i3's GMA Worth it?

Hi, I've been looking into getting a decent laptop for school/light gaming.
For my price range most of the laptops have integrated graphics.
I was wondering if the i3's GMA would be a better choice in terms of gaming performance compared to other integrated GPUs.
Or is there a better choice for around $500?
Thanks for any input.

 

What kind of light gaming? There's been benchmarks for the integrated arrandale GPUs. Don't hope for great performance at native res for anything released within the past 2-3 years from what I remember. Try googling the arrandale GPU benchmarks, it's where I read about it.

 

Light gaming, like World of Warcraft. Nothing too demanding.
I know it wont be great performance, I just dont want to make a bad decision and get a laptop thats going to struggle.
10+FPS will make me happy

 

It's better than the 4500mhd but still inferior to amd and nvidia igp offering. If you don't mind getting something with an AMD cpu, there are plenty of notebooks with capable IGPs for under 500.

 

You can play WOW with a decent frame rate on lower settings and res I believe.

 

I think if you were to game at all, you would be better off with a dedicated card, or at least one of AMD's or NVIDIA's IGP's.

 

Get a AMD Athlon II or Turion II (Not the older cpus) and you also get a nice and capable ATI HD 4570 or HD 4650-70.
Much better than a Intel IGP if your looking at running WoW at decent fps.

My brothers Intel Celeron with Intel GMA 4500m gets like 5-9 fps in Stormwind and its horrible to play.
My aging ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 could at least run 30+ fps.

 

Thanks for everyone input and for saving me from a possibly bad decision.
I will look into some AMD laptops.
I made a thread in the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" topic.
If anyone has any recommendations please post a few and I will look into them.
Link to my post:http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=458337
Thanks again for everyones help.

 

I have another weird question.
Is the "Turion II" the same as the "Turion X2"?

 

Turrion X 2 is an old 2 core processor... Turrion II is the new turrion processor and that's what u have to get... I recommend the M600 at least...

 

No no! Turion x2 just means it's a dual core. You specifically need the "II" in there for it to mean the 2nd generation.

 

Err, no...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-HD.23065.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9400M-G.11949.0.html

(GMA HD vs 9400M)

Sims 3 82.1 vs 77
Fear 2 45 vs 44
HL2: 47.4 vs 42
CSS: 79 vs 44

True, the CPU is faster but since the actual fps is also higher its roughly equal.

 

that's what i meant lol.

 

I wasn't replying to you sean, I was replying to the OP, you just posted before I did

 

oh sorry... I hope i didn't insult u.

 

Thanks for clearing up the "X2" and the "II" issue.

Was that GMA HD from an i3, i5, or i7?
Are they different?

 

Core i5 and Core i7 has same GPU clocks. Core i3 has only 10% lower top-end turbo clock so its not a huge deal.

 

core i3 either has no turbo boost or hyperthreading...

 

*sigh*

World Of Warcraft. 'Nuff said.

 

No, all mobile Core i's have hyperthreading.

 

add a few hundred $$ and get a better videocard
you can save a few hundred $$ by buying used books instead of new ones

 

HEY! Watch it!

haha, i still havent bought my books yet. xD

 

I just ordered a Dell Inspiron 5164 with i3 330 and GMA HD.
I dont have much money to spend and already have a desktop with 3ghz Quad and GTX275 so dont really need a gaming laptop but am glad that its quite a bit better then the old 4500 intel gfx chip. I dont plan on gaming anyway, might try fear 2 on low settings and 800x600 and see how it does ha ha.

 

Intel's new GMA HD is actually quite a little performer considering it's from Intel. Very surprising performance.

 

I'd like to see some benchmarks or something on the new Mobile GMA if possible..

 

notebook check has some. There was a link posted back on the 2nd page.