Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 vs. 128MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200 !!!!

As many of you already know, today HP made the GeForce Go 7200 video card available for the DV2000T (**** it).... hahaha...... My question is, how much better is the GeForce over the Intel Media Accelerator 950? I've heard mixed comments about it. Some people say they are both integrated and use shared memory so they are not that different. is that true?

I received my laptop 4 days ago and I'm thinking of having it exchange if the difference in video cards is considerable.

Thanks.

 

somebody? anybody? everybody?

I'm trying to decide if I should return the laptop and buy it again with the GeForce Go 7200. This time I would buy it at Costco since they have a 6 month return policy.

 

Either one are not that good for gaming but the Nvidia 7200 does have an advantage over the 950. The 64MB 7200+64MB Hypermemory(I believe) is decent for pre-2004 games (HALO demo at Costco was on there and I played with it for sometime) . If you really want to game, the dv2000 is kinda not the notebook for that task.

 

Yeah, the Go7200 is much much better than the GMA 950. Even the 6150 is a stepor 2 above the GMA 950. I would try to get it changed, but do know that the Go7200 is still a low end card if you are looking to game on tha laptop.

 

I'm not sure if this will help you, but you can compare the specs from their respective websites:

Go 7200: http://www.nvidia.com/object/go_7_series_techspecs.html
GMA 950: http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

 

You'll also have Purevideo technology with the nvidia card if you plan on watching alot of DVDs.

 

One step closer to a decent video card on the laptop I want.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I just wanted to know if there was a considerable difference between the video of the 950 and the 7200 in general that would make the exchange worth it. Gaming is not the reason why I bought the laptop. In fact, gaming is last in my list of uses. On the other hand, movies is up there in my list.
If anybody has any other comment, please post it here.
Thanks once again.

 

As I posted earlier, Purevideo is a technology from Nvidia that enables video post processing using the graphics card to improve the video quality. While the video quality is not quite as good as a high end standalone DVD player, the post processing is definitely noticeable and new features are being added with driver releases. The only downside to this is that you need a decoder that can utilize the Purevideo technology; as far as I know, only a few programs (Intervideo Windvd 7, PowerDVD, Nvidia's own "Purevideo decoder") can utilize it and none of them are free.

Here is the Purevideo webpage:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html

 

There seems to be conflicting info about the memory config of the GeForce Go 7200.

The Nvidia specs seem to say that there is no support for dedicated video memory (look in the table at the bottom where it says n/a for memory support):
http://www.nvidia.com/object/go_7_series_techspecs.html

However HP appears to list 32MB of dedicated memory. From the dv2000t specs: "32mb is dedicated to video memory plus up to 96mb is allocated from system memory"

It will be interesting to see what actually gets shipped, and what kind of benchmarks it produces. I'm also curious to see what the difference in battery life is between the GMA950 and the Go 7200.

 

That is more than enough to me. Do you know what version of PowerDVD support this feature? Need any patch? WinDVD is not power optimized, I can forget it.

Besides, HP's price really confuse me. Right now, 2000z is even $10 higher than 1.83G 2000t with 6150 vs. 7200. What is HP trying to say? Or Intel had signalled the price cut through venders?

Also, HP spec 2000t with DDR2-400 not DDR2-533. Doesn't sound right, is it?

 

I looked into PowerDVD 6 (the latest version) and it apparently only supports the H.264 portion of Purevideo, which is a codec used for high definition content (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this). Unless they come out with a newer version, the only programs/decoders at this time that improve DVD quality and is acceptable to you would be Nvidia's Purevideo Decoder.

As for HP's currect pricing, I believe they are trying to clear out their inventory of Core Solo/Duo processors by lowering the price of the dv2000t and offering the 1 GB upgrade, as Core Duo 2 is expected to debut at the end of August.

For your last question, HP was probably trying to cut corners by putting in either DDR2 400 or 533, as both the dv2000t and dv2000z accept DDR2 667 memory. Since not every consumer is as informed about computers as users on this forum are, HP probably put in the DDR2 400 memory in the dv2000t to lower the cost. In fact, the total memory bandwidth is greater than the front side bus speed of the dv2000t, so putting in DDR2 667 memory result in minimal performance gains.

AMD processors (dv2000z) on the other hand are sensitive to memory types and speeds due to its integrated memory controller; it needs DDR2 667 to function best and it may be that HP put in DDR2 533 as a compromise between cost and speed.

Hope this helps.

 

I thought dv2000t only has FSB 533 and newer Merom has both 667 and 800 version. Am I wrong?

How this could be? Higher memory bandwidth will not gain minimal if putting higher speed memory?

 

This is what the HP website states:

"Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo processor T2500 (2.0 GHz)
This processor will give you the Intel(R) Centrino(R) Duo mobile technology solution you are looking for when ordered with Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection. The Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo processor T2500 features 2.0 GHz processor speed, a large 2MB internal L2 memory cache and 667 MHz front side bus speed. "

 

Core Solo and the cheapest Core Duo have a 533 mhz FSB, but all the others have a 667 mhz FSB. You're also correct about Merom's FSB speeds.

The Core Duo's chipset allows for dual channel memory configuration, so 800 mhz of memory bandwidth (2 x 400) should theoretically be more than enough to fill up the 667 mhz FSB. Of course, that is not always the case in the real world, as Intel's memory controller cannot obtain the full bandwidth, but adding in faster memory (2 x 667 or 1333 mhz) would add little to nothing because the FSB would not be able to handle the extra bandwidth.

However, adding in 667 mhz memory would help the performance of the graphics. Both graphics card options borrow from the main memory so they would have more memory bandwidth to work with. But seeing as how neither the Graphics Media Accelerator 950 nor the 7200 go were ever intended for serious gaming, the performance increases would not make a significant difference when running modern games.

 

I am an AVID player of PACMAN.. Can somebody suggest which GRAPHIC CARD to go for.....Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 or 128MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200 !!!!

 

I don't know how exactly GPU connect to memory. They are suppose to be PCI-E right? Should be restricted at PCI-E standard, not vary too much by memory.

 

hahahaha. Oh man, that was funny . I'm assuming even if you don't have a video card you shouldn't have any trouble playing Pac-Man. hahahahaha
That was a good one Nash.

 

Pac Man? A 7900GTX can barely run that!

 

I would rather pay extra $30 for 7200 with 2000z if they have it. Don't understand why HP config 7200 at 6000z but not 2000z, so strange.

 

I can't wait to see my new DV2000t with the 7200 card. Hopefully I won't be dissappointed.

 

Originally I had the GMA 950 on the DV2000t but apparently my notebook never ceased to work so they shipped me a new one with some upgrades. I received it yesterday and I tried to power on the notebook...it didn't turn on. So I just got off the phone with the manager and now my laptop is upgraded to Nvidia 7200 but I'm hoping that the laptop works this time around otherwise I'm in for 3/3 broken HP DV2000T units that were sent to me.

 

hi, please how is battery life by HP pavilion with Intel core duo T2050 or amd turion X2 A-52 with 14" screen and 6cell battery ?

srry, my english is no good.
thanks