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Notebook Graphics Hardware Guide
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MattSlagle View Drop Down
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Joined: 03 Apr 2008
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Posts: 1197 		  Quote MattSlagle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Notebook Graphics Hardware Guide
    Posted: 06 Jun 2008 at 3:25pm

Notebook Video Card Hardware Guide

Gaming notebooks need a discrete video card to play any of the current video 3D video games on the market.  Information and products in this category are lacking, so this guide was designed and developed to go over exactly what products are out there and their capabilities.  Most notebook barebone systems either use integrated graphics built into the chipset or use a discrete module (MXM) that is directly connected to the notebook motherboard.  It is rare and only a few notebook barebone systems accept interchangeable discrete video cards.  However, the different brands of notebook manufacturers create their own different modules for interchangeability.  It is impossible to swap a GPU module from one brand of barebone to another. 

Terms and Technologies

IGP: Integrated Graphics Processor is the small GPU inside the chipset of either a notebook or desktop motherboard.  Uses the bare minimum amount of graphic power to accomplish the basic graphical tasks of displaying operating systems and non GPU intensive applications and software.  Also known as "shared graphics".
 

Integrated Graphics

Integrated graphic solutions are small low-powered GPUs placed inside or along with the chipset on a motherboard.  Usually uses the systems memory for graphic storage and total system performance can decrease with high graphical demands.  Capable of only handling the basic graphic demands of applications and software.

 

Model

Chipset

Clock Speed

Vertex/Pixel Shader Model

DirectX

Pixel Pipelines /Shader Amount

Max Memory

Bandwidth

Intel GMA 950

GM965

250 MHz

3.0/2.0

9.0

4 / NA

224 MB

10.7 GB/s

Intel GMA X3100

945GM

667 MHz

4.0/4.0

10.0

NA / 8

384  MB

12.8 GB/s

ATI Radeon Xpress 1270

690 Series

400 MHz

  

9.0b

4

1024 MiB

10.7 GB/s

 

MXM Graphic Cards

A Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) is an interconnect standard for GPUs (MXM Graphics Modules) in notebooks using PCI Express created by NVidia and several notebook manufacturers. The goal was to create a non-proprietary, industry standard socket, so one could easily upgrade the graphics processor in a notebook, without having to buy a whole new system or relying on proprietary vendor upgrades.  However, notebook manufacturers each produce their own version currently, and upgrading these modules is impossible at the moment.  What comes with the notebook is what you are stuck with for the life of the notebook.

 

Model Core clock max (MHz) Peak fillrate Shaders Memory Power Consumption (Watts) Theoretical Shader Processing Rate (Gigaflops)
billion pixel/s billion bilinear texel/s Stream Processors Clock (MHz) Band max (GB/s) DRAM type Bus (bit) Megabytes Effective DDR Clock (MHz)
GeForce 8400M G 400 3.2 3.2 8 800 9.6 GDDR3 64 128/256 1200 15 19.2
GeForce 8400M GS 400 3.2 3.2 16 800 9.6 GDDR3 64 64/128/256 1200 15 38.4
GeForce 8400M GT 450 3.6 3.6 16 900 19.2 GDDR3 128 128/256/512 1200 17 43.2
GeForce 8600M GS 600 4.8 4.8 16 1200 12.8/22.4 DDR2/GDDR3 128 128/256/512 800/1400 19 57.6
GeForce 8600M GT 475 3.8 7.6 32 950 12.8/22.4 DDR2/GDDR3 128 128/256/512 800/1400 22 91.2
GeForce 8700M GT 625 5.0 10 32 1250 25.6 GDDR3 128 256/512 1600 29 120
GeForce 8800M GTS 500 8.0 16 64 1250 51.2 GDDR3 256 512 1600 35 240
GeForce 8800M GTX 500 12.0 24 96 1250 51.2 GDDR3 256 512 1600 37 360
                         
GeForce 9300M G 400 3.2 3.2 16 800 9.6 GDDR3 64 256 1200 15 19.2
GeForce 9500M GS 479 3.8 7.6 32 950 22.4 GDDR3 128 512 1400 17 91.2
GeForce 9650M GS 625 5.0 10 32 1250 25.6 GDDR3 128 512 1600 29 120
GeForce 9700M GT 625 5.0 10 32 1550 25.6 GDDR3 128 512 1600   148.8
GeForce 9700M GTS 530 6.8 12.7 48 1325 51.2 GDDR3 256 512 1600   190
GeForce 9800M GTS 600 9.6 19.2 64 1500 51.2 GDDR3 256 512 1600   240

GeForce 9800M GT

 500 12 24 96 1250 51.2 GDDR3 256 512 1600   360

GeForce 9800M GTX

 500 14 28 112 1250 51.2 GDDR3 256 1024 1600   420
                         
Quadro FX 1600M 625 5.0 10.0 32 1250 25.6 GDDR3 128 512 1600 50 120
                         
M Radeon HD 2600 522     120 522 12.8 DDR2/GDDR3 128256/512 800   125.3
M Radeon HD 3870 700   11.2 320 700 60.8 GDDR3 256 512 1900   448


Edited by MattSlagle - 22 Jul 2008 at 11:23am
Matt Slagle
AVADirect Research and Developement
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