By
Uwe v.d. Weyden,
published on January 26, 2001
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: nuts, and, bolts, of, notebooks | Themes: Business Notebooks
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: nuts, and, bolts, of, notebooks | Themes: Business Notebooks
Contents
12. Notebook Graphics
The latest desktop 3D chips like those from NVIDIA come equipped with up to 64 MB DDR-RAM. Some of these 3D solutions consume up to 40W of power. It is needless to say that this power budget is unsuitable for notebooks. In a mobile PC real estate and power consumption are more important then 3D performance. Most desktop users know the big 3D players ATI and NVIDIA. NVIDIA just introduced its mobile chipset Geforce2 Go. Besides this newcomer, ATI, Silicon Motion and S3 are the big players for notebook graphics solutions today.
| Silicon Motion | S3 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Features | Lynx (SM910)* | LynxE (SM81x)* | Lynx3D (SM820)* | LynxEM4 (SM710) | LynxEM+ (SM712) | Lynx3DM (SM721) | Savage
MX |
| Power / worst case | 0.55W | 0.55W | 1.1W | 1.9W | |||
| max. memory | 4 MB | 4 MB | 6.5 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 16 MB | 16 MB |
| built-in memory | 4 MB | 2 MB | 2.5 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 8 MB | - |
| Dual View | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| DVD support | - | - | X | - | - | X | X |
| 3D support | X | - | X | - | - | X | X |
* Phased out
| Nvidia | Trident | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Features | Geforce2 Go ** | Cyber 9525 DVD* | CyberBlade XP | Blade T16 | Blade T64 | Blade XP | Blade XP Turbo |
| Power / worst case | 2.8 W | 2.3W | 1.8W | 2.0W | 2.3W | 2.6W | |
| max. memory | 32 MB | 2.5 MB | 32 MB | 16 MB | 32 MB | 32 MB | 32 MB |
| built-in memory | - | 2.5 MB | - | - | - | - | - |
| Dual View | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| DVD support | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| 3D support | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
* Phased out
** Geforce2 Go is currently not a shipping product
| ATI | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Features | Rage LT Pro | Rage Mobility L | Rage Mobility EC | Rage Mobility P | Rage Mobility M | Rage Mobility M1 | Rage Mobility 128 | Rage Mobility M4 (AGP 4x) | Rage Mobility M4 (AGP 4x) |
| Power / worst case | 1.8W (w/4 MB) | 1.3W (w/8 MB) | 1.3W (w/8 MB) | 1.3W (w/8 MB) | 2.2W (w/8 MB) | 2.2W (w/8 MB) | 2.2W (w/8 MB) | ||
| max. memory | 8 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB | 16 MB | 16 MB | 32 MB |
| built-in memory | - | 4 MB | - | - | 4 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB | 8 MB | 16 MB |
| Dual View | X | - | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| DVD support | - | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| 3D support | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
- Previous page Intel 440MX - 440BX's Little Brother
- Next page Reduce Size - Mobile Graphics Chips...
Old, but very nice article. Thx