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

Hi, This is a very nice sticky here. But I was wondering if you would consider adding this link somewhere in the post. I have found this very useful in comparing the different Nvidia and ATI notebook GPU's

Benchmarks for almost ALL available notebook GPU's

 

Very nice! Thanks for the link. It's added to the header section of the guide now.

 

Hullo, folks - looking for info on aftermarket graphic cards for laptops. I have a Toshiba M70 (PSC70-SR300E) with the Mobile Intel 915GM graphic chipset. I don't have a problem with the graphics this set provides; it's just that there are a fair number of games which do not support this chipset. Most of the games I'm interested in playing (i.e., Battlefield 2142) require an ATI or Nvidia chipset.

Any info on compatible cards for the M70 would be very welcome. Thanks.

 

You can't upgrade the graphics card if that's what you asking:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=86864
Unfortunately, as you have found out, Intel integrated GPUs are very poor from both a performance and compatibility standpoint.

 

First off, you compilation of graphic data is amazing and was a boon in this latest of tech-journies I have found myself on.
I have a pretty specific question that I have been scouring forums to find an answer for. You seem to have the most knowledge on notebooks and graphics on the entire internet so I was hoping you could help. I am an avid guild wars player, but I travel a good deal. I have a monster laptop that runs the game perfectly, but I am now in the market to get a computer to use on the go and was hoping to find one that would run GW, even not so well. I am looking for a 12.1 or smaller computer and the best I have found so far have either an ATI Xpress 200M or a Nvidia GeForce Go 6100 (Averatec 2100 and 2300 respectively). I had found a couple of supporting statements for these chipsets on some forums, but after reading your comprehensive study I am questioning if even those integrated chips are enough. So in short: are there 12.1 (or smaller) machines that will run GW sufficiently, or should I just give up the idea and get one that will handle my other needs?

 

i think the dell xps m1210 would probally be just what your looking for
www.dell.com/store

 

Hey there,
wannabeapilot's suggestion of the Dell XPS M1210 is a good one. It has a 256MB GeForce Go7400, which will run Guild Wars maxed out. If you are willing to go a bit larger, there is the Sony VAIO SZ series, which has a 13.3" screen. It is both thinner and lighter than the Dell though. You can see the Sony in person at Best Buy, which is something I would recommend doing.

And one other suggestion for a small laptop is the Asus W7J. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is limited to 1.5GB of RAM.

What laptop do you currently have?

 

Thanks Chaz for the great thread.

I'm just wondering where Nvidia's QuadroNVS line (like in Dell's D620) fits into all of this? I gather from the benchmark link a few posts earlier that the low end (110M, 120M) is somewhere close to a Go7300 level of performance. Is this accurate? I realize that these are not gaming cards, but is there any reason to favor them over a consumer card (eg. CAD performance)?

 

Currnetly using a Uniwill 258KA5
AMD 64 3400+
1G PC4200
ATI 9700
This video card has always confused me. I have read variuos specs for it, but FFXI says that is has 128 dedicated video memory and 256 texture memeory. When I first got the lappy it had this horrible problem with rendering speckles all over on ground textures or having 'jumpy' textures on actors. Turns out it is a problem w/ AMD Power Now driver, which is basically power management for who don't know what power management is. Toss that, update BIOS, and that baby screams. It's getting to be a relic, but for being two years old running DOOM on High at a solid 30-50 fps is good enough for me. More so considering I really only play Guild Wars and Dawn of War any more. Thanks for the suggestions. That Dell is looking pretty good. Looking at throwing in the 1.83 2X core, a gig of ram and the Go 7400. That should just about do it until Cell processors make thier way to laptops.

 

Hi,

I am buying a dell Inspiron 6400, with 2gb RAM, 2.0ghz intel core 2 duo, vista ultimate, 256mb ATI RADEON MOBILITY X1400 hypermemory. Will I be able to run flight simulator x at medium settings without it julting. Also, do you know if it is possible to buy a mini joystick or collapsible joystick, small enough for travelling, if so please could you tell me where?
Also do you know what 3dmark05 means.
Thanks

 

The recommended requirements for that game is a Geforce 6800 or better, which is probably at least 3 times as powerful as the x1400. However, your system would still surpass the minimum requirements (32mb DX9.0c card), so I'd say as long as you're willing to turn the resolution down, you could play it on medium settings, or perhaps on native resolution with some low settings.
As for the joystick, i don't know of one, but perhaps if you posted in the Accessories forum, you'll get more replies.
3dMark05 is a benchmarking program which measures your graphics card and CPU in a series of 3d renderings. The newer version of that program for DX9.0c and DX10 cards is 3dMark06. However, don't pay too much attention to 3dMark scores, as how well your card plays games is more important.

 

Yes; the NVS 110M is based on the Go7300 and the 120M is based on the Go7400. They're not the best performers but can play games. There's no reason to favor them - as a matter of fact, I'd be more inclined to favor the consumer models because they are less likely to run into compatibility problems.

Flight Sim X is extremely demanding and even the highest-end computers have trouble playing it. You will most likely be restricted to low-medium settings and resolution.
I'm not sure where you can get the joystick or anything; maybe ask that in our Accessories forum.

 

Thanks, If flight simulator x is not that good on the laptop, then I could use flight simulator 2004, which is much less demanding so I will be able to play it at higher graphics settings, It is better then not playing any flight simulator at all.
I will ask someone about the joystick in the accessories forum.
Thanks.

 

The only thing with the settings: you'll get the same quality of video...

Just because it's higher on the settings doesn't mean it will look better...is just means that your card's potential performance is measured higher on the game's graphics scale because that game isn't as demanding. Your card will output the same quality no matter what.

In any event, the X1400 is a good card for casual gamers.

 

THANKS Chaz, you are my HERO realy
good job!!!!

 

yup that was awesome, i was looking for this info everywhere and it was right here...

 

Thanks guys - if there's anything you would like to see added to the guide, let me know and I'll consider adding it.

 

How about an INDEX?

 

This post was extreamly helpful... Thanks!

 

i'm playing Lineage2 c5 soon c6 i want to know w is better:
-256MB NVIDA GeForce Go 7900GS (for a dell laptop)
-512MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600 (for a hp laptop)
w i must buy dell or hp

 

As clearly stated, the Go7900 is vastly better than the Go7600. It doesn't matter that the 7600 has more memory as firstly it can't take advantage of all 512mb any way and the 7900 again is better

But the 7900 is only available in 17"+ laptops, which aren't all that portable, so that is a consideration

 

hmm i guess i can run most of games since i have dedicated 200m version

 

Thanks Chaz, Excellent information!

I am in the market for a work/gaming laptop and upon reading your review I'm not sure if I should go with the mid-range or performance video card.

Is there a guide, forum, or top 10 list anywhere that gives a list of games that a specific video card will support and how it performs at the different settings (high/med/low)? Knowing what a card is capable of benchmarking is nice, but it would be great to have something that a simpleton, such as myself, could more relate to.

 

Any of the video cards listed, mid-range and up, support all modern games.

You could do a thread search for the game you are looking for, and then see what people's laptops run the games at what settings. We don't have any guides like that, this is the closest thing.
Also, in many of our notebook reviews, the writers do game performance, so do a site search for the laptop you are looking for (or a laptop that has the card you are wondering about).
The site search is in the top right-hand corner of your screen. If you can't find anything let us know.

 

6800U better than 7600 and 1600?

 

For both the desktop and mobile market, the 6800 Ultra will be faster, because of its much higher clock speeds and core differences. However, if you compare a desktop 7600 GT with a desktop 6800 Ultra, then the difference may not be so great.

 

I agree, also take a look at this chart that compares mobile gfx cards.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

but the 7600gt is only available in 17 inch laptops, so the 6800U is the FASTEST card for a 15 inch laptop? is the 6800U faster even if a regular 7600Go was clocked to similar speeds? which would be more stable? also does the 6800U work with the latest dx9?

 

The 6800U didn't exist in 15.4" notebooks; only the regular 6800 did. The Go7700 is faster than the 6800 in benchmarks, although I don't know how that applies to real-world gaming scenarios.

No new notebooks are sold with the 6800. It was available in a Pentium 4-based Asus notebook.

 

so, to draw conclusions, the go7700 is the FASTEST card for a 15 inch notebook? and only the asus g1 includes it? thats kind of a disappointment, for that price i could just buy a 570 clevo

 

Is the GeForce 7600 SE slower in performance than the Mobility Radeon X1700? I recall that the7600 SE has 128MB dedicated onboard, but the Mobility Radeon X1700 has 256MB onboard + 256 Hypermemory.

 

Yes, the Go 7700 is the fastes tcard for 15.4" notebooks. The G1 and I believe some of the A8 series have the Go 7700. Bear in mind, that the Go 7600 and ATI Mobility X1600/X1700 are not far behind the Go 7700 in terms of speed. The Mobility X1700 will use less power, and it will give you more bettary runtime aswell. Notebooks wirh the Go 7600 and Mobility X1600 are available from most manuacfurers, and the price is affordable

 

Will do, thanks again Chaz!

 

Hi

I have just ordered a new dell E1505 2.0ghz intel core 2 duo, 2gb RAM, ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HYPERMEMORY, i will have it in the next 2 weeks. Is there anything i can do to make the graphics card better. also is it a decent graphics card and will it play flight simulator 2004 well.
Thanks Dom

 

Could someone PLEASE provide me with a COMPLETE list of all laptops that sport the 7700 graphics cards? Thanks in advance.

 

Or you can do some research yourself...

 

Congratulations on the notebook. Get a good deal on it?

FS2004 will play with no issues at all on a Radeon X1400, no worries there. You can't make the graphics card 'better' as in you can't upgrade it, but you can overclock it if you need a bit of extra performance, and using newer drivers can sometimes result in performance increases. You won't need to do either for older games like FS2004 though.

 

you might want to include that the x1450 has the option for 256mb dedicated memory while x1400 can only support 128mb.

 

Thanks for the info - do you have a link where it clearly says this? Not that I don't believe you, but I need to back up everything I put in this guide.

 

This asus has a 256mb x1450:

Here's a link that seems to confirm that the x1450 can have up to 256 dedicated plus 256 shared:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-X1450.2548.0.html

 

Hi everyone, first i'd like to thank Chaz for writing the most profound guide, excellent work. Now this might be a stupid question and I hope that you guys forgive me for asking a naive question. But i just purchased a laptop, HP Pavillion DV9000t. Its specs are as follows:

1.6 dual core duo 2
2 Gig DDR2 RAM
Go7600 256 RAM dedicated

Alright, I'm going back to school and i needed a omputer so I bought this on sale. In any event, I'm curious if it could run any games? I"dl ike to know if it could run games in this bracket:

1. Supreme Commander
2. Company of Heroes
3. Medevil 2
4. Spellforce 2

Does nayone know how well it could run these games? If at all? Thanks you very much. Again thanks Chaz.

 

The 7600 is a decent video card, not as good as the x1600/x1700/Go7700, but it's close. It should run Supreme Commander (that's the most challenging game graphics wise you're considering, I believe) though probably not above WXGA resolution and probably not above medium to medium-low settings.

 

Hey thanks for this info, i have to wait a while before it comes but i'd like to know how much of a differnece in performance could i expect from my current system. Now its been a while since i've bought a computer so here's my system now

2.7 ghz P4
512 RAM
ATI Radeon 9200

Is this new PC ALOT stronger? Can I expect Major differences in how things run?

Also how badly does Supreme Commander look on Medium to medium low settings? (Mind you i've never really played games in "high quality" so I really don't nkow the difference between these settings). Thanks.

 

^ You will prolly crap your pants at the performance increase between those 2 systems lol.

 

Most definitely. The new system will multitask much better, run games ridiculously better, and just in general load programs faster.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=106545&highlight=supreme+commander

 

Thanks Chaz
You have cheered me up because I didnt think that flight sim 2004 would run that well, I dont thing flight sim X would run that well though. I think I got a good deal, i got some extras aswell, I think it cost me about $1250 inc. tax and shipping. Also wouldn't it already have the newest drivers, as it is brand new? Thanks

 

Yeah, Flight Sim X has notoriously difficult requirements. That sounds like a good deal. As for drivers, no, it won't have the newest drivers most likely, you could either download them from dells website, or for better results you can get modded Omega drivers.

 

Thanks "odin243", is there any way I can check what drivers I have on the laptop when it arrives? And if i get modded omega drivers will it run fine and it wont do anything bad to the computer? Thanks I am just making extra sure because I dont want to do anything bad to it.

 

If you have Vista on your notebook, use the ATI Catalyst drivers for Vista from ati.com. They are very stable and provide good performance.

 

You can check the driver version number in the Device Manager, under display adapters just right click on your graphics card and select porperties. As for omega drivers, I've never heard of them harming anyone's system in anyway, the worst case senario is that they don't help or aren't compatible, and in that case you can just roll back to your previous drivers. Here's a link for more info:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/about.php
What could potentially hurt your system is if you decide to overclock your graphics card, which is more dangerous, so if you do, I recommend finding a good guide or asking someone else for step-by-step instructions.