Graphics in a 13 inch laptop?

Hi, I was just wondering, should I expect anything more than a Nvidia 8400 GS in a 13.3 laptop that costs under $1000? I ask because there is a Sony Vaio SZ selling for $899 (CDN) and I like all of the specs other than the fact that it doesn't have more powerful graphics. If my machine were capable, I probably would run more games on my laptop than I do now.

 

Why are you going for such a small laptop... why not go the 15" route and get significant boost in performance

 

Perhaps because he needs some semblance of portability.

I would take a look at the Dell Studio XPS 13, it's quite a powerful machine in a 13" chassis, and last time I remembered, it was available for $999.

 

I don't think there's any 13" w/ decent GPU for under $1000 CAD.

However, if you can extend your budget, there's a few that might be worth considering:
LG P310, Asus F6Ve, and Dell Studio XPS 13

 

Yeah, I currently own a 15 inch Vaio and I found it to be too big to carry around for long periods of time.

Also, how significant are the effects of higher-end graphics on battery life? Although graphics are important to me, I wouldn't want it to dramatically decrease my battery life.

And thank you for the replies.

 

Unfortunately, high end graphics will likely impact your battery life quite a bit, depending on the card. The highest end mobile card, the Geforce 280M, seems to draw 75W, which is about double of most mobile processors (excluding quad cores). Obviously, this card is not available in 13" notebooks.

But depending on the card, and what you're doing (gaming will have a bigger difference than internet browsing), you could see anywhere from a 10 to 35% reduction, especially with the LG P310, because it has the most powerful card in it's class (Geforce 9600M).

 

Okay, so for someone who is more concerned about portability and battery life, would you recommend going with a lesser graphics card like the 8400 GS? And on that note, will the 8400 GS suffice for the casual gamer? Or will it be just as bad as integrated graphics?

 

The 9400M G and HD 3200 (integrated) will perform as well as the 8400M GS and consume less power, so yeah...

 

dunno about the HD 3200, but the 9400M uses less power and benchmarks faster than, not just as well as... a dedicated 8400 GS.

 

Unfortunately, not many notebooks with 9400m GPU despite NVs claims which sucks. Maybe when the 40nm shrink iGT209 is released, perhaps?

 

the 9400m is faster than the 8400m gs

 

LOL try lugging around a dell inspiron 1720 x.x it's murder haha i do it once a week all day at college for my anime club and it eventually broke my laptop bag, now all i have is a case with handles which is even worse >.>

 

Haha, that sucks... I can't imagine dragging that beast everywhere I go.

Anyways, I was looking at some of the laptops that David suggested and I stumbled upon the LG P300... a 13.3 with a 8600 GS?! It's priced at about $1099 which isn't out of my budget, but what do you guys think? From what I've read on this forum, it seems to have decent battery life despite the better graphics card. On a related note, should I be worried about the Nvidia failing on me less than a year in?

 

The LG P310 has a 9600M GT

 

The LG P310 also carries a bigger hit on my wallet... something I can't really afford to have right now.

 

Go look at the Dell Studio XPS 1340's in the outlet, I love mine and picked it up for $650US, it just has the 9400M which is comparable or better than the 8400GS. You could find one with the 9500M and that would ve even better and not that much more than I paid for mine.

 

One thing to keep in mind with the Studio XPS is that it only has one USB port. Maybe not a deal breaker for some, but good to know, because it was a deal breaker for me.

 

Actually, it does have 2, and one is a e-sata/USB port that also acts as a powershare port that can charge your ipod or phone or whatever else while the laptop is off if you choose it to.

 

One thing to note, the LG P300/310 do not have internal DVD drives. Im quite keen on the Asus F6Ve myself, but from reading some reviews, it appears to have quite poor battery life. Anyone here have one and care to comment?

 

I have macbook with Win7 and it runs games pretty well.

But really didnt get it for gaming.

 

Yeah I was looking at the Asus as well, but the short battery life and "apparent" flimsiness turned me off from it. The LG P300 seems like the better compromise between performance and portability. And I can't remember the last time I used my optical drive... actually I can, but I rarely use it.

 

If the LG P310 had been made available in the States, I would have bought it a long time ago, a shame really.

 

I am in the same boat looking for a 13 inch laptop with very good gpu and possibly hybrid which I am looking for.

The sony sz is just expensive but I like it the best since it has a physical switch but there graphics is no better then other comparable laptops.

Now that I heard that xps 13 is under 1k, I am very interested in them.

I was looking at the IBM one too, but would prefer xps 13.

 

If you live in the US, the Lenovo U330 is a good 13" notebook. Has ATI HD 3450 which is comparable to the 9400m. Battery life is average, but not bad (~3 hrs with wi-fi). Only has 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo though, but that's still plenty powerful. Here's specs:

CPU: Core 2 Duo P7350 2.0GHz
Memory: 2GB DDR3 PC3-8500 1066MHz (upgradeable to 4GB)
HDD: 250GB Fujitsu 5400RPM
Display: 13.3" 1280x800 LED backlight
GPU: Software Switchable Intel GMA 4500MHD / ATI HD 3450 256MB
Chipset: GM45 Express


Of course comes with wi-fi, ethernet (10/100 only), Realtek ALC269 Audio, 1.3MP camera. No fingerprint reader, but comes with face recognition software.

One word of caution about the software switchable graphics. You have to use Lenovo's drivers for this to work, otherwise you get only the discrete graphics of HD 3450, which of course, can compromise battery life. But so far I haven't seen a significant difference in battery life with just desktop work.

 

My friend, you are clearly mistaken, the 9400m will crush the 8400m gs, although the 9400m is integrated. But one thing to consider is that the 9400m is clearly the next gen integrated gpu and it performs very well for one which uses very little amount of power and it also has ddr3 memory which significantly increases the performance.