[PLUG] Intel GMA X3100 vs. nVidia GeForce GS 256 MB

[Matt McKenzie]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:58 PM, Roderick A. Anderson <raanders at acm.org>
wrote:

> Quick insight.  Are there any reasons to prefer an Intel GMA X3100 over
>  a nVidia GeForce GS 256 MB, on a laptop running Ubuntu?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Rod
> --
>

It would help if you can give the model # of the NVidia card (and possibly
the laptop models).  GS is a sub-model, such as GS, GT, etc.  We need the
model #, such as 6150, 7600, 8800, etc. to better be able to compare.

Generally speaking though, NVidia or ATI discreet video with dedicated RAM
would tend to have better video performance than Intel with shared RAM.
I don't know if the GMA X3100 is different from other Intel video chips I
have no experience with that particular one.

In a laptop there can be power ramifications with using a dedicated video
vs. shared video.  There are things both ATI and NVidia do to mitigate that,
I know NVidia uses a thing called "Powermizer" to scale performance to
conserve battery life.  There is always a trade-off, better performance ==
less battery time, slower performance == better battery time.  Both ATI and
NVidia also have control panel settings you can adjust, but there aren't as
many options in the Linux version as in the Winders version usually.  I am
not sure about Intel if it has similar controls, it very well probably does,
I haven't seen it myself.


-- 
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Matt M.
LinuxKnight