Graphics Cards for Laptops

[Durxom]

Ok, so I'm going shopping for a new laptop tomorrow, and I want one with a better graphics card that the one I have now (I have learned not to trust the Intel integrated chipset things), but the problem is... I don't really know a thing about graphics cards, so what I was hoping is to get some examples of decent graphics cards on here, so that say I come across it when I'm out shopping for my laptop, I know that it is a good one to get.

If it is at all possible, I want one which will allow me to handle all of the Orange Box games(TF2,HL2,Portal), Mass Effect(i dont know if the graphics for these are far apart or not), and some of the recent title if it is at all possible..

Your help would be most appreciated =]

 

[Markgraf]

It depends on your budget. Telltale signs for "good" laptop graphics cards are those that are NOT integrated, and instead are "discrete." Also, look for cards with 512MB-1GB of Graphics Memory (VRAM). Card nomenclature should also help when looking; pay attention to a card's second digit (i.e., 9800) which usually denotes how powerful it is within its series (first digit). A list of recommended cards follows.

Suggested cards:

Nvidia Geforce:
8800M variants
9800M variants
150M-160M variants
260M-280M variants

ATI Radeon:
Mobility 3800 variants
Mobility 4800 variants

EDIT: The above cards should run anything you throw at is, that has been recently released, at medium-high resolution at medium-high settings.

 

[Durxom]

Ok, well, went through our first laptop search tonight, and I couldn't find anything with a card even near that =/ but the best one we found was this, I looks pretty decent to me, but im probably not the best judge in these things...

Asus K40IN Laptop
- 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
- Windows Vista Home Basic
- 4GB DDR2 800 MHz SDRAM
- 14" HD (1366x768) LED
- NVIDIA GeForce G102M, with 512MB VRAM
- Up to 320GB hard drive

so does this look like a decent gaming/all-around laptop to anyone? =/