A Few Words

First, if you'd like to have your favorite game featured on the blog, either write a comment on one of my posts or send an email to kory.l.hansen-[AT]-gmail.com. I would be more than happy to take a look at your game.

Second, increasing game performance can be as easy as running an installer and rebooting. These installers contain graphics drivers, pieces of software used to communicate with the integrated graphics processor inside your netbook. Updating the existing drivers on your system can add new features, fix bugs, or increase performance. To update your drivers, visit the following websites:

*Intel GMA 950 - intel.ly/LVHfWQ
*Intel GMA 3150 - intel.ly/qyy1Os
*Intel GMA 36x0 - intel.ly/Llt7VX
*AMD Radeon HD on Windows XP - http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_xp-32.aspx#1
*AMD Radeon HD on Windows Vista/7 32-bit - http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-32.aspx
*AMD Radeon HD on Windows Vista/7 64-bit - http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

An Introduction to the 1st Generation Intel Atom Processors

If your netbook sports this sticker, it uses a Diamondville CPU

The first Intel Atom processors designed for netbooks were released in 2008 and 2009, under the codename "Diamondville". The first, the Atom N270, featured a single-core CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz and a worst-case power consumption of 2.5 W. It offered performance equal to or slightly greater than a Williamette Pentium 4 of the same clock speed. 8 months later, the N280 was released, which was slightly faster than the N270. The graphics processor was not included on the Atom, but instead included with the chipset. It was named the GMA 950, offering performance inferior to Nvidia's GeForce 3 series in most applications. It could access 256 MB of system memory and partially accelerate MPEG-2 video, the format used in DVD video. If you own a netbook with either of these processors, you will have to compromise with your choice of games, as your netbook will not be able to handle the demands of newer games. Look for titles released in the mid-2000's. They will most likely run smoothly enough on your netbook. Happy gaming!