The Intel GMA x3100 is not a discrete graphics card. In other words, it uses the main CPU to do graphics processing. It also shares your system RAM.
The Radeon card, on the other hand, has a processor (GPU) that is dedicated solely to graphics work. This frees up your main CPU to do other things. The Radeon card also has its own video RAM, so it doesn't take up any of your main system RAM.
The Radeon card (or any discrete video card for that matter) is going to let you play games and do intensive rendering (like 3D autocad diagrams) much better than the integrated graphics card. However, for applications that are very CPU-intensive, like Photoshop, the separate video card won't make much of a difference. (Unless you apply certain filters, which render faster on a discreet card.)
The integrated graphics card (X3100) is not going to perform well on the latest games. It WILL, however, play slightly older games just fine -- though not necessarily at 60 frames per second or with all the visual effects turned on.
Bottom Line: The Intel graphics chipset is quite good for anyone that doesn't play games or do 3D work with their notebook.
The Intel GMA x3100 is not a discrete graphics card. In other words, it uses the main CPU to do graphics processing. It also shares your system RAM.
The Radeon card, on the other hand, has a processor (GPU) that is dedicated solely to graphics work. This frees up your main CPU to do other things. The Radeon card also has its own video RAM, so it doesn't take up any of your main system RAM.
The Radeon card (or any discrete video card for that matter) is going to let you play games and do intensive rendering (like 3D autocad diagrams) much better than the integrated graphics card. However, for applications that are very CPU-intensive, like Photoshop, the separate video card won't make much of a difference. (Unless you apply certain filters, which render faster on a discreet card.)
The integrated graphics card (X3100) is not going to perform well on the latest games. It WILL, however, play slightly older games just fine -- though not necessarily at 60 frames per second or with all the visual effects turned on.
Bottom Line: The Intel graphics chipset is quite good for anyone that doesn't play games or do 3D work with their notebook.
I couldn't have hoped for a better answer than that: thank you. The only thing is that the GMA x3100 says "with 144mb of RAM" But the ATI says "with 128mb of Ram". But you said that the GMA had none of it's own ram, and just stole it from the central ram thing...
Lox wrote:
I couldn't have hoped for a better answer than that: thank you. The only thing is that the GMA x3100 says "with 144mb of RAM" But the ATI says "with 128mb of Ram". But you said that the GMA had none of it's own ram, and just stole it from the central ram thing...
Thanks loads,
Lox
The Radeon card's 128 MB memory is located on the card itself. On thew other hand, the Intel X3100's 144 MB memory is borrowed/shared from the computer's system memory (RAM). Also, the Radeon's dedicated graphics memory is faster than system RAM.
{quote:title=Will : Hi ! wrote:}{quote}
The Radeon card's 128 MB memory is located on the card itself. On thew other hand, the Intel X3100's 144 MB memory is borrowed/shared from the computer's system memory (RAM). Also, the Radeon's dedicated graphics memory is faster than system RAM.
Video RAM is just a dual-port DRAM. It's able to do two reads, two write, and read/writes at the same time.
I've heard some people make claims that integrated graphics also use up CPU resources, but I haven't seen anything about the Intel GMA series that suggests that's the case. The primarily reason why it's slower is because it had to compete with the processor for access to the main memory, rather than have its own dedicated (and generally faster) memory.
I agree with everyone who posted here, the ATI card is definitely the better option for 3D applications. However the Intel GMA X3100 does not rely on the CPU for rendering. The only thing that limits its performance is having to share memory bandwidth with the CPU. A discrete card such as the ATI Radeon, has its own memory so does not have the same limitations. The other current issue with the Intel GMA X3100, is nobody, not even Intel have created drivers to take advantage of the X3100's potential. This architecture has fully programable shaders (128 of them if memory serves), and should perform better than it currently does. Get the ATI card, it will "just work", and you will be much happier!
