x3100 vs 8400M GS

Hello,

I am looking to purchase an HP Pavilion dv6500t laptop. I was wondering about which is the better graphics card, and if i would be able to play GPU intensive games such as FEAR and HALO 2. The graphics card options were the intel x3100 and the GO 8400M GS. Would this laptop be able to play such games, or should i be considering purchasing a different laptop that would be able to handle these games better? BTW I am looking for a 15.4 inch laptop. 17 inch is too big for me to carry around, if need-be.

thanx for your help.

 

is this a trick question? dont get the x1300 EVER its an integ card, get the nvidia!! I think it will be able to run halo and fear at low settings

 

The Intel X3100 isn't a bad integrated graphics card, but the 8400M GS is a much beter graphics card. It should be able to play the games you have mentioned fabsolutely fine.

 

Well for his needs such as halo and fear, it is HORRIBLE i cant even play 1.6 on it without have fps drops

 

x3100 not x1300 :-]

 

well, i am not a MAJOR gamer. i'm somewhat of a moderate gamer. and i'm not really wanting frame rates of 60-70, just enough to be able to play the game without lag and blurriness.

 

sorry x3100, just get the nvidia mostly all games out in the market right now will be playable

 

awesome. thanx guys for all your help.

 

As they say, fear the Fear. It'll make mincemeat out of any integrated card. Halo 2? Not a chance. Those two games would tax even the 8400GS at medium settings. The X3100 should be sufficient for old games, and a few, clean maps of CS. Nothing more. The jury's still out, though. there are people who believe it'll improve with new drivers...

 

so is there any other 15.4 inch laptop that is/will be out that will be able to handle these games?

 

Well, considering that Fear runs fine on low settings on the Go6150, I'm sure that the x3100 can handle it.

 

It may be a good idea to make a thread in the "What Notebook Should I Buy" section, and complete an FAQ. That way, you will be able to get recommendations of notebooks from a much wider range of members.

 

I would say get the 8400GS; although the X3100 is a vast improvement over any previous Intel graphics solution, the nvidia card offers much better performance than the GMA.

 

Any laptop with the Geforce 8600M GT. The compal IFL90, the Asus G1s, etc etc....

 

As others have said, the 8400M is definitively faster. Even with optimal drivers the GMA X3100 will peak at about X1300 level performance although eventually it should add DX10 support so that everyone can get the satisfaction of ticking their checkbox.

 

so the 8400M GS would be the better choice. it has the dx10 right?

 

For the games you have mentioned, the 8400M GS will be the better graphics card, when compared to the integrated Intel one. Both the 8400M GS and X3100 are DX10 capable.

 

what gpu is this?the 8400M GS or the X3100?

 

Hi all,

I found this thread and am hoping you gamers can steer me. I'm getting a new notebook development system (.NET Visual Studio) and wondering once and for all... should I keep spending money on faster graphics cards, if I don't do games and just use the system for application development and outlook.

I need a fast PC, but is there ANY advantage to getting a faster graphics card (8400M GS or 8600M GS) for me vs just keeping the integrated X3100 ?

Does the extra memory on the card free up my main RAM (which is 2GB)?

If I start a compile and go to Outlook, does having a faster graphics card provide some kind of benefit?

It sounds like one downside is the faster card will take more power and cut down on battery life for those long plane trips.

Thanks for any insights!

 

The only advantage to a dedicated graphics card in your case would be that it does free up some system RAM. However, a much better solution would be to simply get the integrated card, and buy an extra gig of RAM.

 

This guy has no idea what he is talking about. He probably doesnt even have a laptop with an 8400m gs. In real world conditions, the 8400m gs is a real shocker. I play gears of war, and call of duty 4 at 1028 x 640 with medium high settings (even 2x aa in cod4) for about 25-30 fps. As for FEAR, i can pretty much play that maxed out. Don't worry, the 8400m gs is not as bad as everyone says it is. As a side note, I am using the dell 8400m gs with crappy ddr2 so if u get ddr3, it'll probably even perform better. Also, make sure u get the most recent drivers (im on 17x.xx)

 

8400M GS is definately better than the X3100, but be prepared for reduced details in games. If you get the DDR2 8400M GS, it may run well with games for an average of 2 years, a little longer with DDR3...

If you plan to have a laptop that is up-to-date with playing GPU intensive games now and into the future for quite some time, you may wanna look for something in the 8600M series...
I plan on playing graphic intensive games well for at least 3 years+, games such as Crysis, Far Cry, Battlefield 2, etc., and I've went with an 8600M GT with DDR3...

At least ignore the X3100 at ALL COSTS!!!! I made a big mistake with an Inspiron 1525 with that card, and, well, !!! It played FEAR on low, but still struggled badly with the framerate. Games just look yuck on the X3100.

 

you guys didnt read....i now own the 8400gs...ironic lol....great card for me. just not for the hardcore gamers who want full settings in all games at 50+fps.

 

For $100 more you can usually get same laptop but with 8600m GT which is definitely better than the 8400m GS and will play every game out today.

Check out Dell Vostro 1500 as you can pretty much get same as the HP but with 8600m GT for cheaper than the HP with 8400m GS.

 

X3100 is sucky, but heck its cheap

 

BUT....there wasnt a single laptop w/ the 8600mgt in a store when i bought my hp...if there was...........you get the picture.