Best of the Worst (i.e. Budget) Integrated Graphics (4 listed here to compare)

Hey whats up, I'm planning on buying a budget notebook soon, and the ones I were looking at had one of these 4 IGPs: GMA X3100, GeForce 6150, ATI Radeon X1200, and ATI Radeon Xpress 1150. I posted a similar thread in the other section but didn't get quite what I was looking for. So which one of these performs the best?, and not just hardware-wise, which I think the X3100 would win, but also with the drivers in mind, resulting in the best overall performance.

Again, I'm just trying to get a cheap extra laptop for my family that can be used when the main computer's being occupied. I know the GMA 950 is the lowest of graphics processors that can come in a notebook, so I was just looking to get a notebook that's still within the low-end category but was up a notch or two from the GMA 950 (so that way hopefully I can run half-life 1 and a few other quality commercial games that don't have high system reqs ).

Thanks for providing me with any input you can give me.

Also if the CPU plays just as much a role in affecting performance to compensate for the low-end graphics processors, the notebooks I'm looking at come with either AMD Turion 64 X2, Athlon 64 X2, or Sempron +3600. So if, for example, if an Athlon 64 X2 with GMA 950 is better than Sempron 3600+ with an X3100 just let me know. And the price range is about 360-500; if there are any other laptops you'd like to suggest that are within that price range, I'd appreciate it.

Again thanks.

Edit: Also, I think most of these laptops come with Windows Vista.

 

The order goes like this from the best to the worst. And yes the GMA 950 comes in dead last.

1. Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100
2. Radeon Xpress X1200
3. Radeon Xpress 1150
4. GeForce Go 6150

 

I'm pretty sure the Go 6150 performs at least better than the X1150, if not the X1200 as well.

You have to remember that the Go 6150 was pretty much the best in its class in the previous generation, and just because the X1150 and X1200 is from the next generation doesn't mean it's necessarily better.

 

I take it the OP hasn't read the big sticky at the top of the forum or looked at the graphics card comparison thread either. Read it and see if that helps your comparisons.

 

in order?

1.Radeon 1200
1.Geforce 6150
2.GMA x3100
3. Radeon 1150

the 1200 and 6150 are around the same power regardless of the processor
gmax3100 isnt for gaming in the first place and hardware wise is good but overall nothing doing, and the 1150 is just old and as low as the 950. dont try it

 

I've been reading some of the previous threads here though, and have been reading things like X3100 can run Half-life 2 and UT 2003. And also other things like how the X3100's drivers make it perform weaker than the other IGPs even though hardware-wise it's more powerful.

And the fact that these IGPs (or at least the X3100) can run Half-life 2, albeit I assume horribly, but still be able to run it, I assume that they can run Half-life 1 (along w/ CS 1.6) and C&C Generals Zero Hour and other similar low sys req games. Also most of these games I can run on my Geforce4 MX 420 (absolute garbagerrifc I know..) and 384 SDRAM, and the notebooks I'm looking at beat my desktop to fartdust hardware for hardware. And on a side note, this just makes me realize how badly I need a new computer, even budget notebooks are better than it .

Hey if I was rich I'd definitely buy a laptop with 8800M GT so that way I'd be able to play any game that's out, but for now it'd be great if i had an extra computer/laptop in my home, and evidently, it'll be better than my current system... lol...

Yeah actually I didn't read the sticky. It was a good read and had some helpful info in there. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Hey thanks everyone for the input you've given me so far. Thanks lokster I guess I'll cross out the laptop with the Xpress 1150. Even though it's a little better than the Geforce 6150 in terms of specs, it's good that now I know that in actual practice it's not as good as the 6150, and anyway that laptop was one of the more expensive ones that I was looking at.

And that's really one of the things I'm trying to get to, which one performs best when used in actual applications, not so much what's on paper or their benchmarks, because that's what it really comes down to and what matters.

If there's any more input people can share, it doesn't matter, anything you'd like to add, just so I can get a general idea of things, it'd be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Well, in practice, generally nVidia's GPU perform better even if they have similar specs on paper.

Why? Better drivers... And nVidia GPU's have far better support for OpenGL than ATi's cards--but this is only from personal experience (Owned 3 ATi's and 3 nVidia's).

 

check
www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

you could get an general idea about which is better.

cheers !!!

 

Didnt someone post benchmarks showing the 7150 being better then the rest?

 

Ah I see, this is really helpful. So from gathering what you and others have said, pretty much ati X1200 and the gf 6150 are the best ones to choose from? If so this really narrows down my choices; in fact it's between two laptops now. One has the X1200, while the other the 6150. Right now I'm leaning toward the X1200 laptop though because it's the lowest priced.

Actually that's the same site I visit to compare graphics cards, and I'm guessing many others here as well. I never really stopped to look this page before though till now. It's interesting to see how close the xpress 1150's benchmark is to the x1200 and 6150, yet according to users here, in actual practice, the results say otherwise. Cheers back to you!

The rest as in the 4 IGPs I listed? I didn't list the 7150 in my thread because I never found a laptop that's within my budget that has that card. Do you know a laptop that carries the 7150 that's within my budget? Can you give me a link to one anyway so I can get an idea of how much laptops that have the 7150 are? Thanks.

 

I think unnamed01 wasn't paying attention to your budget , there aren't going to be any 7150's in your price range.

That said, if you're just going to play the occasional Half Life and other Classic Oldies, the X1200 will suite your purposes fine, and since it's cheaper, why not go for that one?

 

X1200 would be the most desirable of the lot. I wouldn't touch the X3100 with a ten foot pole, not after the experience I had reviewing it.

It has POTENTIAL.

Unfortunately for the X3100, games don't run on potential. Hardware is worthless if the drivers can't exploit it, and this is where ATI and nVidia have Intel beaten by a mile.

I'm a gambling man, but I wouldn't gamble on the X3100.

 

I too would take the X1200. This is coming from a X3100/6150 owner.