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

Hi! I have a toshiba that has the video card: Graphics Media Accelerator 950
(8MB-128MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory). There is some way to be able to assign more memory to the video card or is automatic?

Thanks!!
Lucas.

 

The video memory (up to 128) is automatically allocated depending on the needs. You can not share more than 128 MB memory but even if it was possible it would not change anything.

 

Can I assign a value between 8 and 128 in order that the video card works better? I cannot find where set it.

 

You cannot set a given number of memory to allocate to the GMA950. It is done dynamically, or on-the-fly as posted. Best to leave it like that. Giving the card a set amount of memory would be a waste, since it does not always need that much, and it would not improve performance.

 

Thanks a lot!
Lucas.

 

Hello Everyone...

I'm an 18 year old student studying in Singapore, in a polytechnic, doing Digital Entertainment Technology. Think of it like a games programming course. Haha. I kinda need help from anyone out there because I gotta upgrade my laptop to one that can handle all the games out there.

The thing is, I don't know if now is the right time. Is it too late?

Alright, I own an Acer Ferrari 4000. Loaded with a

AMD Turion 2.0Ghz
1GB Ram
ATI Mobility Radeon X700 128MB
100GB 5400RPM Harddisk

I bought it when it was first released, and at that time I was happy with my purchase. Now, a year later, I tried installing Company of Heroes, and it produced disappointing frame rates. I'm thinking then, of getting a new laptop. In Singapore, gaming laptops are hard to come by. ATI X1600 is kinda like the common one, and ASUS just released a Core 2 Duo Laptop T7200, 2GB Ram, with an ATI X1700 with 512MB RAM.

I'm looking right now at the Dell Inspiron 9400, Core 2 Duo T7200 2Ghz and it's got a sweet Nvidia 7900 Go GS 256MB inside. Processor aside, and just focusing on the laptop, I need to ask, if this is worth getting. Is this card aging? I need to last this through to April 2008 when I graduate from school and thus be able to get a new laptop.

I understand that Vista is coming out, but OS aside, I'm more concerned with DirectX 10 and the Geforce 7950GTX just got released. I'm quite confused, cuz I want to make my buy worthwhile. I'm not that wealthy to afford an Alienware or the XPS. Singapore Dell doesnt have that. Got to buy from the States, which is gonna cost too much. So basically I'm stuck with the 7900 Go GS. Is it worth it? At this point in time?

Last question, I checked here, and to my surprise the 7800 Go GTX is more powerful than the 7900 Go GS... I didn't know. So like erm... Is the difference alot? My friend in school has the 7800GTX... So I kinda wanna know how big the difference is...

Thanks everyone, to those who took the time to read. Many thanks, and hope to get some help...

 

Hi,

The 7900GS is not as great as it sounds - certainly a formidable card but in reality its not much better then an overclocked 7600GT.

It will last for awhile though, and will last for years if you don't mind turning settings down as times goes on.

 

The 7900 GS and the Go 7800 GTX are close in performance. Actually, the Go 7800 GTX is only about 12% faster than the Go 7900 GS according to the synthetic benchmarks. However, the Go 7900 GS uses only 20W at peak which is about half of the Go 7800 GTX's power consumption. Considering the specifications, the power consumption and the price I would say that the Go 7900 GS is a better deal overall.

 

Hi guys, here are my specs:
AMD Turion64 (ML-28) 1.6GHz CPU
OCZ 1GB PC3200 RAM (1x1024MB stick)
128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X700 GPU
15.4" Widescreen display 1280x800

Basically I want to know what page file size I should use? Here's what it is set to now:


The reason I ask is because I don't seem to be getting a good average fps in games. For example I usually get between 10-60fps in Counter Strike: Source, and that's with most settins on the lowest, a modified config file, unnecessary processes in the background stopped and sometimes even explorer.exe stopped...

Other than using a different size page file, is there anything else I can do? My PC is totally clean (I treat it like a haemophilliac baby) of virus', adware, I defrag often and use CCleaner to keep it all tidy.

TIA

 

Thanks guys. I'll still be able to run the latest games and all at higher settings right. I just wanna make sure I make the right choice.

 

I would simply wait until next year for the new Santa Rosa Centrino platform if you already have a laptop that powerful. There is no point to getting a laptop now with a technology upgrade like that on the horizon. I've given a lot of thought into getting a dual-core machine myself, and all things considered, it is not worth it right now for me to upgrade. I think it would be much more beneficial if you wait. The Acer Ferrari is a great machine.

 

I agree with Chaz, but I just one question tough:

Like me, I think you also want a powerfull videocard Chaz (X2700, 8600). But considering that the 8800GTX for desktops has a huge power consumption (>200 W for so I heard) how will the mobile series be? Can we expect less battery life but more powerfull GPU's?

I had a discussion with Twilight, he suggested that he would wait if necessary for X3700, 9600 Go. I think he is right, DX 10 wont be used directly, or will it?

Or is ATI and nVidia going to give more attention to consumption as well? ATI working with AMD may lead to Cool and Queit technology's for videocards. Or am I just dreaming here?

Charlie

 

That is a hard question to answer right now. I have heard nothing about dedicated DirectX 10 graphics cards for notebooks. I believe Nvidia has admitted they can't do anything about power consumption for a while yet, so it could be some time before a DX10 card (at least a high-end one) comes to notebooks.

I can't say I understand the question that well, but I can tell you that Microsoft is going to be pushing DirectX 10 hard.

ATI has PowerPlay power saving technology for its video cards, I do not know if they are going to work with AMD on making it better or not. I am sure both Nvidia and ATI are going to make mobile DX10 cards as soon as possible.

 

Alright... Thanks people. So you think I should wait? I mean, how expensive will it be...? :S I don't really wanna spend too much if it's way above my budget My academic year finished next March, before I go for my last year in school. So like... yeah. Thanks alot.

 

Technology only gets cheaper so I would assume the price for a Santa Rosa laptop would be about the same as as a Centrino Duo laptop is right now.

 

Chaz is right. And if you do not have a large budget, you could always buy an Core 2 Duo with X1700/7700GO. Should give you excellent performance for the coming 2 years.

Just wait until Santa Rosa comes. Merom's will be cheaper then. I am waiting too, but I think I am going for a Santa Rosa

Charlie

 

What will probably happen is that DX10 cards will appear in notebooks but only function at full power while plugged in, and massively downclocked when not.

But they should still be a bit powerful while unplugged or maybe there will be a dual DX9/DX10 mode for when switching between Battery and AC power.

 

Wow thats an interesting point there, but is it really true? I would completely accept the idea of integrated solution or huge downclock on battery and full power plugged.

I wonder if you are right. Would be very cool tough.

Charlie

 

Hi Chaz! This is my very post and I created this account just to post in this thread to tell you that, the guide you made was very very useful to me and I learned alot of stuff related to computers from it! Really, thank you man, that guide really helped me out ALOT, yea cuz I'm looking into buying a laptop that can game, CSS, HL2, Quake 4 etc

Yea so anyway thanks

 

Wow Chaz thats great news, people are registering for saying thanks, wow!

Penguin may I ask what notebook you have chosen? I see you are a real gamer

Charlie

 

Thanks everyone for the great compliments, they are very much appreciated. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, you're always free to post them.

 

Hi Hitman!!

You seem to be a computer expert too lol

Anyway I'm currently looking into the new Acer aspire 5590 I LOVE that notebook, for its design AND the hardware inside. I just love it, I hope its good

 

That's a great notebook Penguin. 14" with X1600, that's what a call mobile gaming.

I do not know at what price you will get that notebook, but you may also want to take a look at the Asus W3j. Also 14", has a Core Duo (can be configured with Core 2 Duo now), has a X1600 256 MB shared up to 512 MB hypermemory. Great notebook if you ask me. Asus is better in my opinion then Acer, better quality.

Here is a review of the W3j: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2995&review=Asus+W3J

Hope I helped you.

Charlie

 

lightning penguin I would suggest filling the FAQ in order to be able to judge the alternatives.

 

I like what I got NVIDIA does better OpenGL than ATI.

 

hi, i've been looking at this site for a couple of week now, and decided i must join if only to commend and say thankyou for the info, which has lead me to choose a laptop, the graphics card was an issue with me as i didnt want integrated rubbish on it but couldnt afford the top graphics card (as much as id liked to!) anyway i chose a toshiba p100-240 , and im sure from here on in this site will be seeing a lot more of me well done again for such a great informative site

 

I love the notebook! Thanks for the recomendation Hitman! Wow there are alot of great people in this forum

I'm choosing between the 2 now, but mostly likely I'll be sticking with the Acer cuz there's a price difference of 300-500 bucks between the 2 notebooks

However, if you think the Asus is worth the extra 300 bucks, please tell me!

Btw, whats a firewire port? The acer doesn't have that.

 

Thanks for the complimant

A firewire (IEEE 1394) is a port used by camera's and Ipod's to transfer files. But I have never used it, USB is much more common.

If the price difference is 300-500$, then I would say: go for the Acer.

Charlie

 

hi guys im new here. just wondering if you could help me im looking at buying a dell inspiron 9400 (e1705) with 2.0 ghz core 2 duo, 1 gig of ram and the 1920x1200 WUXGA screen and the nvidia 7900 gs. i wanted to know if id be able to play any modern games at full res with decent framerates with this card? if not what could i possibly upgrade to? seeing as its costing me nearly $2500 i would like to b able to take advantage of the high res. thanks for any advice you have.

 

Hold on for a second. $2,500 for a Dell? You can get a much better machine that that for your money, and with more powerful components. Please complete the FAQ in the What Should I Buy forum so we can help you better.

As to whether it can handle the latest games; yes, although the Go7900GS won't be able to hold a stable framerate in some games at 1920x1200 because it is simply too high of a resolution (Oblivion, FEAR). But the Go7900GS is a beast of a card and it should be able to handle most games at 1440x900 or 1680x1050 with full settings, and even 1920x1200 in some less demanding ones.

 

Quick Q: I'm looking at 2 systems both built by "Cyber Power". The major dif I can see is one has a GeForce 7600 and the other has a Radeon X1600. I'm not a big tech guy, although I did dabble in the past. Just wondering which would be the better bang for my buck. Otherwise I customized the systems similarly and came up with a price of G system @ $1448 vs. R system @ $1366. Any hardcore gamers/notebook owners have a good answer?

Secondly has anyone owned a system by this maker and been let down?

Finally, if I go with the with the ATI Radeon card should I worry with the recent AMD ATI merger since it's an Intel Chipset?

Thanks in advance.

System Links below
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ntbkx54800.asp?v=d
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ntbkx55850.asp?v=d

 

Azzman, like Chaz already said, fill in the FAQ. 2500$ for a Dell is way too high.

Welcome to NBR Red syn,

To help you out, I also configured these 2 notebooks. My conclusion was that the X1600 was 100$ cheaper.
Personnaly, I would go for the X1600. It usually has better performance then the 7600Go. But in OpenGL games, the nVidia will surely be better.
But it is possible that the X1600 has 'cheap' RAM while the 7600 has 'expensive' RAM (GDDR2 vs GDDR3 for example).

So I recommend you to call this manifacturer and ask for more info.

Charlie

 

CyberPower doesn't have the best reputation; you should consider completing the FAQ in the What Should I Buy forum so we can help you better.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Chaz, I followed your advice and answered the faq you linked and posted it in the proper section on the forum. I just don't want to buy a piece of junk with my hard earned cash. Here's the link to my Ideal Outline of a Notebook: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=84558

 

Oh ok so IEEE 1394 is firewire? Thanks for telling me that, and i checked again, the Acer does have it!

Ok, so I'm definitely going with the Acer. Now I gotta start earning more money and saving

 

No problem Penguin, we are here to help.

That's interesting, so you still have to save money for your notebook. I do not want to interfere with everything but may I ask how long it will take you to get the money for this notebook?

The reason why I am asking is this: Q1 2007 Intel is coming up with some incredible processors with very new features.
So let's say: you will be ready to buy this laptop after 2 months, then I would recommend to wait another month and to buy a much better laptop with newer features (better wireless lan, DirectX 10 support, incredible fast CPU with NAND flash memory). Maybe these features wont say anything to you, but I can guarantee you: It's fast.

And the price will be pretty much the same.

But if you will have all the money after 2 weeks or so, then just go for the Acer. You are futureproof for 2/3 years (demands on your needs).

It is just a advice I wanted to give you.

Charlie

 

Hi again, sorry to come across as a bit of an impatient knob, but does anyone have an idea to my unanswered query? Thanks guys

 

Check your RAM usage during games and see if t it uses more than 1GB. Also try using low settings and see if the same thing happens.

As for what you should set your page file to; I would suggest 4GB maximum, 2GB minimum. You could probably get away with less than that but I usually like to play things safe.

 

hello everyone
i've owned my Vaio FE790 for a week, and i'm really embarassed of its performance
here's the specs:
core 2 duo T5600@ 1.83Ghz
1GB DDR2 533Mhz (1GBx1)
geforce 7600Go (128MB version i think)
SATA 80gb 5400rpm
the price was quite fair for a Sony, $1348 for everything
the first time i tried 3Dmark05, i got 3000 or so, but guess what, the second time it decreased to 2600 T__T
so i decided to overclock it, stock speed was 350/350, i pushed it to 420/400 without any artifacts, still got 3000?????
the other day i restored it to 350/350 and got 3066
someone please tell me what's happening??

 

Those scores are way too low for a 7600Go.

One good advice: Sony's are known to have a lot of bloatware installed on their notebooks. My tip is to format your whole notebooks and to install the newest drivers. For videodrivers try laptopvideo2go, forum members say that they are great.

I think you should get 3500 3dmark05 points with your setup. Also check if you have Speedstep on or off.

Charlie

 

The Sony VAIO FE790 has a 128MB Go7600, so that would explain the 3,000 3DMark score.

Overclocking the Go7600 does not do a lot to begin with, and the limitation of your video card is the amount of RAM it has, so you are not going to get any better score than you are already getting. If the card runs games fine at stock, then don't bother overclocking. I would advise getting a notebook cooler if you plan to, because the FE has a thin chassis and I don't know how good the cooling system controls the heat.

 

Hey every one im going to purchase a laptop soon and cant decide if i should go with dell e1505 and get the 256mb x1400 with hypermemory of if i should get the hp dv6000z 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200 with turbo cache.... does any one know what one is better and has more dedicated memory in it?

 

the x1400, obviously

 

The difference between the Go7200 and the X1400 is significant enough that it will be noticeable in the latest games, so if gaming performance is your top priority, go with the Dell. However, take a look at the dv6000 t - it is available with a Go7400.

 

Oh I now see that it has 128 MB, but isnt 3000 low, even for 128 MB?

Charlie

 

No it isn't really.

A friend of mine has a Toshiba P100 which comes with the 128mb 7600 and he scores about 2,160 at stock (350/400 64bit memory)

You must have the 128mb version with 128bit memory and that would explain why you score higher. The 256mb version of the 7600 will score higher still, about 3,500 I think.

 

They are virtually the same.
But, really, dell is far cheaper if you are going for the 1400/7400 card type.

 

uhmm, edit: i got 3000 without overclocking only once, since then i always got 2600 or worse
and about cooling system, i may say, below average
when i tried to convert a movie (around 20 mins long), the CPU temp got 75 celcius, and another time when i tried 3Dmark with everything selected, it peaked 82
so playing Call of Duty 2 on this laptop may be a big big risk

 

I would suggest getting a cooling pad for your notebook if it gets that hot. Overclocking adds heat (although I do not know how much with the Go7600), but as I said, increasing the clocks is not going to do a whole lot for your performance.

 

im getting this pc (dont have it yet so cant do system recuirements lab)
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ Duo Proc T2300E (1.66GHz/667MHz/1 X 2MB L2 Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife
MEMORY 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
VIDEO CARD 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio

i know i can run css and hl2 at medium settings and that i can run quake 4 on low but can i run bf2142, scarface, or call of duty 2 with at least 30 fps or more? also how many fps can i get if i run quake 4 on low?