Laptop Graphics cards

What to expect

Published on September 9, 2005 By Thomas Thomassen In Video Cards

Hi.
I just bought a new lapop recently. I am going to use it mainly for 3D graphics. The requirements where 1GB RAM and a DirectX 9 GFX card. What I got was a Packard Bell 1.6Ghz, 1GB Ram, 60GB HD, Nvidia GeForce Go 6400 128MB RAM (not shared).

The desktop I have standing here is a 1.8GHz, 768MB RAM, 80GB, Nvidia GeForce 3 128MB RAM. I tried GTA San Andreas on both computers, and the XPBench untiulity from Stardock. What sortof surpriced me was that the desktop system with the old Geforce 3 card ran San Andreas better and got better benchmark.

Now, I am not entirely sure what to expect from a laptop gfx card, but I still find it odd that it doesn't match up better with the older graphicscard of my desktop. So I am asking you lot out there. What can you expect?

(Note: I didn't buy the most expencive laptop out there due to my budget. I couldn't afford the latest hardware so I bought the cheapest laptop that had 1GB ram and a standalone DirectX 9 gfx card)

Comments

LDiCesare

on Sep 09, 2005

Most laptops use ATI gfx cards, I suspect they behave better on laptops than nVidia. There are often weird drivers for mobile graphics cards, you could check the drivers you're using on both machines, it may explain the difference.

Lantec

on Sep 09, 2005

What I got was a Packard Bell

Are they still in business? I haven't seen one for sale in a couple years.

thomassen

on Sep 09, 2005

Geforce 3's drivers: 71.84
Geforce Go 6400's drivers: 73.00

And I have to make a correction. The Geforce 3 Ti 200 card had 64MB RAM. Not 128 as I originally said. And apparently it's a AGP4.

thomassen

on Sep 09, 2005

Anyone knows of any good benchmark programs?

Zoomba

on Sep 09, 2005

3DMark

thomassen

on Sep 09, 2005

hmm.. 3DMark cost money, something I don't feel lilkepaying for running a program once.
And the minimum requirements are a 2GHz CPU...

PurrBall

on Sep 09, 2005

The newest nVidia is 78.01

Your desktop has a faster CPU. The CPU has a HUGE impact on graphics performance. It is not just the graphics card that does it; you need the fastest CPU possible to take advantage of the speed of the graphics card.

DRavisher

on Sep 09, 2005

3Dmark is free. You can pay for it to get additional features, but just benchmarking is totaly free.

SoliD_NuTs

on Sep 09, 2005

it might be because GeForce 3 uses an older DX version so it renders faster with out having all the eye candy dx9 features.

happends to me with cs:s

FX5200 DX7 50-70fps 1024x
ATI9600xt DX9 35-40 1024x
difference is dx7 renders water and light effects like sh1t and heeps of other eye candy effects. but other then that it looks pretty much the same.

SoliD_NuTs

on Sep 09, 2005

by the way 3DMark can benchmark cards using diffrenet DX versions:)

thomassen

on Sep 10, 2005

Your desktop has a faster CPU. The CPU has a HUGE impact on graphics performance. It is not just the graphics card that does it; you need the fastest CPU possible to take advantage of the speed of the graphics card.

True, but I didn't think 200Mhz should have that much difference.

it might be because GeForce 3 uses an older DX version so it renders faster with out having all the eye candy dx9 features.

Does it now have DX9? the minimum req for GTA:SA is a DX9 compatible gfx card with at least 64MB RAM.

3Dmark is free. You can pay for it to get additional features, but just benchmarking is totaly free.

by the way 3DMark can benchmark cards using diffrenet DX versions:)

Ok, but it still got 2Ghz as a minimum...

thomassen

on Sep 10, 2005

btw, just noticed from the 78.01 release notes: Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0c and OpenGL® 2.0 support
Hasn't nVidia supported DX9.0c until now?

thomassen

on Sep 12, 2005

hmm... Turns out y GeForce 3 supports DX8.1. But it beats the laptopcard on most other specs...

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