The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    M1210 GeForce Video Card Upgrade?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by florida, Oct 2, 2006.

  1. florida

    florida Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    If I'm not going to play games but care about DVD playback quality and maximum battery life while watching DVD's, does it make any sense to get the GeForce video card upgrade?

    Thank you.
     
    florida, Oct 2, 2006
    #1
  2. burningrave101

    burningrave101 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    109
    Messages:
    756
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I would get the dedicated graphics card upgrade over the Intel 950 simply because it will be better when running a future OS like Vista and you may decide you want to play a game at some point or something.
     
    burningrave101, Oct 2, 2006
    #2
  3. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,857
    Messages:
    16,212
    Likes Received:
    58
    Trophy Points:
    466
    i'm fairly certain the M1210 will still get a respectable battery life with the 7400. not as much as the 950, but still okay.
     
    Greg, Oct 2, 2006
    #3
  4. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    3,266
    Messages:
    7,360
    Likes Received:
    14
    Trophy Points:
    206
    I would get the video card upgrade to future proof as much as possible.

    It will improve DVD playback a little bit.
     
    usapatriot, Oct 2, 2006
    #4
  5. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

    Reputations:
    436
    Messages:
    3,651
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    no it does not.

    a dedicated gpu has pretty much zero effect on 2d playback and will give you less battery life than an integrated unit.
     
    drumfu, Oct 2, 2006
    #5
  6. redmodel

    redmodel Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    You're not right about that. Nvidia cards have hardware acceleration for DVDs and Mpeg-2 HD with the Purevideo Decoder installed.

    It will also give hardware acceleration WMV-HD, and H.264 video.

    http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html
     
    redmodel, Oct 2, 2006
    #6
  7. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

    Reputations:
    436
    Messages:
    3,651
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    don't believe everything you read. especially marketing material.
     
    drumfu, Oct 2, 2006
    #7
  8. Leshii

    Leshii Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    554
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I would recommend a GeForce upgrade simply because it'll be definitely helpful for Vista and will create an all-around machine. Otherwise you may find yourself limited by inferior video.
     
    Leshii, Oct 2, 2006
    #8
  9. redmodel

    redmodel Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Actually, it's not a marketing hype.

    I've been using the Purevideo software for almost a couple of years now on my desktop computer.

    Dvd encoding is noticably nicer than the other dvd decoders out there (although I haven't bothered to test new dvd encoders in the past year).

    But, without Purevideo installed on my desktop computer (with a geforce 6600GT), I can't playback smoothly 1080p WMV-HD, and h.264 1080p footage is barely watchable. With Mpeg2-HD, my CPU usage goes up to 100%

    With Purevideo installed, they all play back smoothly, my CPU usage drops well below 30%, and my gpu temperature goes up, like how it would go up for games.

    Low CPU usage is very useful, because I can be watching HDTV on computer outputed to my regular tv, and work on photoshop at the same time on my regular monitor. Something I can't do without Purevideo.

    ATI has a similar hardware Decoder, but I can't remember what it's called at the moment.

    I'm sorry, but you really have to stop assuming things, and do some research.
     
    redmodel, Oct 3, 2006
    #9
  10. burningrave101

    burningrave101 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    109
    Messages:
    756
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Would you care to provide any links to information pertaining to hardware acceleration for DVD playback then? I'm afraid you're wrong if you believe that there is no difference between Intel integrated graphics and a dedicated graphics card from nVidia or ATI when it comes to DVD playback, especially when you start getting into hi-def content. nVidia's Purevideo decoder does improve playback quality as well and ATI's AVIVO is even better.
     
    burningrave101, Oct 3, 2006
    #10