Intel 950 Good Enough for Everyday Laptop Use?

[steve3791]

Hi all. Just came across this forum...great info.

Quick question. I'm looking for a new laptop for everyday use, basically email, MS office, intenet, and video on occasion. Don't intent to play games. A friend of mine can get be a good deal on a IBM/Lenovo T60 ThinkPad with a Duo Centrino with an Intel 950 Integrated graphics chip.

I don't know much about graphics, but read discrete cards are the way to go for gaming. My question however is if I don't intend to play any graphic intensive games, will the Intel 950 suit me perfectly fine?

Thanks for any advice!

Steve

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yes the GMA 950 is great for basic 3D and for most 2D applications. The quality is far better than older models.

some features even in 2D can be added with others cards, but for the general uses you are talking about it's more than capable.

 

[apache_lives]

dunno bout the 950 but every other intel related intergrated video chip has been.. slow - web flash movies pack it down (out of sync with sound), video playback aint what it should be etc and even the windows fade effects go slow/skip.

I find that any ATi or Nvidia integrated/onchip video chip works alot better or better still - a dedicated chip.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

In general, the intel integrated graphics took a giant leap forward with the 900 series. The 950 series in general, for the first time, is certified for 3D T&L as well as fully VS/PS certified using DirectX 9.0c.

In non-geekspeak, that means it is able to play the latest games and utilise some of the newest DirectX features. It's still slow with any game that requires >= 128MB video memory (as a general rule of thumb), but is fully CAPABLE to run every game out there.

The biggest problem is that many game mfrs still refuse to support Intel video chipsets due to lazy programmers (they claim they don't meet the requirements, but even the intel i915 video is CAPABLE of playing almost every game out there, slow as it may be).

In short, the newest integrated video chipsets are still inferior to graphics cards, true, but they are very under-rated by fans and by game manufacturers.

 

[steve3791]

Thanks for the advice!

Although a dedicated graphics card is a better option, looks like I'll be fine with the Intel graphics integrated chipset.

Steve

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

but is fully CAPABLE to run every game out there.

Not Oblivion. It will play, but you need the shader replacement mod OldBlivion and you need to turn everything down/off.

And Oblivion loads on unsupported hardware so that's not the issue.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=337851

Of course Oblivion is the first true SM2.0/PS2.0 minimum spec game, so it's a true test of what can and can't handle what we consider DX9 class gaming.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Intel needs a new driver is all. Unless Intel is lying through their teeth, which I suppose is quite possible. Oh, and you missed the part about this being the 950 GMA supporting VS/PS--the 900 GMA may not support it, as you pointed out.

I doubt "Everyday Laptop Use" constitutes playing Oblivion anyway man. Interesting points about its true VS/PS 2.0 support though. Does 3DMark 2005/2006 truly support it too BTW?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I agree for everyday users it's fine, just don't oversell it telling them it'll play all games. Heck the FX5200 won't play oblivion properly either, but you'd have to admit the GMA950 is less of a powerhouse than even the terrible FX5200. That's all I'm saying.