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    How are mobile and desktop cards different?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by johncolazabal, Jul 13, 2010.

  1. johncolazabal

    johncolazabal Notebook Geek

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    How different is the ATI Radeon HD 3650 Mobile than the desktop HD 3650?

    Just wanted to know since im getting an hd 3650
     
    johncolazabal, Jul 13, 2010
    #1
  2. Manic Penguins

    Manic Penguins [+[ ]=]

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    The difference between the two cards should be very noticeable. Mobile cards just don't compare to fully fledged desktop cards.

    They are both very weak cards, scoring less than 1k in 3DMark Vantage. Mobile getting around 710 and desktop getting 891, stats from ORB.
     
    Manic Penguins, Jul 13, 2010
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  3. Deks

    Deks Notebook Prophet

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    Chip sizes are essentially identical.
    The only difference is they cripple the mobile ones on purpose and charge a heck of a lot more due to portability.
    That, and the surface area on a desktop gpu is larger, giving the cards room for more heat dissipation and desktop cards have usually higher clocks.

    As for 3650m in contrast to the desktop 3650 ... the differences are not that big actually.
    ATI in it's 3xxx series essentially named their gpu's properly and not like Nvidia.
    I think the only difference between those 2 cards is the clock speeds and bandwidth.
    The mobile one would be weaker, but by about 25 to 50% (cannot be sure though).
     
    Deks, Jul 13, 2010
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  4. Fishsticks

    Fishsticks Notebook Geek

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    Deks is right, the Mobility version is merely a downclocked version, with similar core config, memory support, bus width, etc, but the Desktop version has support for some of the newer APIs following a driver release.

    Might be worth it to flash your G-card with the desktop driver.. something we pull off quite a lot with nVidia's products, not sure if AMD/ATI works the same.

    Nevertheless, the Mobility HD 3650 is not that bad a choice for a graphics card, you'd be able to run higher spec games on lower details fluidly. I think it matches up to the 8600M or 9600M.

    Personally, I wouldn't shell out $130 on the 3650... depending on what you need, and what your budget is, maybe I could suggest another model?
     
    Fishsticks, Jul 13, 2010
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  5. HsKDaMiAnz

    HsKDaMiAnz Newbie

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    Mobility Cards are factory clocked lower than those of the desktop to help prevent overheating.

    That would make the 3650 far stronger and faster than the 4530, seeing the 4530 is only a little better than the 8400m.
     
    HsKDaMiAnz, Jul 14, 2010
    #5