when can go fanless on a new R290 by just opening the window D:

A friend of mine had a e1705 with a failed 7900GS, it had the typical BGA failure that cursed all nVidia equipped laptops of that era. Dell released a late BIOS update with a more aggressive fan profile. I swapped in a refurbed 7900 card and he is still using the laptop without a problem.

I remember my eMachines m6811 had Mobility Radeon 9600 video but maximum screen resolution was 1280 x 960. The contemporary Dell Inspiron XPS laptop had Mobility Radeon 9700 video and also had a higher resolution screen than 1024. I remember paying around $1400 for my eMachines back in 2004 and that was considered a real bargain compared to what the bigger PC makers were getting for similarly equipped laptops. It was about 1/3 to 1/2 less than most of the higher end laptops at that time but it sucked the battery dry in about 2 hours when the most thrifty laptops were getting 5+ hours to a charge but those machines were made with low power/low performance parts in order to keep power consumption down so a high power drawing video chip would have been out of the question in one of those. They usually had sluggish integrated video that was totally unsuitable for gaming or demanding applications.

sliderider wrote:

I remember my eMachines m6811 had Mobility Radeon 9600 video but maximum screen resolution was 1280 x 960.

I would vastly prefer 1280x960 to any widescreen resolution. Many old games support 1280x960 out of the box, and those that don't should still look okay at 1024x768 (at least you don't end up with non-square pixels).

I've actually never seen an LCD with a native resolution of 1280x960. Seems like they all went to 1280x1024, which is generally a PITA for retro gaming. (Though no more so than 16:9 resolutions, I suppose.)

maximus wrote:

sliderider wrote:

I remember my eMachines m6811 had Mobility Radeon 9600 video but maximum screen resolution was 1280 x 960.

I would vastly prefer 1280x960 to any widescreen resolution. Many old games support 1280x960 out of the box, and those that don't should still look okay at 1024x768 (at least you don't end up with non-square pixels).

I've actually never seen an LCD with a native resolution of 1280x960. Seems like they all went to 1280x1024, which is generally a PITA for retro gaming. (Though no more so than 16:9 resolutions, I suppose.)

My problem was that nothing I was playing at the time supported 1280 x 960.I remember playing Everquest (which was 99% of my gaming at the time) and having to play in 1280 x 800 because EQ apparently didn't support 1280 x 960 or just wouldn't support it on my machine for some reason. I was never able to get it to play in any resolution higher than that.

NJRoadfan wrote:

A friend of mine had a e1705 with a failed 7900GS, it had the typical BGA failure that cursed all nVidia equipped laptops of that era. Dell released a late BIOS update with a more aggressive fan profile. I swapped in a refurbed 7900 card and he is still using the laptop without a problem.

A quick oven bake reflow usually has good results if hot enough and a slow cool down but some never recover out right or end up needing to go for a second or third round. Cold weather can cause problems as well for some parts if the joints are weak. I wish they built heavy duty laptops like they used to instead of all the cheap plastic they do these days. Doesn't take much to bust a hinge or crack a screen.

What is a GTX7950 Go equivalent to?

Hatta wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

Thinkpads like the T60p will do 4:3 outright and are good for older titles that are not too demanding. FireGL v5250, anything less than that is way too slow for dx9 gaming.

Yep, I played Sins of a Solar Empire, and King's Bounty on my T60P with only minor slowdown. It's decent enough.

3 of our T60ps and one T61p died because of the additional graphics. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

cdoublejj wrote:

What is a GTX7950 Go equivalent to?

I would say a GeForce 7950 GT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_g … _7xxx.29_Series

Emachines m680l5 is 1280x800 native. That was my first widescreen experience and boy was that a pain with games back then. I still have that notebook. It is too beat up to sell but it is still a decent email / web browser. It is maxed out with 2GB RAM and an Athlon 64 3400+.

Got the 7800 gtx go in the dell late last night and moved the 6800 go ultra in the spare rig, thermals are not much different from what I was getting. Does well in world of tanks with win7 installed. PM770 and the GM915 just doesn't give this gpu justice. I still keep looking locally for a 1705 or a 1710 that can be salvaged and has the right board is elusive. Also one can shave off a few c of heat if they know that they are doing to help keep things cool.