UPDATED - The Mobile Graphics Card Info Page - Most GPU Qs answered

Wow, the Ageia PhyX ROCKS! I juz went 2 c a demonstration show playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Here's a site 2 show u the monster's powers:

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?type=3&id=75&page=1&desc=asus_128mb_physx_card_review_preview

Daniel

 

thanks for this thread guys, im new, but it really was a godsend in helping me get the right laptop from dell. Ended up going with the 256MB X1400 VS any other 256/128 cards they had because of the chart. tho its a shame about all that hypermemory stuff not being shared memory. Irreguardless the 1505 i got will kick mucho ass. thanks guys, and happy number crunching.

 

Wow, this is an awesome guide. Just one question, could you please explain to me or link me to what virtual memory is and why it helps to increase it. Thanks.

 

This is a very common train of thought – more video memory must mean better performance. This is not true – the video card itself matters more than the memory it has.
In this case, the X700 is the faster card, even though it has half the video memory. The reason for this is fairly simple – the X1400, although it has 256MB of memory, cannot use all of it effectively.
Here's a primitive example. An office worker can use a maximum of three computers at a time. If he is given an additional three comptuers, is he any more productive? No, because he can only use three of them to begin with. The extra three do nothing.

So how can i tell the quality of a card if not by memory...cause it seems reasonable that the x700 would be slower than an x1400 reguardless of memory.. also what is the comparison between ati and nvidia...
Thanks,

 

hi chaz,

i need help.

what is the most suitable mobile graphics card for 3d works like AutoCAD 3d or 3d max in your opinion ?
will ATI express 200M be enough for the 3d works ?

thanks.

 

If you are running something like AutoCAD, you better consider getting a dedicated card.

 

No, It's definitely not enough. I would reconmend an ATI FireGL or an Nvidia Quatro graphics card. Those are for serious graphics work. A great laptop for CAD work would be the IBM T60p.

Good luck on that.

 

Basically the virtual memory is just stored in your HDD space. E.g, your C drive. I reconmmend you not to enable too much virtual memory for your RAM because you're going to have loads of garbage on you're hard drive and waste lots of room.

 

I am attempting to narrow down my lappy purchase, which is between a Dell E1705 and a Sager 5760.

The Dell GPU is a 7900GS
The Sager GPU is a 7900GTX.

What exactly are the differences between the two cards? I read from the beginning of this thread, both are considered high-end cards. From what I can determine, the GS has 256MB and the GTX has 512MB. Are there any additional differences, transfer rate or the like, I may be missing?

Thank you for any replies submitted.

 

I believe I answered my own question, however I will post what I found in case anyone else has a similar question.

I located two webpages doing a quick search based on benchmark performances.

The first http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=237

The second http://www.notebookcheck.net/Newsentry.153+M5bb800842e5.0.html

 

The X700 is clearly faster than the X1400 to begin with - double the pixel pipes and therefore more processing power. You can tell the 'quality' (performance) of the GPU by the number of pixel pipelines it has, type of memory (DDR, GDDR2,...), and most of all, how modern it is.

 

Yeah, the X700 is MUCH more powerful X1400

 

Hi,

I'm going to buy a new notebook. I would like to play battlefield 2.
What would be the best configutration?

-A T2050 processor (1.60Ghz dual core) + a X1600
-A T2400 processor (1,83Ghz dual core) + a Go7400

I would like to play battlefield 2 with the native notebook resolution (1280x800).
Will I be able to play is on high settings, and when I play it with the 7400 configuration, will I have a high fps rate in medium???

Thanks for the help

(P.S. sorry for the bad English, it isn't my native language)

 

The bottom one is probably more expensive but will be much faster for gaming thanks to the X1600.

The Go7400 shouldn't have a problem with BF2 on medium-high settings, just as long as you have at least 1GB of RAM.

 

Sorry, but I swiched the graphical cards , I adapted my post, can you give your opinion againt please?

 

Sure.
The machine with the X1600 will still be considerably faster than the Go7400 machine - the processor doesn't do a whole lot here, since they are both Core Duos. Any of the Core Duos are blazingly fast, even the lowest-end T2050.

 

If you want to play battlefield 2, I know that the mainstream cards will not be able to play it on high. Even on medium, the fps will not be too high. Trust me, I have 1+ years of experience with this game. I only get an average of 25 fps when on high settings, not even close to playable. You have to get around 30 fps to have a "playable framerate".

 

True, you do need 30+ FPS in order to enjoy a game . . I would pay more attention to the minimum framerate - if you are constantly dipping down to sub-25FPS, then that's an indication that you need to turn down the settings in order to have a more consistent framerate.
I guess some laptops play BF2 differently - I play at a 1280x1024 res, maximum settings & sound, 8X AF and get 36-45FPS, minimum around 29-30. A Go7400/X1400 should be able to handle the game with respectable settings.

 

AF in battlefield? I only have an option where I put mine to 6X AA but I did not even see an AF option. Is it in console or is it in advanced options?

Thanks

 

There's options to put Antistrophic filtering on low, medium, or high from what I remember.

 

I can't see that button anywhere in the video/options part. Maybe you remembered it wrong?

 

Hi - I was wondering what laptop graphics would run Counterstrike Source without any problems (ie a playable frame rate) (I would like medium graphics with 800x600 resolution, but low on 640x480 would not be a problem). I don't have a very hight budget at all and I am in the UK. Could anyonme here point me in the right direction. A laptop that would run FEAR etc...would be nice, but my price range is up to £650 (in dollars I think it's roughly $1100) although the cheaper (and still Source capable) the better.

The laptop I had previously had Intel Extreme Graphics and was unplayable on CSS.

Thanks,

Matt

 

The low-end or mid-range cards detailed in this chart would do nicely.

 

thanks now i know what i need to buy

 

The ATI X1400 will able to hanedle it perfectly on med 1024x768. Maybe you can consider an HP DV5000t

 

This thread answers a lot of questions regarding which video card is right for someone purchasing a laptop, however one thing I am a little confused on is the vagueness of "light gamer, moderate gamer and hardcore gamer". It's almost like going into a non-Starbucks and asking for a Venti coffee. Most of them will probably assume you want their largest size, however if you are at a coffee shop that has one of those 7-11 Big Gulp size cups, you may think twice about utilizing the ever so popular Starbucks lingo.

Here are my assumptions on what these terms mean:

a) indicates what kind of games you can play. light means very few games, moderate means most games but not most recent ones and hardcore means that you can play every single game and rest assured that any new games that come out in the future will still work.

b) allows you to play every game not matter what the vid card is but indicates the settings that you will be able to play the game at. light means the lowest settings, moderate means medium settings and hardcore means the highest settings.

Too many posters say things like "you can't play games with the GO 7300", while other posters say "I can play games with my GMA 950". I think a lot of this confusion will be eliminated if we do away with these relative terms and start saying "plays all, plays some and plays almost none"

 

A) Right - light gamers are people who aren't very demanding in terms of settings, and don't play more often than not. Moderate gamers are classified as those who want middling visual quality and play on a semi-regular - regular basis. And hardcore gamers require high visual settings and play more often than not.

B) It would be very hard to say that about each individual card - whereas a Radeon X1300, for example, can play Half-Life 2 on high settings, it can barely play Oblivion or FEAR at the lowest. It would be too complicated to set up a list like that.

Thanks for the suggestion at the end there especially, I am considering adding a small sentence to each of the video card classes detailing what you can generally play games at - high, medium, low, resolution, etc.

Chaz

 

Maybe I'm just used to how it was back when I was a kid but on the game's boxe it was a bit more straight forward with which games you could and couldn't play plain and simple. The video card is the one thing that has kept me jumping back and forth between laptops since I don't want to limit myself.
It's obvious to play it safe and get the best there is, but the problem is as every laptop owner knows, they had to sacrafice one aspect of the laptop (portability, size, power...)

You seem to feel that the GO 7300 is under par for any gamer and the 7400 is decent for the moderate gamer. When you say this are you suggesting that there are some games that won't work with the GO7300?
Also, I'm trying to get an idea of what kind of performance I will get with the 7300 or 7400 based on what I have now in my desktop. What I currently have it a Geforce 5500 (made by BFD I think) with 128 megs of ram. With the 5500, even games like Sims II must be played in lower settings. So do you think the 7300 and 7400 are better or worse then my current card.

 

Not necessairly - if that was true, I would have said so in the guide. You can technically play any game on the market with a GeForce Go7300/ATI X1300. However, you would have to run a lot of the newest ones at the bare minimum settings because the card is simply very limited in the amount of processing power it has.

The GeForce FX series are terrible performers. You will see a very large difference between it and a Go7400, and the Go7300 to a lesser degree. If at all possible, go for a Go7400 or X1400.

 

Are you making fun of my terrible performer?? ha ha...jk
I'll probably take your advice and get the 7400. Just can't seem to find a 14" Asus with the 7400.

 

The Go7400 is a good card. Ok, you will not be able to play Oblivion at high resolutions, but still a good card. For light-gamers, I think the Go7400 is great.

Charlie

 

Chaz, that was an excelent review. There is a contradiction though:
You order the cards in performance (low to high), and you put the Radeon x1400 after the Geforce Go 7400, but later in section 4, you say (actually comparing both as an example) that the Nvidia would be better than the Ati.
So what is your definite opinion?
Thanks a lot.

 

If you're referring to this:

...it is not a contradiction. I stated that Nvidia's shared memory technology, TurboCache, was better than ATI's HyperMemory. I didn't say that the Go7400 was the faster card versus the X1400.

 

Hello everyone, first of all I'd like to say Chaz, this is a fantastic thread, I've lurked it for a while, and it's really helped me narrow down my laptop choices.

I'm leaving for school in a few weeks, so I'm anxious to pick up a nice gaming laptop, my current desktop rig is from 2004.

2.4Ghz Processor (OC'ed to 3.0)
6800GT 256Mb Video Card
2Gb 533mhz Ram
and a few 80gb 7200rpm SATA HD's

I'm looking to do quite a bit of gaming in college, I'm used to being able to play Fear, Oblivion, HL2, BF2, and the like at 1024x768.

Right now I'm looking at purchasing an Acer Travelmate from Newegg.com

The specs are as follows:
T2500 Duo 2.0Ghz Processor
ATI Mobility X1600 (128 bit) Video Card
2Gb DDR2/533 Ram
120Gb 5400rpm HD
And here's a link to the rest of the particulars
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16834115258

My biggest second thought in buying this laptop is the x1600, it's a fantastic card, but I've seen Chaz say several times that one should invest in a 256 bit model, I wish I could find this exact machine somewhere that has this card, as for 1549 this is easily one of the best deals I've found on the net. I always try to do a lot of research before purchasing, or building a computer, so this here is my last stop.

It also may bear mentioning that in a review on the site one guy said that his video memory shows up as 512, so perhaps they're putting 256 bit cards in there anyway? I'm not sure.

Any tips anyone, particularly Chaz could give me would be much appreciated! Thanks for helpin' out.

 

Not necessairly a 256-bit model - as long as it is a Go7600/X1600 and has 256MB VRAM, then it will be great for performance. The 128-bit bus is fine for those cards. To get 256-bit, you'd have to move to a 17" notebook, not worth it - they are far less portable than a comparable 15.4".

 

Hi I tried to find out inside this thread if the Geforce Go 7400 is better or if the X1300 is better but no one seems to discuss about it. From what I see from Chaz's list, the 7400 is better. I understand that it has Shader 3 and 3 vertex pipelines compared to X1300's Shader 2 and 2 vertex pipelines. However, the memory bandwidth is 128 bits for the X1300 and only 64 bits for the Geforce Go 7400. Why is the 7400 better then?

 

well done

i am buying a laptop with a x700 256mb card in it.i am not very up on laptops so i am wondering,
how can i tell if the video card is changeable,and when they are changable,which cards are able to fit.
thanks and keep up the good work

 

The Go7400 has unusually fast memory for its class, and that helps compensate for the 64-bit memory bus. The Go7400 is about as fast as the X1400.

I would automatically assume it isn't upgradeable/changeable. You could post a link to the laptop here and we could tell you.

 

What do you guys know about the the cards coming in the Latitude D820s? I plan on getting the "512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache" but I don't know whats the deal with it considering its a business oriented laptop and card. I'm sure you guys have talked about this card already and if so, I apologize, I just didn't want to go through 50 pages to find it. The games I would consider running would be LOTR battle for middle earth 2, and battlefield 2 MC. And don't worry about the other stats on the comp, those will be maxed out .

oh by the way chaz, LOTR b.f.m.e. 2 wasn't listed on http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest, but the website is still friggin sweet, so thanks for the link!

 

It's more or less equivalent to a Go7400, so see the benchmarks for that card and decide.

Thanks for reading the guide.

 

Can anybody Help me out.
I'm in doubt betweeen NVidia 7200 Go and ATI X1400 Mobility Radeon.
What of these two is the best????

 

How did I miss such a informative & radical forum regarding notebooks for so long anyways...here I m n at the right time.
I own a Acer travelm8 4652LMI with Pentium M 740 processor (2MB L2 cache, 1.73GHz, 533Mhz FSB) 15" SXGA+ (1400 x 1040 res) TFT LCD; NVIDIA 6600 but **** only 64 MB VRAM; 80 GB HDD 1 GB RAM etc.
I m getting a new laptop tomorrow & have narrowed my choices 2 these 3 laptops fitting my bugget.
Firstly...I want 2 change my laptop cause I m a bigtime gamer (Playing NFS MW; Oblivion; HL2 E1; etc & already finished single player so only play online Halo, Quake 4, Farcry, SC Chaos theory, POPersia 2 Thrones etc) and Acer, either over heats n crashes or simply crashes cause 64 MB VRAM ain't enough.
Having said that I also want 2 make it clear that I want 2 UPGRADE in the sence of VRAM "&" GFX card not 2 mention the processor etc.
So I ve narrowed my search 2:
1. DELL INSPIRON 6400 with Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2500 (2GHz/667MHz/2 X 1MB L2 Cache); 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™ 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™ etc [Put off : X1400 GFX card (which is degrading from 6600 that I ve become so use to & only 128 MB VRAM dedicated N the other 128 MB shared]
2. Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M 3438 with 2GHz Pentium M 760; 1 GB RAM; 200 GB SATA HDD; NVIDIA 6800 256 VRAM; 17" TFT WXGA Crystal View (1400 X 900 max res) etc [Put off: Not Core™ Duo & US $250 more expensive than the other 2)
3. Asus A6000Vm with Intel® Pentium® Mobile 740 1.73 GHz L2 Cache: 2048K, FSB 533; 512 MB RAM; 60 GB HDD; nVidia Go7300w TurboCache 256M (64MB VRAM); 15,4" WXGA LCD color shine
(1280x800 MAX RES) etc [ Put off: EVERY THING ]
Now, should I not upgrade now & wait till I ve more cash 2 get a better future proof laptop or Get a Desk top instead (as I don't have 1 but can't get 1 unless I want 2 be thrown out of my house) in that money I can assemble the best or Get 1 of the above 3 ( which 1 & why ??? )
Also I didn't see 6800 catagerised anywhere on the 1st page but I know it is better than my 6600 so, I assume it should be in "5.High-end Video Cards" along with its successor 7800.
Lastly I m from India (still a 3rd world nation) rightnow in Dubai (SHOPPING ) so ve 2 get it now or never.
Sorry for the looooong post, spelling mistakes but I had to explain & Thankyou in advance

 

Its clear from the 1st post of this thread:

NVidia 7200 Go is low end & ATI X1400 Mobility Radeon is midrange
But VRAM will also make a difference if it is less than 128 MB as in my case.

 

The Fujitsu will give the best performance here by a long shot, thanks to the Go6800. It's not in the guide because it is an older (still very powerful), but would be just about the X1600/Go7600 in performance, give or take.

Perhaps reading the guide would help . . please look before you post.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

 

Hey has33,

I just read you are a fanatic gamer and you would like to play Oblivion and other games. I can tell you that the only laptop that will run good between those 3 is the M3438G.

But don't buy the M3438G. It has a lot, and I say a lot!, of issues. Problems with BIOS, mainboard, overheating, speakers that dont work, screens that wont work etc. etc.

So my golden tip is: spend more money on a notebook. Get a Acer with X1600 or something. You wont regret it.

Hope I helped you.

Charlie

 

Thanks Chav & Hitman...I think I m gonna look at some more options be4 I close the deal.
But Hitman I say I m very tempted by the 2 GHz 1 GB RAM 200GB SATA HDD intigrated surround sound system with a subwoofer *slurp* 17" WXGA+ Crystal view TFT LCD 1440X900 res with 16ms responce time & 6800 256MB VRAM of the German made & assembled Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M 3438. But had no prior feedback abt the issues...thanks again 4 the warning.
Chaz...I seriously think 6800 was top of the class in the 6X00 series & hence should be in the class of 7800 X1700 than 7600 & X1600...but I don't ve ne pratical experince with them & all my knowledge comes 4m forums like these.

 

Hey at the moment i have 1gb ram in my laptop but could update it to 2 later. Just wondering if this would give a nice boost in gaming? (or would make almost no difference)

And with the x1400 wich uses ram. Would it perform a bit better with 2gb rams?

(the shop where i bought the laptop with the x1400 never mentioned anywhere the word "hypermemory" ... they fooled me with the 256 ram )

 

It is in a different class than the Go7600/X1600, yes - it would be classified as a high-end card.

There are some newer games which can take advantage of 2GB of RAM. It will improve your performance.

 

Hey scorpio,

Too bad they lied about 256 MB videocard, I feel sorry for you. The only advice I can give you is this:

If you are an occasianal gamer, go on with 1 GB. It is fine with almost 90% of the games.

If you like to play games a lot, go for 2 GB. It will give you some boost, but dont expect two times better FPS.

Charlie

 

Luckily i'm fond of older games cause their gameplay rocks
The x1400 will run baldurs gate 1&2, red alert 2, morrowind , ... perfect with great fps rofl

beats oblivion in fps

p.s. this is a great forum!