Question on laptop graphics

[frozentundra123456]

Hi all.
I was looking at a laptop from Best Buy that had an nVidia 310M graphics card, 512mb.
Does anyone know what the capabilities of this card are? I would like to be able to play most new games at low to moderate settings. I was looking at some older laptops with an ATI HD4650. Is the 310M weaker or stronger than this, and does anyone know a desktop card that it would compare to??
Thanks for any information regarding this card. I can keep up with ATI cards, but not with the confusing naming of cards from nVidia.

 

[Soleron]

The 310M has 16 shaders at 625MHz/1530MHz. I would expect it to be 10-15% faster than a 9400GT which has 16 shaders at 550/1400MHz, because of higher clocks and the fact it uses GT200 shaders rather than G80 which is a slight boost.

The Mobility 4650 has 320 shaders at 550MHz. I would expect it to be 10% slower than a desktop 4650 which has 320 shaders at 600MHz.

Looking up desktop benches for both of those I would say the Mobility 4650 is about twice as fast as the 310M.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Thanks for the reply Soleron. The laptop with the 310M was fairly cheap, so I figured it was not a very fast card. The information you gave is what I was looking for. I probably will try to find a laptop with the 4650M. The one with the 310M has an i3 processor which is good, but for light gaming an older dual core with a 4650 would probably be better.

 

[goldcrow]

Not too sure but the 310M would be on the same level as the mobility 4570. I agree with Soleron, the 4650 would really be twice the 310M since it is indeed twice as fast as the 4570. I should know because I have a mobility 4570.
May I ask though what games you plan on playing on this laptop?

 

[Dribble]

4650 is a lot faster, 4570 is slightly slower.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic-Cards.130.0.html

 

[frozentundra123456]

Not too sure but the 310M would be on the same level as the mobility 4570. I agree with Soleron, the 4650 would really be twice the 310M since it is indeed twice as fast as the 4570. I should know because I have a mobility 4570.
May I ask though what games you plan on playing on this laptop?

Thanks for the info.
I am planning some newer games such as ME2, Modern Warfare 2, Supreme Commander 2, etc. Also some online games such as League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter, Team Fortress 2 and Global Agenda. I know a 4650M is borderline for these games, but it is for my grandson. He will be satisfied with medium settings and a 15 in laptop display. I know a desktop would give better performance for the money. However, he is moving out of state but will be visiting us a lot so a laptop would be convenient to take back and forth.

 

[tcsenter]

I don't purchase notebooks with ATI Mobility graphics (whether discrete or integrated parts) from the big OEM brands - you are forced to depend on the OEM for drivers and most OEMs have a piss-poor track record of driver releases. Sure, you can use the Mobility Modder thing, which will break the driver signing (the digital signing will no longer be valid). Not too important for 32-bit Windows but under 64-bit Vista and Win7, using unsigned drivers is a PITA.

I recently bought an off-lease Dell Latitude D630 with NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M (basically GeForce 8400GS). Unlike AMD's drivers, the latest mobile graphics drivers downloaded direct from NVIDIA (with acceleration support for Flash videos) fully supports this graphics part and installed just fine.

 

[Acanthus]

I don't purchase notebooks with ATI Mobility graphics (whether discrete or integrated parts) from the big OEM brands - you are forced to depend on the OEM for drivers and most OEMs have a piss-poor track record of driver releases. Sure, you can use the Mobility Modder thing, which will break the driver signing (the digital signing will no longer be valid). Not too important for 32-bit Windows but under 64-bit Vista and Win7, using unsigned drivers is a PITA.

I recently bought an off-lease Dell Latitude D630 with NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M (basically GeForce 8400GS). Unlike AMD's drivers, the latest mobile graphics drivers downloaded direct from NVIDIA (with acceleration support for Flash videos) fully supports this graphics part and installed just fine.

Nvidia is also notoriously bad for supporting their mobile products via driver updates.

 

[tcsenter]

Nvidia is also notoriously bad for supporting their mobile products via driver updates.

Not anymore, at least for about a year since the Verde Driver Program. They release semi-regular updates covering the mobile parts, though not nearly as often as their desktop parts.

The point is, AMD no longer provides reference drivers that support ANY mobile parts - at all.

 

[Acanthus]

Not anymore, at least for about a year since the Verde Driver Program. They release regular updates covering the mobile parts, though not as often as their desktop parts.

The point is, AMD no longer provides reference drivers that support ANY mobile parts - at all.

Do these drivers cover older cards as well? Or are they for the most part from the newest cards moving forward?

This is good news if one of the two is finally supporting their mobile chips properly.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Not anymore, at least for about a year since the Verde Driver Program. They release semi-regular updates covering the mobile parts, though not nearly as often as their desktop parts.

The point is, AMD no longer provides reference drivers that support ANY mobile parts - at all.

-On the contrary, check out the Catalyst 10.2 & 10.3 topic. 10.3's are a new mobile driver update, and ATI is now setting the ambitious goal of monthly mobile driver updates with an opt-out program for OEMs rather than an opt-in.

Pre-HD2000 cards will remain on the old OEM support model (despite the fact that I'm running ATI's Mobile X1250 9.3 drivers just fine on my laptop).

Nvidia's Verde program has a roughly quarterly schedule.

Nevertheless, I'd go with the 4650 as even without driver updates (Although it will be getting an update soon and with luck regularly thereafter) it will always be a more powerful card than the 310.

 

[tviceman]

Nvidia is also notoriously bad for supporting their mobile products via driver updates.

You are out of the loop.

When was the last time amd/ati released reference drivers for the mobile gpu's? About six weeks ago, I was browsing through AMD's site and their mobile drivers page had only links to the laptop vendors. Nvidia, on the other hand, has been steadily releasing driver updates for some time now.

 

[Acanthus]

You are out of the loop.

When was the last time amd/ati released reference drivers for the mobile gpu's? About six weeks ago, I was browsing through AMD's site and their mobile drivers page had only links to the laptop vendors. Nvidia, on the other hand, has been steadily releasing driver updates for some time now.

Good to know, as ive had a LOT of people complain about driver issues with mobile nvidia chips because of a lack of updates in the past.

I'm glad to see they are taking steps to correct it.

I did read about the new ATI driver program and im pleased to see they are also adopting much better mobile driver support.

 

[tcsenter]

-On the contrary, check out the Catalyst 10.2 & 10.3 topic. 10.3's are a new mobile driver update, and ATI is now setting the ambitious goal of monthly mobile driver updates with an opt-out program for OEMs rather than an opt-in.

Well those aren't released yet and at present fall into the category of 'wishful thinking...checks in the mail'. Hopefully it proves true but seeing is believing.

Do these drivers cover older cards as well? Or are they for the most part from the newest cards moving forward?

Its mostly going to be GeForce 8 based mobile parts and forward. Support for GF 7 and 6 is winding down so those will be going legacy very soon.

 

[goldcrow]

Thanks for the info.
I am planning some newer games such as ME2, Modern Warfare 2, Supreme Commander 2, etc. Also some online games such as League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter, Team Fortress 2 and Global Agenda. I know a 4650M is borderline for these games, but it is for my grandson. He will be satisfied with medium settings and a 15 in laptop display. I know a desktop would give better performance for the money. However, he is moving out of state but will be visiting us a lot so a laptop would be convenient to take back and forth.

I've only tried two games right now with the stock drivers that came with my Asus laptop. MW2 runs on max reso (1366x768) on low-mid settings on multiplayer (12-18 players) and can handle it fine. Dragon Age runs on max reso (better on 1280x720), mid settings w/o frame buffer effects and AA. I'm quite satisfied with this 4570, how much more with that 4650.