Asus with extra graphics vs Acer without

INTEL'S MONTEVINA has finally come out - new FSB, graphics, wireless and all. The problems have seemingly been solved, and there are the machines for the users to play with. Except for the integrated 3-D, where AMD Puma and Nvidia still rule, this is the performance leader among notebooks today.

The new platform's faster FSB, memory and 3-D engine do help raise the bar for Intel-based integrated graphics notebooks. I won't repeat all the generic features here - plenty of online brochures and "copy paste" web sites do that. I'm interested in how high the overall performance delta is when comparing a Montevina IGP system with one using discrete graphics.

I took a look at two early notebooks based on the new platform: one is a smallish (but still chubby due to its built-in DVD) Acer Aspire 2930, and the other one is larger, heavier Asus M50VM.

Both machines use 2.53 GHz FSB1066 Penryn-based 45 nm Core 2 Duo mobile CPU, with 4 GB of DDR2-800 CL6 memory in 2 modules (no, I didn't get a DDR3 Montevina yet), and are two-spindle units with HDD and optical drives built in. And yes, both run Vista - that's the reason why 4 GB is needed even without any apps running, I guess. That's where their similarities end.

The cute little Acer machine has a small 12.1 inch WXGA display, while the Asus shows off a 15.4 incher at that oddish WSXGA+, or 1680x1050 for saner minds, resolution. Why not simply go to the far more palatable 1920x1200 then?

Acer's display is, as you can guess, driven by the GMA4500 GPU in the GM45 Montevina chipset, while the Asus uses Nvidia mobile Geforce 9600M with 512 MB dedicated memory - guess not one of the fiery ones?

I ran a couple of benchmarks to compare the two souls separated by their " window (literally) to the world", one integrated, the other discrete. How do the 3DMark 06, PCMark Vantage, and Sandra memory tests handle the difference? 3DMark Vantage couldn't, as it simply didn't run on the GMA4500.

Here are some results:

3Dmark06 GMA4500

3Dmark06 Nforce 9600

PCmark Vantage GMA4500

PCmark Vantage Nforce 9600

Sandra memory b/w GMA4500

Sandra memory b/w Nforce 9600

As you can see, the 3D Mark result difference is still enormous - yes, the test passes but again the integrated graphics is really meant for on-the-road office and Net users who don't exactly plan to run Crysis on these. Both platforms handle HD video playback fine, by the way.

On the PC Mark side, the graphics does affect the final score, but not by much. As for Sandra, there is not even minor difference in the bandwidth results despite the IGP extra load.

In summary, any serious 3-D still calls for discrete graphics anyway. However, the system level benchmark results are moving closer to the desktop systems here, with a good reason - as the notebook market overtakes desktops in unit volumes this year, more and more users will have those notebooks as their main systems. µ