Gaming with Netbooks: Portal
9Want to play Portal on a netbook? Good news: it's possible. Portal runs acceptably on my netbook, and will run even better on Nvidia or AMD graphics. That's not to say you can play straight off of the installation. You need to use a few tweaks to get the game to run well. First, forcing Portal to run in DirectX 8.1 mode is critical to getting decent fluidity on netbooks with the GMA 3600. To do this, add "-dxlevel 81" to the end of the game's shortcut, or add 'mat_dxlevel "81"' to autoexec.cfg (you'll have to go digging for it). Secondly, it helps to use a custom config file from http://clugu.com/tf2mate/. While the tool is designed for Team Fortress 2, it works with Portal as well (they use the same engine). Third, keeping your hard drive in top condition helps cut down on the stutters and pauses you can see in the video. I haven't defragged in a while, so you can expect fewer interruptions on a freshly defragmented netbook.
FPS @ 1024x600: 4-60
FPS @ 854x480 w/ FRAPS recording: 4-33
My specs:
Intel Atom N2600 @ 1.6 GHz (dual HyperThreaded cores)
2 GB DDR3/1600 CL9 RAM underclocked by CPU to DDR3/800 CL5
Intel GMA 3600 @ 400 MHz (based on PowerVR SGX545)
250 GB 5400 RPM HDD
Windows 7 Starter 32-bit
Other Videos By hblank
Other Statistics
Portal Statistics For hblank
At present, hblank has 1,068 views spread across 1 video for Portal, with his channel publishing less than an hour of Portal content. This is 1.17% of the total watchable video on hblank's YouTube channel.