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    AMD Radeon HD 6620G discrete-class....garbage?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by joegeek, Apr 10, 2012.

  1. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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    So my sons 4 year old Sony Vaio started smoking the other day and I need to get him a new laptop for school and he does play a few games downloaded from Steam but he plays most games on the XBOX 360.


    So I found an HP for under $600 I like at BB and it has a AMD Radeon HD 6620G discrete-class graphic card. I checked the hierarchy of cards and it seems mid range but my friend said this card is pure garbage.


    So my question is will this card, in an HP laptop be decent enough to play most older games? I assume the Sony Vaio he had had a very low range integrated card in it and that is why it huffed out.
     
  2. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The 6620G is actually an integrated card, built onto the AMD CPU that notebook has. As a GPU, it's more powerful than any Intel IGP but will not cut the mustard versus notebooks that have actual discreet graphics. For the money, though, they're pretty good. Most modern games should run fine at 720p resolution and low-medium settings. If they're older titles, you should have few problems at high settings.
     
  3. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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    Thanks!

    So what about laptops with GeForce GT 610M or 560M?

    Would these be a big step up from the 6620g?


    Does Best Buy have anything you know of fro under $800 that would would good? I have to buy at BB due to my credit card.
     
  4. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The 610M will be pretty evenly matched with the 6620. The 560M is a dedicated gaming GPU that utterly destroys both the aforementioned. If you don't care about the notebook's size, portability, and battery life the 560M is by far the best choice for gaming.
     
  5. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Seconded.

    The 6620G will game quite well on 720p displays. The graphics will not be cutting edge, but it will run most titles with a modest amount of eye-candy at a decent frame rate.

    As a budget Cpu-Gpu combo, its pretty tough to beat. I picked up my Daughter a Samsung Series 3 with the A6/6620G for $430, not bad at all.

    If you have the means, the new nVidia 640M is a nice alternative for a budget gamer rig. You should be able to find a few machines in the coming weeks with it for cheap.
     
  6. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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    My bad, it was a 520m in an Asus for $780.

    Would this be worthy if spending $150 more?
     
  7. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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  8. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    If you are talking about spending $700-$800, i would recommend picking up something like an HP with the 7690M GPU. (The DV6T is a nice one) Dollar-for-Dollar, it is a fantastic GPU and quite a bit faster than the 520M.

    High performance Laptops & Netbook PCs | HP Official Store

    If you want to see how GPU's Stack up, check this;

    http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
     
  9. contradude

    contradude Notebook Consultant

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    Pure garbage is harsh since the igpu on the llano notebooks curbstomps an integrated intel gpu. If you go to the hp website and configure that laptop with the 1080p screen and the gpu upgrade (7690m) it will be a pretty potent mainstream laptop indeed

    Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
     
  10. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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  11. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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  12. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Except for the fact that the OP specifically stated he needed to buy the notebook from Best Buy. Hardly optimal, I know, but we have to go with what fits within his parameters.
     
  13. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Doh! You are correct.

    Best Buy does carry the HP machines, but a quick check of their website shows they do not offer any with a discreet GPU, new.

    Best Buy doesn't really offer much at all for performance laptops.. They do offer the Asus G53.. with a 560M, but that is quite a bit higher than the $800 the OP suggested as a budget.

    Closest i can find to something "good" at any sort of Sub $1k Prrice is the Lenovo Ideapad with an SSD and 555M; ( Model: 08626KU | SKU: 4769312 )

    Lenovo - 15.6" IdeaPad Laptop - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive and 64GB Solid State Drive - Dusk Black - 08626KU
     
  14. Chazy90

    Chazy90 Notebook Evangelist

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    The 6620g is only garbage if you compare it to a high-end dgpu, but it's the best igpu.
    Well if you can only buy from Best Buy than your choice will be a bit limited but still there are a few. Mainly you should concentrate on AMD's because at a low budget they offer the best graphics performance. I think that this three choices are the best at Best Buy for the moment.

    Dell - 15.6" Inspiron Laptop - 6GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Diamond Black - I15RM-2588BK - A6 1.5Ghz Quad Core, 6520g, 6gb ram, 500gb hdd - 500$ - New

    Dell - 15.6" Inspiron Laptop - 6GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Diamond Black - I15RM-3529BK - A8 1.6Ghz Quad Core, 6620g, 6gb ram, 500gb hdd - 530$ - New

    HP - 17.3" Refurbished Pavilion Laptop - 6GB Memory - 640GB Hard Drive - Steel Gray - dv7-6165us - A8 1.5Ghz Quad Core, 6620g+6750M. 6gb ram, 640gb hdd - 550$ Refurbished

    Clearly the last one will smoke the 520m...even a 540m. :D

    @TheBluePill:
    The A6 has a weaker 6520g not 6620g. :D
     
  15. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    That 17" HP is definitely a good find for $550. And yes A6 = 6520g, A8=6620g.
     
  16. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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  17. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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    Thanks!!

    I think I am liking that Dell as opposed to the HP's with the 6620g
     
  18. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Is Best Buy the ONLY place you can use that Card of yours? There are some great deals out there from other retailers.
     
  19. joegeek

    joegeek Notebook Geek

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    I know and it is tough but right now, I have to use the BB credit card and that is just the way it is. I wish I could wait a few months but my son needs this this week.
     
  20. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Gotcha..

    Well under the options; that Refurb DV7 that splinter put up with the 6750M seems like the cherry of all of the options;

    HP - 17.3" Refurbished Pavilion Laptop - 6GB Memory - 640GB Hard Drive - Steel Gray - dv7-6165us - A8 1.5Ghz Quad Core, 6620g+6750M. 6gb ram, 640gb hdd - 550$ Refurbished
     
  21. Chazy90

    Chazy90 Notebook Evangelist

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    I strongly advise you to consider the refurbished 17' HP Laptop because the 6750m is much stronger than the 6620g and would really be a huge step. If your only consider a brand new Laptop than at least you should get the one with a A8/6620g because the 6520g is a step weaker. Between the two Laptops (HP and Dell) with the 6620g there are only some minimal differences like the Design or some better battery life with the HP. Actually last week the same HP was a bit cheaper, 550$ instead of 580$. There is another thing that you should consider when using a 6520g or 6620g. The perfomance of the igpu depends on the amount of ram. Especially if it's only single channel. So the igpu should at least have 1x4gb and 1x2gb ram stick available. If you buy a Laptop with just 1 ram stick you should upgrade as soon as possible.
     
  22. Syberia

    Syberia Notebook Deity

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    Don't forget, the Llano chips are completely unlocked and excellent overclockers on the CPU side. 2.2-2.5 ghz should be easily obtainable, which will match or surpass an i5.
     
  23. key001

    key001 Notebook Evangelist

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    Since you're comparing 610 to 560 I think you need to know what that means.

    Right now Nvidia cards are named like this
    G##m - Generation, number
    610m - 6th gen, #10
    560m - 5th gen, #60

    Generation represents when the card was made, usually each gen is like 10-20% faster than the previous.

    The number ## goes from 10 to 80-90 and roughly shows the power of the card, from 10 being total crap to 80 being awesome. This is the most important part in the naming. Also, these numbers are non-linear. You'd think that 580 is 33% faster than 560 (80/60 = 33% faster) but based on the benchmarks it's ~60% faster.


    Also when somebody compares a card to an intel integrated, you need to know that there is nothing worse than an intel integrated.
     
  24. TheBluePill

    TheBluePill Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Yes, the Middle Numbers are the Key on the Parts from both AMD and NVIDIA.
     
  25. maxheap

    maxheap caparison horus :)

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    hey man! buy your kid a msi force 16F2 with gtx 570m (or 580m) on it and he will be crazy happy :) about 950bucks right now :)
     
  26. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    Llano integrated graphics are definitely no slouch. I have an ideapad z575, and have been pleasantly surprised by it's performance. Far from garbage. You will of course always get better performance with dedicated graphics, but for integrated it's quite impressive.
     
  27. Darkclokz

    Darkclokz Newbie

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    Ok, so since I saw this I had to post and I hope its not too late. So...I bought the Acer on best buys website with so called discrete graphics featuring a 7650m and the crap intel integrated for $950, played around with it less than a night because it couldn't run even the most basic games. Here is where you should listen.

    I bought the DV7-6165us from Best Buy for $550 +tax and returned the Acer. The DV7 not only has the 6750m in it but also the 6620g which run in a hybrid crossfire mode. So basically what i'm getting at. I've run Crysis, Skyrim, Left4dead, Everquest2, Rift, Final Fantasy XI, GTA4, All of the Call of Duty series, Bioshock 2, Dead Island, Darksiders, Magicka, Bulletstorm, Resident Evil 4, Starcraft 2 and a whole host of other newer games and it runs them all at max settings on most, high settings on Crysis in 1600x900 with 30+ FPS in almost every game. Some games I can even run AAx4. I haven't overclocked the CPU at all and I just can't believe the gaming performance I am getting out of this power house for $550. Not to mention its made of aluminum, so its very sleek and fairly light. I can actually get 3 hours of gaming on it with the brightness turned down and the wi-fi off, which all things considered isn't too shabby. Yes, I know its refurbed, but if that really worries you, HP will let you purchase an extended warranty from them for 3 years for like $199 or so, which given the money you will have saved over an expensive gaming rig isn't so bad. Email me if you have any questions about what game it will or will not play and i'll get back with you.

    [email protected]