Best laptop graphics card on a budget?

Okay, so I'm planning on getting a new laptop in the $500-550 range, and I've found that generally, the best cards for laptops in that range are:

the ATI Radeon HD 4200
the NVIDIA ion 9400
and the intel graphics media accelerator hd

comparatively, they appear quite similar, but I'm having trouble finding benchmark data for the 4200. So, assuming all of the rest of the laptop components are similar, which card would be the best to have for playing games from the year 2007 and back?

 

You might have some luck looking for older laptops that have previous-generation high-end GPUs in them. I've been seeing Asus G50Vt-X5 laptops show up on Craigslist for $500-600, and they have nvidia 9800M GS GPUs, much stronger than any IGP.

Oh, yeah, and of the three IGP you listed, the nvidia 9400M gets the best performance.

 

Yeah look for refurbished also.

 

I'm not to sure about that. There is still much controversy between older/refurbished laptops vs new ones. In most cases, you don't get the bargain you used to or should; and it can be a close call, when measuring overall value component by component.

Therefore, in my opinion, its best not to bother--since the markdown is typically not substancial enough to offset getting a new one.

Of course, I'm speaking strictly retail here. When dealing one on one, there will always be exceptions.

 

Check these out:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BRN-X83VM-X2-PB-R&cat=NBB

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=G50VT-X5-PB-2R&cat=NBB

The G50VT-X5 stock CPU can be easily overclocked with setFSB to 2.3-2.4Ghz. The 9800M GS GPU gives more than 100% better performance than those integrated GPU's you listed.

 

Nice finds mrPico. At $589, looks like the computer you are looking for coolguy4!

 

yeah , the G50 would be an excellent choice.. would run games easily on high details at 1366X768...