Gaming On GMA 950

Well this article is for everyone who games using the Intel's famous IGP, the GMA 950 found on motherboards with Intel 945 chipsets mostly. This is the starting series of Intel's Vista Premium Ready graphics solutions. Though not as powerfull as the name 'Graphics Media Accelerator' (GMA), it is what most people get when they buy a budget desktop or Laptop..

As far as I know, this chipset is now not under production and is replaced by 965 series with Intel Extreme Graphics x3000.

So getting back to the topic, most of us game for timepass with the onboard solution without investing for a dedicated card. GMA 950 plays games till 2003 mostly. After that, its just a dream to play with a card. But I'm presenting you with a few solutions which might help some of you to game using what you have as hardware. Its not eyecandy, but just playability.

These can be found at many sites all over the net, but these are my methods.

GMA BOOSTER METHOD

For all those who dont know about the speed of a GMA 950 chipset, its 400MHz. But most motherboards out there are made underclocked at 250Mhz or sometimes lower. You can find it with a utility called GPU-Z. It can be found HERE

After you find out your GPU speed, if its lower than 400MHz, you can clock it up to 400MHz without any damage. Actually its not overclocking as we will be clocking it to its original speed. A GPU running at 166MHz when clocked to 400MHZ gives a performance boost to as much as 2.4x ! We achicve this using a utility called GMA Booster. It can be found HERE


THE DRIVER MODDING METHOD

The most famous Trick is what all who owns this should give a shot at. Its worth what you do.
This method involves installing the driver meant for 965 chipset onto a 945 board based PC. Actually the drivers are for x3000 but we do a bit modding on it to make it install on to a 945 chipset board. This trick is explained for Windows Vista 32 Bit. It can also be done for XP but the file to be modded is different.

For this first download the drivers for 965 motherboard. Version 15.11.1.1545 is tested. Later versions are not. They might work as well but it needs to be confirmed.

Version 1545 can be found HERE
Latest 1624 can be found HERE but not tested.

Then extract the contents to a folder with winrar or something similar and open up lgdhl.inf which is found in the 'graphics' folder in notepad.

Look for these two sentences.

iBWGC0%% = i965G0, PCIVEN_8086 & DEV_29A2
iBWGC1%% = i965G1, PCIVEN_8086 & DEV_29A3

29A2 And 29A3 are device ID's for 965 series chipsets. We have to replace it with the ID's of our chipset which is 27A2 and 27A3. We have : -

iBWGC0%% = i965G0, PCIVEN_8086 & DEV_27A2
iBWGC1%% = i965G1, PCIVEN_8086 & DEV_27A3

Save the file with Ctrl + S and exit notepad.

Now run the setup file and install the 965 graphics driver to 945 board PC. Restart and check your display adapter properties in device manager by typing devmgr.msc in 'run' command.

Now inorder to run the games with this, we need to register each game within the device driver in the registry.Copy the lines given below to notepad and save it with filename register.reg and by selecting 'Áll Files'.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]
"~game1.exe"=dword:00000001
"~game2.exe"=dword:00000001

Replace the game1 and game 2 with the exe names of the game you wish to run. If you only have 1 game, the first line having game1 is enough. You can repeat that line to register any number of games. For example, to play NFS undercover, you need to register it with ~nfs.exe as it is the exe file which runs the game..Save the file and run it. It will ask to add to registry. Give Yes.

To undo all the steps in this method, change the 1 to 0, save it and run it again to unregister games. Then uninstall the drivers.

If in some case your drivers get mismatched or somewhere something gets wrong and all you get is BSOD or system crashing, boot into safe mode and uninstall the driver and try again with another version.

3D ANALYZER METHOD

The GMA 950 has all the features required for a graphics card except 2 known as Hardware Vertex Shaders and Texture And Lighting (T&L). This is required by most games now to run it.
However, GMA950 has software vertex shaders but still no T&L. In order to overcome all this, we use a software called 3D Analyzer. It uses the CPU to process the T&L data and makes the computer T&L capable. 3D Analyzer can be found HERE

I havent figured out how to use this myself but a lot of people report to play most games with this powerful DirextX software renderer.

SWIFTSHADER METHOD

When nothing works at all, there is a software solution to 3D Rendering. You can run any game which requires only Pixel Shader Version 2.0 on PC having only a 2D card. But the drawback is that you need a powerful multicore processor to take the GPU load and a minimum of 1GB DDR2 RAM. You get two files, d3d8.dll which is for DirectX 8 games and d3d9.dll which is for DirectX 9 games. Simply copy them to the game's install directory and the next time the game runs, it will use the Swiftshader renderer mistaking it for DirectX renderer. Most games are unplayable but you can get to see what a game looks like just using your onboard graphics.

Swiftshader can be found HERE

A tutorial to remove its logo is HERE

FOR VISTA USERS

I read a lot about people telling games which dont run on XP run on Vista. But when I tested, they wont run on either. I figured the solution lately out after I tested swiftshader.

If you have games like so which wont run in Vista, just try copying the d3d8.dll and d3d9.dll from windows\system32 directory of Vista to each of your game's install folder. NFS Carbon and Undercover started running after that for me. This technique won't work for XP as it has a different graphics architecture than Vista.

FEATURES FOR GMA 950

* 3D Acceralation: Yes
* Video Memory: 128 MB dedicated VRAM and 128 MB shared from RAM through DVMT
* Pixel Shader: 2.0
* Vertex Shader: 3.0 (It features a Software Vertex Shader)
* Hardware Rasterising: Yes
* Hardware Transform & Lighting: No ( Needs 3D Analyzer)

LIST OF GAMES WHIC RUN ON GMA 950

Africa Corps vs. Desert Rats
Age of empires II + The conquerors expansion
Age of empires III + the warchiefs + the asian dynasties
Age of mythology + Titans expansion
Aggression : Reign Over Europe (Using 3DAnalyzer, All textures work but too slow reaching unplayable status.)
Aion Online
Alpha prime
Americas Secret Operations
Area 51 (with version 1.2 patch)
Armies of Exigo (works in Medium Settings with Swift-Shader)
Audiosurf
Bad Boys 2: The Video game
Battle Isle: The Andosia Conflict
Battlefield 1942(full series)
Battlefield 2142 (3DA emulate hardware Tnl, software TnL, a bit laggy at lowest setting)
Battlefield Heroes
Battlefield Vietnam
Battlestataions Midway
Beyond good and evil
Big Mutha Truckers 2
Black Mirror / Black Mirror Special Edition
BlackShot (all Details High, tested with XP v.1.2 Modded Driver. Nice Game!)
Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII
Blitzkrieg + All Expansions
Blitzkrieg 2 Demo (But NOT the full version of game!)
Blood Omen 1 & 2
Braid
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
Brian Lara International Cricket 2007(3Da)
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (works under XP and Vista)
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror (works under XP and Vista)
Broken Sword: The sleeping Dragon
Brothers in arms: earned in blood (laggy)
C&C Generals Zero Hour
C&C Red Alert 2 + Yuri's Revenge Expansion Pack
C&C Red Alert 3 (too slow with normal driver, with modded drivers much better)
Call of Duty
Call of Duty: United Offensive
Call of duty 2 (Windows Vista/7 With 1545 Drivers and Registry Mod)
Call of Juarez(Bit Laggy)
Ceasar IV
Championship Manager 2006
Championship Manager 2007
Championship Manager 2008
Chaos Legion (best Resolution, high Details - works very smoothly)
Chaser (Full Details, very enjoyable Shooter!)
Chrome
Chrome: Specforce (laggy - try low-middle settings)
CivCity Rome
Civilization IV
Code of honour 2 :conspiracy island (2008)
Codename Panzers Phase One
Codename Panzers Phase Two
Cold Blood (only XP)
Cold Fear (3d analyzer 2.34 only emulate hw tnl, other dx8.1 caps, force sw tnl)
Colin Mcrae Rally 2.0 ( CM 2004 should run, but its seem have black giltches, but its seem a game problem).
Colin Mcrae Rally 04 (update to latest patch for removing graphical issues)
Commandos All Versions
Company of Heroes ( laggy even at very low settings )
Condemned
Conflict: Desert storm 2
Conflict: Vietnam
Contract Jack
Counter-Strike 1.6
Counter-Strike: Source
Crashday
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Cricket 2005
Cricket 2007
CrossFire
Clive Barker's Undying
Close combat: First to fight (with 3D Analyzer, force SW TnL, emulate HW TnL caps)
Crysis demo ( 3D Analyzer v2.34 by emulating HW T n L)
Crysis v1.0 ( can run on Vista without 3DA )
Crysis Wars Trial (950 - Modded driver 1554 with registry of "1" on crysis.exe)
Crysis Warhead(950-modded driver with reg. tweak also works on 3-d analyze)
CSI: 3 Dimensions of murder
Darkest Island
Dead to rights
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down
Delta Force: Team Sabre
Deus Ex
Deus Ex 2 - Invisible War
Devastation (all Settings on High + highest Resolution. Nice Shooter-game, nice graphics)
Devil may cry 3 (addgame.reg)
Diablo
Diablo II (DirectDraw Mode Gives Best Performance)
Diablo II Lord of Destruction (DirectDraw Mode Gives Best Performance)
Dino Crisis (only under XP)
Dino Crisis 2
Dirty Split
Disciples II
Divine Divinity
Doom 3
Dungeon Lords (with 3D Analyzer, force SW TnL, emulate HW TnL caps)
Dungeon Runners (Do not put bloom too high)
Dungeon siege I
Dungeon Siege II
Dynasty Warrior 6 : Hyper (Slow but not laggy, haven't used Swhader or 3DAnalyzer)
Earth 2160 (with 3D Analyzer, force SW TnL, emulate HW TnL caps)
Empire Earth I
Empire Earth II
Empire Earth III Demo (Shaders set to Medium)
Empire Total War Special Forces Edition (Win 7/Vista +Modded Drivers + 3D Analyzer-emulate HW TnL caps)
Enter the matrix
Europa Universalis 3 (Using Swshader 2.01, need further experiment in config)
Evil Dead: regeneration
Fable: The lost chapters
Falcon 4.0: Allied Force
Far Cry (with 3D Analyzer, VendorID = 4098, DeviceID = 20040)(may be v1.3 patch will do the trick)
F.E.A.R. (patch v1.01 to v1.08 required)
F.E.A.R. Combat (Free multiplayer version)
F.E.A.R Extraction Point
F.E.A.R Perseus Mandate
FIFA 2003
FIFA 2005
FIFA 2006
FIFA 2006 Road to world cup
FIFA 2007
FIFA 2008
FIFA 2009
FIFA Manager 2006
FIFA Manager2007
FIFA Manager 2008
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII (this game only run at 640x 480 with bad quality texture)
Flatout
FlatOut 2 (With low resolution, it runs without lag)
Football Manager 2007
Football Manager 2008
Football Manager 2009
Freedom Fighters
Freelancer
Gangland
Garry's Mod
Grandia 2 (only under XP)
Grim Fandango (Old, fun game, but requires newest patch, or it will run in hyperspeed.)
GROM
GTA Liberty City
GTA Vice city
GTA San Andreas
Guild Wars
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock (3D Analyzer v3.25?, v1.3 patch)
Gun
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo Custom Edition
Half-Life
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two (950 gma-Vista)
Harley Davidson Race to The Rally
Harry Potter: The Goblet of fire
Hellgate: London
Heroes of Might and Magic V (Patch up to 1.6 will solve all problems use 3DAnalyze with Emulate HwL checked,check force shader 1.1 in 3da if it has graphical errors after enabled pixelshader)
Heroes of Might and Magic V - Tribes of the East (v3.0, Stand alone) - Worked with vista and xp, No patch needed
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Hitman 3: Contracts
Hitman 4: Blood Money ( 3DA emulating HW TnL)(laggs badly, textures corrupted)
Homeworld 2
Hulk
International Cricket Captain 2008
Indigo prophecy (In europe it's called "Fahrenheit")
Iron man
Just Cause(3d analyze force htnl antidetect shaders)
Kabus 22
K-Hawk: Survival Instinct
Kill.Switch
Killing Floor
Kohan : All the first Kohan
Kohan 2
Left 4 Dead (modded 1624 drivers,,game accelerator,,cpu right mark,,disable postprocessing)
Land of the Dead: Road to fiddlers green
Landrover Off Road
Legacy of Kain: Deviance (3D Analyzer, emulate HW TnL caps, Force SW TnL)
Lego Batman
Lego Star Wars (With 3DAnalyzer, emulate HW TnL caps, Force SW TnL)
Lego Star Wars 2
Lego Indiana Jones
Line of Sight: Vietnam
Madagascar
Mafia
Making History, including gold edition
Manhunt
Marine Sharpshooter 2
Matt Hoffman Pro BMX.
Max Payne ( patch 1.05 to work in xp sp2 )
Max Payne 2
Medieval II: Total War
Megaman X8
Metal Gear Solid
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Deluxe version tested)
Midnight Nowhere
Monster Truck Madness 2
Mount&Blade(dx7)
MotoGP 3
Myst 4: Revelations
Myst 5: End of ages
Nancy Drew: The white wolf of icicle creek
Nascar: SimRacing
NBA Live 06
NBA Live 08
Need for Speed Porsche
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2
Need for Speed: Underground
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Carbon ( vista)(on xp with SShader- but little low fps on my 512ram-but still enjoyable!!!)
Need for Speed: Prostreet (swiftshader but it's laggy like carbon on xp)
Need for Speed: Undercover (must have 1.5gb ram win vista and run the game in windows 98 compatibility mode)
Neverwinter Nigths Diamond Editon
Neverwinter Nigths 2 ( 3D Analyzer v2.36 by emulating HW TnL - but too low fps on my 192mb 915gl)
NiBiRu: Age of secrets
Night watch
NOX
NHL 2000
NHL 2001
NHL 2002.
NHL 2003
NHL 2004
NHL 2005
NHL 2007
No One Lives Forever
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in a Harms Way
Obscure (3D Analyzer v2.36 by emulating HW TnL)
Obscure 2
Oddworld
ONI (XP - dont tryed it with Vista/W7yet)
Onimusha 3 : Demon Siege
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
Overlord demo (3D Analyzer v2.34 by emulating HW TnL)
Overspeed: High performance street racing
Painkiller ( 3D Analyzer v2.36 by emulating HW TnL)
Pathologic ( 3D Analyzer v2.36 by emulating HW TnL)
Peggle Series (All Games!) :
Plants vs. Zombies (Runs Perfectly without any lags) (Nice Arcade / Real-Time Strategy)
Pool of Radiance:Ruins of Myth Drannor
Port royale 2
Portal (works without swiftshader using modded driver in vista)
Project IGI
Prey
Perfect World (works on lowest quality for vista.will update if works on xp)
Phantasy Star Online Ver 2
Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst
Phantasy Star Universe
Phantasy Star Universe Ambition of illuminus (Note: both original and expansion will have post effect glowing problem most likely on XP) (Should work without any problems for Vista) (Use Swiftshader with d3d9 to solve the post effect problem on XP)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ( 3D Analyzer v2.34 by emulating HW TnL)
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
Project IGI 2: Covert Strike
PSI-OPS: The mindgate conspiracy
Psychonauts (Run it in 800x600 and Medium Details. Works perfect!)
PyroBlazer (Emulate HW Tnl caps and force 100 Hz)
Quake 3
Rally Troophy
Rayman 2.
Red Faction 2.
Rent a Hero
Reservoir dogs
Resident Evil 1 (Only with XP in Windows 98/2000 compatibility)
Resident Evil 2 (Only with XP in Windows 98/2000 compatibility)
Resident Evil 3
Resident Evil 4 (With Vista/W7 and Modded Drivers it works perfect / XP only with low 640x480 - 15-25 fps)
rFactor (works whit directx 7, 8 and 9)
Rise of Nations + Thrones and Patriots
Rise of Nations 2 Rise of legends
Rogue Trooper
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 + Expansions
Rome: Total War
Rune Demo
Runescape: HD (All settings lowered for best performance)
Sacred
Sam & Max season 1 and 2
Secret Files: Tunguska (Adventure of the Year 2006)
Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis
SENGOKU MUSOU 2(Samurai Warriors 2)
Serious Sam
Serious Sam II
Shade - Wrath of Angels
Sid Meier's Railroad
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
Ship Simulator 2006 and add on
Shogun: Total War
Silent Hunter 3 (Lags when looking out in the horizont)
Silent hill 4: The room (with 3D Analyze, emulate HW TnL)
Silent Storm
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
Sniper Elite
Soldier Front
Sorades (Free RTS-Game, very great! Download it here: http://www.sorades.de/modules.php?name=Downloads )
Soul Reaver (XP compatibility mode Win98/2000)
Soul reaver 2
Space Ranger
Space Ranger 2 : Reboot (The Original Dominator is Playable)
Specnaz 2 (with 3D Analyze, emulate HW TnL, force SW TnL)(Vista /Windows 7)(bit laggy)
SpellForce 2 Shadow Wars (XP + modded drivers 1024x768 4x antisotropic Filtering Texture:High ~20fps)
SPORE™
Spider Man 2
Splinter Cell 1 (having problems with thermal vision .. when i use it the game crashes)
Splinter cell pandaro tommorrow
Splinter cell chaos theory
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl (for tweaking http://www.tweakguides.com/STALKER_1.html)
Street Fighter Alpha 2.
Street racing syndicate
Star Wars: Empire at war
Star Wars Jedi Knight: 2 Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight: 3 Jedi Academy
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (some gfx glitches, but otherwise runs fine on 945GM/WinXP)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords (update to latest version to work on 945GM/WinXP)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3D
Star Wars republic commando
Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Ep. 1 - 5
Sudeki
Supreme Ruler
Supreme Ruler : Global Crisis
SWAT (XP - compatibility Mode Win95)
SWAT 2 (XP - Compatibility Mode Win 95)
SWAT 3 (XP, dont tryed Vista/Win7 yet)
SWAT 4 + Expansion
Swing Plus
Sins of solar empire
Team Fortress 2 (must use either vista and modded driver or the vertices 1024 console command to obtain playable FPS)
Terrorist Takedown 2
The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind + All Expansions
The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion + All Expansions(Only works with the game platform OLDBLIVION - tested and working for vista and xp)
The Guild and Its Expansions
The Guild 2
The Fall - Last Days of Gaia
The Godfather
The lord of the rings: fellowship of the ring
The lord of the rings: return of the king ( help provided by intel site and also works with 3D Analyzer )
The lord of the rings: battle for middle earth
The lord of the rings: battle for middle earth 2
The lord of the rings: battle for middle earth 2 - The Typing of The Dead
The lord of the rings: War of the ring
The Sims + Expansions (XP, dont tryed it in Vista/W7 yet)
The Sims 2 + Expansions
The Sims 3 (all low quality.)
The Suffering
The Suffering: Ties that Bind
The Thing
The Westerner
Thief 3: Deadly shadows
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007
Toca Race Driver 2.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4.
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tony Hawk's Underground 2
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Tom clancy's Rainbow six: Raven Shield
Tom clancy's Rainbow six: Lockdown (with 3D Analyze, emulate HW TnL, force SW TnL)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Tom Clancy's HAWX (3DA with hw tnl , force sw tnl or modded driver with a registry value of 1 on HAWX.exe, playable with textures on low and highest resolution)
Tom clancy's Rainbow six:vegas(3DA with hw tnl , force sw tnl and modded driver with a registry value of 1 on HAWX.exe, playable with textures on low and highest resolution)
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Total Overdose
Trackmania Nations Forever (more FPS with modded driver or 3D Analyze)
Trackmania Sunrise / Trackmania Sunrise Extreme
Transformers : The Game
Trials 2 SE
Turok: Evolution (3d Analyze HW TnL caps, force SW TnL, force 100hz)
Two Worlds (Use 3D Analyze check forceSwTnL)
Universe at War Earth Assault
Unreal Tournament GoTY (OpenGL works best in some cases)
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2004
Urban Street Soccer.
Urban Terror
Vampire the Masquerade - Redemption
VtM - Bloodlines (Systems with 2 gb ram or more must use 3D Analyzer v2.26 or game will crash. HW TnL emulation was enough for my 192mb 915gl)
Virtua Tennis 3(update to latest patch.Works smoothly on 1024x768 all low)
Warcraft III Reign of Chaos
Warcraft III The Frozen Throne
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - Winter Assault
Warriors Orochi
War Rock
Witcher (Search Group for help)
World in Conflict (version 1.0 with Pixel Shaders set to high)
World of Goo
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Worms
Worms 3D
Worms 4: Mayhem
Worms: Forts Under Siege
WWE RAW
XIII (Thirteen)
X Men The official game (3Da Hw TnL)
X3:Reunion(Update to the latest patch and do the registry tweak)
Yager (3D Analyzer: emulate HW TnL)
Ys Ark of Napishtim (Patch to 1109, apply english translation)
Zeus