Notebook Graphics Hardware Guide
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 |
128 |
256/512 |
800 |
|
125.3 |
---|
M Radeon HD 3870 |
700 |
|
11.2 |
320 |
700 |
60.8 |
GDDR3 |
256 |
512 |
1900 |
|
448 |
---|
MattSlagle2008-07-22 11:23:57