An Overview Of Graphics Subsystems
By
Tom's Guide Team,
published on June 17, 2006
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: 3d, gaming, notebooks, all
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: 3d, gaming, notebooks, all
Contents
- 1. 3D Gaming On A Notebook PC: Fantasy Or Reality?
- 2. Bread And Circuses: Test Scenarios And Benchmarks
- 3. Overview Of Our Test Systems
- 4. Overview Of Our Test Systems, Continued
- 5. First Impressions Of The Acer Aspire 5672WLMi
- 6. Acer Aspire 5672 WLMi Support
- 7. Touchpad And Keyboard
- 8. First Impressions Of The Hewlett Packard Compaq Nx9420
- 9. Graphics Drivers: Internet Support
- 10. HP Compaq Nx9420 Support, Continued
- 11. Touchpad And Keyboard
- 12. First Impressions Of The Asus A7J
- 13. Graphics Drivers: Substandard Internet Support
- 14. A7J Support
- 15. Analog And Digital TV Plus FM Radio
- 16. Webcam As Notebook Watchdog
- 17. Sound Quality
- 18. First Impressions Of The Alienware Aurora M7700
- 19. Graphics Drivers: Excellent Internet Support
- 20. Alienware Aurora Support
- 21. Alienware Aurora Support, Continued
- 22. A Collection Of Sensible And Senseless Accessories
- 23. Sound Quality
- 24. The Graphics Processor Can Be Upgraded, But Be Careful
- 25. System Restore And Recovery Is Not For Wimps
- 26. An Overview Of Graphics Subsystems
- 27. Display Quality: Static Images
- 28. Display Quality Assessment: Static Images
- 29. Display Quality: The Motion Of Gaming
- 30. Is Gaming Possible At Native Resolution?
- 31. System Temperatures And Noise Levels While Gaming
- 32. Noise Levels For Various Usage Scenarios
- 33. Install And Load Times For Games
- 34. Benchmarks And Settings
- 35. Synthetic Game Performance
- 36. Real-World Game Performance
- 37. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
- 38. Spellforce 2
- 39. Need For Speed: Most Wanted V1.3
- 40. System Performance
- 41. MobileMark2005: System Performance And Battery Life
- 42. Gaming Battery Lifetimes
- 43. Which Graphics Notebook For Whom?
- 44. Is Notebook SLI The Future?
- 45. Summary And Conclusions
26. An Overview Of Graphics Subsystems
The following table presents an overview of the graphics subsystems in our four test machines.
| Notebook | Graphics Processor | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Alienware Aurora m7700 | Nvidia Geforce Go 7800 GTX | Forceware 83.40 |
| Acer 5672 WLmi | ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 | Catalyst 6.3 (8.231) |
| Asus A7J | ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 | Catalyst 5.11 (8.183) |
| HP Compaq nx9420 | ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 | Catalyst 6.3 (8204) |
To enable direct comparison with current desktop graphics cards, we also include their technical specifications in the tables that follow next.
| Notebook | Graphics Processor | Memory | Graphics Processor Speed | Memory Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop Top Model | Nvidia 7900 GTX 512 | 512 MB | 650 MHz | 800 MHz |
| Desktop Top Model | ATI X1900XTX | 512 MB | 650 MHz | 775 MHz |
| Alienware Aurora m7700 | Nvidia Go 7800 GTX | 256 MB | 400 MHz | 550 MHz |
| Acer 5672 WLmi | ATI MR X1400 | 128 MB + 384 MB Shared | 446 MHz | 342 MHz |
| Asus A7J | ATI MR X1600 | 256 MB | 446 MHz | 396 MHz |
| HP Compaq nx9420 | ATI MR X1600 | 256 MB | 425 MHz | 378 MHz |
| Notebook | Graphics Processor | # Pixel-Pipeline | #Vertex- Shader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop Top Model | Nvidia 7900 GTX 512 | 24 | 8 |
| Desktop Top Model | ATI X1900XTX | 16 | 8 |
| Alienware Aurora m7700 | Nvidia Go 7800 GTX | 24 | 8 |
| Acer 5672 WLmi | ATI MR X1400 | 4 | 2 |
| Asus A7J | ATI MR X1600 | 12 | 5 |
| HP Compaq nx9420 | ATI MR X1600 | 12 | 5 |
All the graphics chips we looked at support Pixelshader 3.0 and HDR rendering. As you'll see from our benchmark results, the mere presence of features doesn't really make that much difference particularly when the performance capabilities of a graphics processor can't meet the demands that a game might put on it.
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