Radeon X1300 vs integrated Intel GMA950

[alimoalem]

i won't be doing anything graphic intensive but is the GMA950 enough to run everything for vista? i hear integrated graphics may not be enough for Aero...will integrated graphics not suffice?

thanks for all help

 

[Enig101]

GMA 950 will probably be enough to run Vista, but my understanding is if you want the full whack and you want it to run smooth you need a dedicated card.

This thread has some comments on dedicated/integrated video and how they related to DVD playback and Vista.

 

[fbrdphreak]

I've talked to people who ran Vista Aero on GMA950 and they've said it runs smooth. Obviously you just need a lot of RAM for smooth performance, esp with GMA950 using shared RAM.

I'd still get the MR X1300 tho, since it will offer better video playback; unless you need 100% max battery life. The MR X1300 will consume more power than the GMA950

 

[alimoalem]

i don't understand the video playback part...i hear it a lot so can someone please clarify? does it mean playing dvds off the dvd drive?

 

[alimoalem]

also i tried searching for battery benchmarks for the GMA950 vs the x1300 but i can't find any...does anyone know a site where i can find them out on? thanks again

 

[fbrdphreak]

It will be very difficult to find an apples to apples comparison of GMA950 vs ATI MR X1300.

ATI's Mobility Radeon graphics chips have their AVIVO video encoding/decoding engine built in which will result in better quality video playback and lower CPU utilization. For the average movie watcher, you probably won't notice a difference. On something like a 17" WUXGA screen on a multimedia machine, it will probably be a noticeable difference.

 

[alimoalem]

alright thanks for the clarification fbrdphreak. i'll be getting a 15" max (preferable 14") so hopefully i won't see any problems

 

[fbrdphreak]

There's nothing wrong with video on GMA950, its just that ATI's AVIVO engine is better. If you don't game, then pick the system based on the rest of its merits, not GMA950 vs MR X1300. Then look at your options and go from there

 

[route66]

Don't you have to buy the codec to use AVIVO?

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: route66
Don't you have to buy the codec to use AVIVO?

Nope. AVIVO is free to use if you own an ATI GPU. nVidia is the one that charges for their hardware decoder (PureVideo).