Dell Laptop GFX Cards- Intel 950 vs GeForce Go 7300: Much difference?

ixoy

The other half is looking to purchase a Dell Laptop and is trying to decide between the basic Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphic offered or pay €157 for the upgrade to 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7300 TurboCache.

He'll primarily be playing games on his various consoles but would like the laptop to be able to play a couple of PC games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Elder Scrolls III" (which can be reasonably GFX heavy).

The reviews for the GeForce are pretty hard to find. One site seemed to but it one category above the Intel chipset, which would suggest it's not a huge difference. However, there is the fact that the Intel seems to use the PC's shared memory (there's 1GB) whereas the NVIDIA would have its own dedicated memory chipset. This would, I'd hope, have some sort of improvement for the games' performance.
As an aside, he'd be getting the Windows Vista basic home package, so he wouldn't need the extra power for Aero.

Does anyone have any decent idea if it's worth shelling out the extra money for the graphics card upgrade? It'd be too much hassle to upgrade later so it's something that's best decided now. Thankee!

TerrorFirmer

The 7300 doesn't have much memory of its own either, it's mostly shared. It's not a terrible card, but functional and in terms of games incomparably better then the GMA (which in fairness, isn't remotely designed for games anyway).

The Go7300 is a much better choice for games, but

1) The GMA will run those mentioned titles fine
2) It's certainly not worth such a large upgrade price

In my opinion -> Go the AMD Dual Core build 1501 laptop - not too expensive at all, and instead of the GMA it comes with the X1150 - in between, if you will, but much closer to the 7300 then the GMA and definately a better choice for games.

Those games are old though, and again any of the chips mentioned will run them but for anything beyond those sort of games I wouldn't rely on the GMA at all.

ixoy

HavoK wrote:

In my opinion -> Go the AMD Dual Core build 1501 laptop - not too expensive at all, and instead of the GMA it comes with the X1150 - in between, if you will, but much closer to the 7300 then the GMA and definately a better choice for games.

Thanks, I'll point that out to him.

I did, btw, mean "Elder Scrolls IV", not "III". I only copped on when I saw you describe it as "old". I'd hope that could be played at a reasonably functional low-res.

TerrorFirmer

Ah, Oblivion - not possible to run on the GMA in any shape or form. Won't run overly great on the X1150 but will run (oldblivion, designed for old and underpowered cards, would greatly help), and the same for the 7300 although it will run much more comfortably on that card.

christophicus

Oblivion is a very punishing game on your system , I would be very suprised if either card were able to run it at a decent frame rate. Even if it were it would be on the lowest res with nothing turned on I would reacon.

Maybe you could wait for the intel G965 chip, as it scored better then an x1600 although many people think it was an unfair test. Check it put here

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2007/03/12/gdc2007_intel_rig_demo_against_amd/

The only thing is is that it could be a long time before it comes out.