I have a 2006 Dell Inspiron 1300 notebook. Never modified in anyway.

I have it hooked up to my plasma and want to pick up some games.

From Wiki it says I should have a:

The Inspiron 1300/B130 came with a Intel GMA 900 128MB Graphics card

.

Checking out what games I can play on systemrequirementslab.com comes up as

Video CardMinimum: 128MB 3d Hardware Accelerated card required-100% DirectX 9.0c compatible and latest drivers (NVIDIA GeForce 6600+ / ATI Radeon 9800 Pro+)You Have: Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family (Intel® 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset)

CPU SpeedMinimum: 2.4 GHzYou Have: 1.60 GHz

CPUMinimum: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz/ Athlon 64 2800+ (Intel & Athlon 1.8 GHz Dual Core or better supportedYou Have: Intel® Celeron® M processor 1.60GHz

For the latest games (that I'm not too worried about getting. And simply:

For some of the slightly older (one or two years old) games that I'd like.

Video CardMinimum: 32 MB DirectX 8 compliant video card with Hardware T&LYou Have: Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset Family (Intel® 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset)

And have also just read:

Most laptops do not have upgradeable graphics (yours included). The only way you will be able to play 3D games on it is by purchasing an external graphics card.

Can anyone make any recommendations. I don't want to buy a new computer, but would like to play some of the older games at least.

Any idea what the cheapest '32 MB DirectX 8 compliant video card with Hardware T&L' costs??

Thanks

its time for an upgrade or get a new computer lol

ive never heard of hooking up a laptop to play on your tv, i have ps3 for that, goodluck

Other than memory and the hard disk there aren't many things you can easily upgrade on most laptops, unlike a desktop.

Are you sure your laptop has a video card? Normally a budget priced Dell would only have integrated graphics, if so you're stuck with what you have.

well, let just say that my MSI Wind with the 1.6GHz Atom & a little newer version of the graphic chipsets (GMA 950) was crawling when playing Civ 4, you might be able to give it a try. But you will be better off with older 3D game, says older than 4 years old, or a 2D based games. Most strategy games like age of empire would be heaps of fun on that machine.

Now as for upgrading, you will be pushing your luck on upgrading a notebook, especially the graphic card. I have not seen any that allows you to upgrade the video. If there was one out there, you would have to get it from Dell. I would be expensive. Also Dell might have discontinued it already.

Also check your system memory. 1GB would be better than 512MB.

I stand corrected on the video card upgrading. Still you have to check on Dell website whether your notebook video is upgradable.

Here's an interesting info on notebook graphics. right at the bottom of the page there are mentioning of a few game the GMA 900 may be able to cope with, http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2526