Can the E1405 handle powerpoint fades and video?

There's a checkbox somewhere in Powerpoint that lets you use the graphics card to power effects, like fades.

How do computers with integrated graphics handle things like this sort of low level hardware acceleration?

What about things like playing video? I assume that things like video overlay work the same?

What about powering flash animations?

I'm kind of confused as to just where it is integrated graphics fall down. Obviously FPS games are gonna be spotty, what about semi-demanding non-game applications?

 

I'd say you should be fine. IGPs are okay as long as you do 2D work. 3D is were a majority of IGPs fall quickly.

 

I’m amazed at how low ppl rate integrated graphics cards these days . It is true that they are not anywhere near the performance of even a current midrange desktop card, but recent integrated cards are more than capable of handling some simple ppt transition effects .

GMA950 is faster than a GeForce FX 5200 desktop card. I know 5200 is old, but I still think ppl respect an old FX5200 than they would a GMA950

 

Ditto... my 640m does a fine job playing video.

 

I've got Beryl/AIGLX running in Ubuntu on my E1405. It runs perfectly.

 

I have the same thing and it runs good and smooth

 

Ok. It's not really a slam against IG, just I have no experience with IG. I'm a graphics/multimedia developer, so, all my laptops have video cards. I am biased against them in "theory" since, I know if there is no video card, than it's up to the computer to render out the graphics, so, I like the idea of offloading the graphics to a video GPU.

I do know that when you check the hardware box in Powerpoint, the fades and transitions get a lot smoother than with the box not checked, and I just have no idea if IG would respond to this check box. The box specifies "hardware acceleration" and I have no idea if IG qualifies for this.

I assume that IG mostly works, since, at this point, I bet more laptops have IG than have video cards, but, I have rather specific performance needs.

I need a second laptop to serve as a secondary, and I would like to make it a smaller more portable unit than my main E1505 machine.

The setting is under Slide Show -> Set-up Show

Performance -> Use Hardware Graphics Acceleration

Can someone tell if this box is "greyed" out on their 1405?

 

You can't say that those laptops "have no video card".

They have an integrated video card. It is still a video card, its just part of the motherboard like an onboard LAN for example (remember the days when those weren't integrated?). Their benchmarks are not very good for gaming which require the latest powerhouse video cards that take up 2 PCI-express slots and require their own power supplies (zing on DirectX 10 cards here).

But that doesn't mean they aren't useable. I believe the GMA 950 has better benchmarks then GeForce FX 5700's even had in some cases and is able to run games better as well than those older cards.

Applications use far less graphics power anyway than do video games, so it should be no problem. Even with "hardware acceleration" for PowerPoint the graphics chip usage is far, far lower than "hardware acceleration" for Half Life 2 for example.

For regular applications and even graphics editing applications, the GMA 950 should be fine. Gamers wouldn't want it nor would people who do heavy duty graphics/video editing (then again you wouldn't want to do that on a laptop anyway), but for 95% of users out there the integrated solutions are fine.

I agree with Phoenix when he says that people don't respect integrated graphics as much as they do even older cards like GeForce FX for example, even if the integrated can post better benchmarks and results.

 

ok, cool.

So, it's like "onboard video hardware" that just shares the system ram?

 

Well yeah I guess that's pretty close.

Its really not a drawback though, since it uses less power since it does not need to power 128MB or 256MB of Video RAM even when not all of it is being used (like while you are web surfing) and your regular RAM gets power either way, so might as well utilize it.

It's not a bad deal, really.

The only thing standing in your way is if you want to do some heavy duty graphics work on your laptop. I would not recommend a laptop for that purpose as desktops do a better job for less money in that regard, but if that is your choice I'd get dedicated graphics. But for regular work and occasional graphical work (but not too intesive like editing an HDTV movie for example) Intel GMA950 should be fine.

 

Integrated VGA adaptors like GMA 950 are built in to the Northbridge chip of the chipset. Yes, they share Video memory from System RAM. Due to that and other hardware limitations they are slower than a dedicated GPU. However they are quite capable of handling 2D stuff and 3D rendering required by most non graphics intensive 3D applications like 3D modeling stuff etc.. (but not latest 3D games).

Following is a list of features supported by GMA950 ( Quoted from intel site)

• 256-bit graphics core running at 400MHz
• Up to 10.6 GB/sec memory bandwidth with DDR2 667 system memory
• 1.6 GPixels/sec and 1.6 GTexels/sec fill rate
• 2048x1536 at 75 Hz maximum resolution
• Up to 4 pixels per clock rendering
• Microsoft* DirectX* 9 Hardware Acceleration Features:
  -Pixel Shader 2.0
  -Volumetric Textures
  -Shadow Maps
  -Slope Scale Depth Bias
  -Two-Sided Stencil
• Microsoft* DirectX* 9 Vertex Shader 3.0 and Transform and Lighting supported in software through highly optimized Processor Specific Geometry Pipeline (PSGP)
• Texture Decompression for DirectX* and OpenGL*
• OpenGL* 1.4 support plus ARB_vertex_buffer and EXT_shadow_funcs
• extensions and TexEnv shader caching
• High Definition Hardware Motion Compensation to support high definition hi-bitrate MPEG2 media playback
• High Definition Content Decode
• 5x3 Overlay Filtering.

 

Wow, yeah, those specs are not all _that_ terrible.

 

I was also wondering if the integrated graphics were that bad.

I am planning on buying a new e1505 in the near future and I am wondering if I need to upgrade to a dedicated GPU. I will not play games and I will not do 3D modelling of any sort.

The reasons that I am considering upgrading the GPU are 1) I want to make sure that my computer will have smooth playback of DVD and other video formats; and 2) I want to make sure that my computer will be able to handle Vista.

If I don't need to upgrade the GPU, then I'd be happy to have better battery life, lower heat production, and save $100. But if it is necessary for my needs, then I will definitely do it.

I am planning on getting the wsxga+ screen. Does this higher resolution require more graphics power?

Thanks for your help