Somebody give me the lowdown on Intel graphics

manveruppd · 23 Feb 2010 at 11:15

Shopping for a netbook and being really confused by all the different integrated graphics options available. Don't think I'll be doing any heavy 3D gaming on it (Audiosurf might be the most graphically-demanding thing I'll run on it) so I see no reason to go for an ION machine, so that leaves Intel graphics, but I have no idea how all their different models compare and I can't find any benchmarks comparing them to each other! Is there any real diffference between, say, the GMA450 and the GMA900? And what about these newer models with the X-prefixes (X3100 etc)? Is there really much in it? Can someone rank them from slowest to fastest for me, and maybe rank them up against desktop GPUs that are roughly equivalent in performance?

BEN_UK · 23 Feb 2010 at 12:27

I find this web site really useful when looking at different graphics cards on laptops.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-900.2178.0.html

lists them all down the left hand side, breaks them up into different classes.

Hope this helps

Thanks Ben

manveruppd · 24 Feb 2010 at 09:54

That really does help actually, very useful! Found some more detailed benchmarks on there as well - it seems all the Intel chipsets are about the same for gaming and the only difference between them is in video playback. Does that sound about right?

Wakinglimb · 24 Feb 2010 at 14:41

In general, they are all a bit rubbish and in some cases not even good enough for Youtube videos. The X4500 is okay for that kind of thing, as the graphics embedded in the new i3/i5 etc.

Which specific ones are you looking at?

manveruppd · 24 Feb 2010 at 17:10

Well, I'd like something with multitouch as normal touchpads drive me up the wall. Decent build quality is also important, so I've been gravitating towards some of the latest Asus and Samsung models. What deters me is that some of the decent-looking ones seem to be going for £280 or so, and for £30 more I could have one of the HP minis with discrete Nvidia graphics! :rolleyes:

:-/