Just -before- I started playing Perp, my Dell Precision M65 laptop that I'd been using for mobile gaming and surfing for dirty, dirty porn took a dirtnap.  It was packing the "mobile workstation" version of a GeForce Go 7300 (Quadro FX 350M) and was mostly sufficient at the sort of gaming I tended to play until that "other game" finally did the GPU in with the Money Room...errr...Captain's Closet...Quarters...yeah.

I'm resigned to fighting with the family for keyboard time on my hand-built desktop with a 2.3 GHz Phenom X3, 4 GB of DDR2, and a Radeon HD 5570 which is more than enough to run Perp well with lots of eye candy at 1360x768.  As I admit that keeping my kids quiet takes precedence over my own gaming so I lose out and end up on my other computer.  Sadly, that other system is an Atom N450-based netbook.  Most people are aware of how inadequate the GMA 3150 is at gaming, nevermind the tiny 10 inch screen or the cramped keyboard.  While upgrading the OS Win7 Pro and swapping out the 1 GB stick for a 2 GB one has helped somewhat, it's still just an abacus with an 8 hour battery.  I tried loading Perp on it for giggles and wasn't surprised to find it rejected by the client.

So anyway, I'm on the hunt for a reasonable replacement for the dead M65.  Integrated graphics have come a long way in recent times and I'm pondering Intel's HD 3000 in the latest generation of Sandy Bridge CPUs or a Brazos-based E-350 from AMD.  Both IGPs are faster than the four year old Quadro in my old Dell, but I'm reluctant to jump into a machine without asking around in Perp about how either performs in the game as it's likely that Perp will be the most demand I place on the GPU.  Since I never manged to get the Dell running Perp, I'm not comfy just thinking, "On benchmarks they're faster than my M65 so they must be good enough to play Perp smoothly."

Intel scares me a little for their previous GPU driver issues.  I've personally had not so much luck with a GMA 950, x3100, and 4500MHD in the past.  Supposedly, they've come a long way in recent times, but game performance is reputed to vary widely.  I'm comfy with Sandy Bridge as having enough CPU power to take any of Perp's abuse so there's that going for it.

On the other end, AMD's E-350 ships with a pretty reasonable integrated GPU in the Radeon HD 6130 and driver issues are mostly done away with as ATI's people seem to have no glaring issues.  However, CPU horsepower is worrisome.  Brazos was made to compete in the low-wattage segment of the mobile market and is clocked at a paltry 1.6 GHz.  While it makes Intel's Atom look an order of magnitude slower in benchmarks, faster than "really slow" may not be enough to handle Perp.

I'm -not- a brand loyalist.  I'm looking for bang for the buck in the lower-priced segment of the mobile market and I want my Perp lap dance, running reasonably well with some of the eye candy turned up to moderate settings at the bog standard 1366x768 resolution.  I also really don't want to wait for Llano (a promising offering from AMD) to find its way into the mobile market.

Has anyone out there given the Intel HD 3000 or an E-350 a go at Perp?  If so, I'd love to hear thoughts/opinions.