Nvidia
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
My last compilation of laptop graphics card benchmarks is too old, so here you have the new version. I’m only covering the last generation of graphics card, and only the most common ones: if the graphics card you are looking for is not here, go to Notebookcheck or use Google (look for the 3DMark Vantage Performance score of the card for a quick comparison). Some remarks:
- I know, the tables at Notebookcheck are much more informative, but can be confusing and some info is lacking. I think this presentation is more useful for many people.
- 3DMark Vantage is a synthetic benchmark. It gives you an approximate idea of the performance of a graphics card, but actual gaming performance of a card can be quite different. It’s better to compare ATI vs ATI or Nvidia vs Nvidia, because many games are better optimized for a brand or the other.
- Crysis benchmarks on High settings (1024×768) are included. Crysis is not a very current game, but it gives you a good idea of the ability of a card to play current games at high settings (remember that 30 fps is generally considered as smooth gameplay). But some newer games, such as Metro 2033, are more demanding (have a look at the comment about quality levels of Metro 2033 in the Yougamers review).
- I have only included single card configurations, mainly to keep things simple, but also because the contribution of the 2nd card is very variable depending on the benchmark/game, driver version and so.
- Bottom line: get at least a Nvidia GeForce GT 330M if you plan to play games, or a GTS 360M or faster if you are serious about gaming.
Feel free to post comments to add your experiences and other relevant information (preferably with links to the sources!).
Are you interested on laptops sold in Spain? Go to the Spanish version.
Tags: ATI, benchmarks, gaming laptops, graphics cards, Nvidia
Posted in
hardware, laptops |
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Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
If you play games on your laptop, you are probably interested on keeping your display drivers up to date, but depending on the brand of the graphics card it can be difficult to do. I have recently found an interesting site to dowload drivers: TousLesDrivers.com, a French site compiling lots of drivers. You can always check the support site of the manufacturer of your laptop, but these are the less-often updated. So your choices are mainly:
I downloaded Catalyst 9.12 for my Dell Studio 1537 (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450) from TousLesDrivers.com and the installation was a breeze. No need for Mobility Modder and so. And stability has been rock solid!
If you know other sources of drivers for laptops, please share them!
Tags: ATI, drivers, graphics cards, Nvidia
Posted in
laptops, software |
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Thursday, October 8th, 2009
So it seems according to the review of the HP Mini 311 published at PC Magazine:
It handled all of my 720p and 1080i (24 fps) clips with great color accuracy, good picture detail, and they didn’t suffer from any lag. When playing 1080p (24fps) movie clips in H264 and WMV formats, however, there was noticeable lag. Let’s just say it wasn’t a smooth experience.
According to the author of the review, several players were tested, including the popular VLC and Media Player Classic Home Cinema.
On the other hand, Laptop Magazine reports flawless playback of 1080p files, but they did only test one single file. Maybe they were lucky? Maybe the Intel Atom/GeForce combo lacks the muscle to play high-bitrate 1080p videos?
I think we need a few more reviews and reports to be published to have a conclusion. It could be a problem with that system alone, or a more general issue.
Tags: netbook, Nvidia
Posted in
HP, laptops |
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
And priced from 329 GBP. That is more expensive than the typical netbook, but this small laptop features a 11.6″ screen and is based on the Nvidia Ion platform, so it uses a GeForce 9400M G graphics card instead of the Intel GMA 950.
Source: HP UK.
Tags: netbook, Nvidia
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HP, laptops |
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Friday, September 25th, 2009
If you need more graphical performance than the typical netbook with Intel GMA 950 graphics can offer, you are probably looking for a netbook based on the Nvidia Ion platform, that pairs a GeForce 9400M G with an Atom processor. The first netbook based on the Nvidia Ion platform to be widely available is the HP Mini 311: it has a 1366×768, 11.6″ screen (so it stretches the definition of netbook), Intel Atom N270 or N280 processor, 160 GB HD and several interesting configuration options (Bluetooth, WWAN…). The price of the base configuration is 399 USD.
Source: HP. Found via: Engadget.
Tags: netbook, Nvidia
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HP, laptops |
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Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
If you live in the US you can already order the HP Pavilion dv2z with dual-core processors: either an AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 for 25 USD over the MV-40, or an AMD Turion Neo X2 L625 (with twice the cache) for 75 USD. This new dv2z uses a newer chipset with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 instead of the older X1250 (Source: HP USA). I was told that the dual-core models are not going to be available in Spain (so probably in Europe) until December.
It seems that price of the Lenovo Ideapad S12, the 12″ ultraportable based on the Nvidia Ion platform, is going to be 379 € in Italy. In my opinion this price is very low compared with the usual prices in Spain, maybe computers are much cheaper in Italy… (Source: Notebook Italia).
Tags: AMD, HP, Lenovo, Nvidia, ultraportables
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HP, laptops |
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Monday, May 25th, 2009
There is a lot of expectation about netbooks based on the Nvidia Ion platform, because they use a GeForce 9400M graphics card that offers a good increase in graphical performance over current Intel offerings. Lenovo is first announcing a portable device based on this platform, the Lenovo Ideapad S12 (is it a big netbook or a small laptop?), and some lucky people have seen one and published their hands-on:
Tags: netbook, Nvidia
Posted in
laptops |
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Thursday, March 5th, 2009
The guys at Notebookcheck published the first Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M benchmarks. They conclude that it is an improvement over the 9800M GTX, but not a huge one, because it is a 55 nm version of the 9800M GTX and not a completely new chip such as the desktop GTX280.
But the guys at the Notebook Review forums do not like the results. I hope they publish their own benchmarks soon, just to compare.
And if you are in Europe, did you know that Cizmo is already offering laptops with the GTX 280M? At least in Spain it is!
Tags: benchmarks, gaming laptops, GeForce, graphics cards, laptop, Nvidia
Posted in
hardware, laptops |
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Saturday, January 17th, 2009
So the guys at the Notebook Review forums found it: the Nvidia GeForce 9500M found in the Dell Studio XPS 13 is not a single graphics card, but two: an integrated GeForce 9400M G plus a GeForce 9200M GS with 256 MB of dedicated memory, working in a Hybrid SLI configuration. The expected performance is higher than that of the 9400M G alone and lower than a 9500M GS, so the naming seems right, but maybe the actual performance is not as high as you expected when you saw the 9500M model number.
In addition, as Hybrid SLI is only supported under Windows Vista, so users of other operating systems will only be able to use one of the cards (probably the 9400M G).
Source: Notebook Review forums and Dell Studio XPS 13 setup guide (go to page 52).
Tags: Dell, Dell Studio, Dell Studio XPS, Dell XPS, GeForce, graphics cards, laptop, Nvidia
Posted in
Dell, hardware, laptops, software |
6 Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
There is a lot of interest about the graphics card of the new aluminium Macbook, but there is little information available at the moment. I will try to summarize here the available benchmarks:
3DMark 06
Games
- Crysis. 1024×768, medium settings, AA/AF off: 13.2 FPS. From the PC Magazine review.
- World in conflict. 1024×768, medium settings, AA/AF off: 11 FPS. From the PC Magazine review.
- Spore: video. From the review published at Gizmodo.
- Warhammer Online: video.
- Quake 4: 1024×768: 58.7 FPS. From the review published at CNET. 1024×768, maximum settings: 38.7 FPS. From the Macworld benchmarks.
- Call of Duty 4: 1280×800, optimal settings: 23.9 FPS, falls to 11 in complex scenes. From the review published at Laptop Magazine.
- Team Fortress 2: 1280×800, max settings, AA 2x, HDR lighting, no motion blur, Vertical Sync on: smooth, around 35 FPS. From Mac Forums. Video (includes Oblivion too).
- Half Life 2: 1280×800, max settings, AA 4x: always smooth. From Mac Forums.
- Portal: 1280×800, max settings, AA 2x: always smooth. From Mac Forums.
- There are a few more tests in the same thread of the Mac Forums and Macworld benchmarks Quake 4, Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 2004.
In addition, AnandTech publishes a comparison of current integrated graphics, including the GeForce 9400, but the desktop version. The difference in performance between the desktop and Macbook versions of the GeForce 9400 is unknown.
Did you find more benchmarks? Post a comment and tell us.
Tags: Apple, benchmarks, graphics cards, Macbook, Nvidia, Nvidia GeForce, performance
Posted in
hardware |
3 Comments »
