Having nd using laptop is a must for almost everyone in this modern era. In the earlier days, laptops do not seem to be different from one model to another. When times goes by, there are various types of hardwares such as processor, chipset, graphic, sound, LCD, LAN are developed. So many brands and models are available in the market. As a game developer, gamer like me, processor is the first priority followed by graphic processor. Nowadays, we can buy laptops with ordinary့ graphic processing units (GPU) or with high level GPUs for gaming and multimedia purposes.
Not only you can find laptop with the Intel Graphic Media Accelerator (GMA) but also buy laptop with Nvidia Geforce or ATI Radeon graphic processor which can perform high level graphic functions. In the Mobile graphic processing unit (GPU), we can basically found normal Intel Graphic Media Accelerator (GMA) series. Nvidia andá‚” ATI are still market demand products in mobile GPU and they can be thought as only two masters of GPUs. Nvidia Geforce itself have different models so as ATI Radeon. For Example, Geforce 8 series have 8400GS, 8400GT, 8600GTX. ATI also has models like Radeon 9800, Radeon X1800 , Radeon HD 2400, Radeon HD 4500 and so on. The main difference is the technology of graphic processor, clock speed and memory bandwidth. It is required to consider about them before buying laptop.
Let me share what I know. When we talk about graphic processors, the main portion is shader (I will talk about Shader in another post if my time permits). Shader has two major portions: Pixel shader and vertex shader. Vertex shader can be said as geometry processor. Pixel shader is a renderer.When we program graphic/game, it is required to consider whether Microsoft’s famous DirectX is going to be used or open source OpenGL. In the outside game industry, DirectX API (Application Programming Interface) is widely used. For programmers, programming for DirectX 9 and previous versions is totally different from programing DirectX 10 and above versions. In Graphic hardware supporting directX 9 and older version, (Eg- Geforce 6/7 and ATI Radeon 9000 to Radeon X series) , there are pixel shader and vertex shader . Programmers can use DirectX 9 to control separately. In DirectX 10 and those hardware supporting it, pixel shader and vertex shader are combined together. Programming DirectX 10 API is different. In hardware, by combining pixel/vertex shaders and it is called unified shaders.
In Nvidia’s GPUs, only Geforce 8 and above can support DirectX 10 (Eg. Geforce 8400, Geforce 9600GT) . For ATI’s products, only Radeon HD 2xxx and above can fully support DirectX 10. They have unified shaders which support DirectX 10 in hardware level. Intel GMA X3100 is for DX 9 and GMA 4500/ GMA 4500HD also works with DX10.
If that is the case, the main difference among Geforce 8400GS, 8400GT, 8400GTX, Radeon HD 2400, 2600, Radeon HD 3450, 4870 is့ number of transistors and shaders, clock speed, memory speed and memory bus width .For example, Geforce 8400GS’s memory bus width is 64 bits and that of 8400 GT can be up to 128/256 bits. Core clock speed is different as well. Programming shaders for DirectX is currently at the version 4. That’s why, when talking about graphic chipset, we will be seeing which shader model we will be able to work with. Example, game written with shader model 4 will not be able to run well in Geforce 7 because Geforce 7 support only DX9’s Shader model 3. In that case, we might need to use software emulation, not in hardware acceleration. In order to run this kind of game, Geforce 8 and above should be used as it supports shader model 4 of DX 10. In Radeon, HD series should be used for DX 10’s shader model 4.Hence, if you want to work with latest DirectX10/OpenGL 2.0, Geforce 8 and above, ATI Radeon’s Radeon HD 2000 and above should be used. Eg, ATI Radeon HD 2400, Radeon HD 3450 are basically the same. Both consist of 40 unified shader but HD 2400 used 65nm and HD 3450 used 55nm. Clock speed in HD3450 is faster. HD 2400 support DX 10 ‘s shader 4.0 only and HD 3450 is fully support DX 10.1 ‘s shader 4.1.
If you want to look at the details specification of graphic processing unit, go to the following link and explore more by just selecting the model of your graphic card (processor).
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-280M-SLI.17191.0.html
Now, I have shared about different GPUs and their usage as much as I know. I believe you can get some knowledge and idea about them.
Not only you can find laptop with the Intel Graphic Media Accelerator (GMA) but also buy laptop with Nvidia Geforce or ATI Radeon graphic processor which can perform high level graphic functions. In the Mobile graphic processing unit (GPU), we can basically found normal Intel Graphic Media Accelerator (GMA) series. Nvidia andá‚” ATI are still market demand products in mobile GPU and they can be thought as only two masters of GPUs. Nvidia Geforce itself have different models so as ATI Radeon. For Example, Geforce 8 series have 8400GS, 8400GT, 8600GTX. ATI also has models like Radeon 9800, Radeon X1800 , Radeon HD 2400, Radeon HD 4500 and so on. The main difference is the technology of graphic processor, clock speed and memory bandwidth. It is required to consider about them before buying laptop.
Let me share what I know. When we talk about graphic processors, the main portion is shader (I will talk about Shader in another post if my time permits). Shader has two major portions: Pixel shader and vertex shader. Vertex shader can be said as geometry processor. Pixel shader is a renderer.When we program graphic/game, it is required to consider whether Microsoft’s famous DirectX is going to be used or open source OpenGL. In the outside game industry, DirectX API (Application Programming Interface) is widely used. For programmers, programming for DirectX 9 and previous versions is totally different from programing DirectX 10 and above versions. In Graphic hardware supporting directX 9 and older version, (Eg- Geforce 6/7 and ATI Radeon 9000 to Radeon X series) , there are pixel shader and vertex shader . Programmers can use DirectX 9 to control separately. In DirectX 10 and those hardware supporting it, pixel shader and vertex shader are combined together. Programming DirectX 10 API is different. In hardware, by combining pixel/vertex shaders and it is called unified shaders.
In Nvidia’s GPUs, only Geforce 8 and above can support DirectX 10 (Eg. Geforce 8400, Geforce 9600GT) . For ATI’s products, only Radeon HD 2xxx and above can fully support DirectX 10. They have unified shaders which support DirectX 10 in hardware level. Intel GMA X3100 is for DX 9 and GMA 4500/ GMA 4500HD also works with DX10.
If that is the case, the main difference among Geforce 8400GS, 8400GT, 8400GTX, Radeon HD 2400, 2600, Radeon HD 3450, 4870 is့ number of transistors and shaders, clock speed, memory speed and memory bus width .For example, Geforce 8400GS’s memory bus width is 64 bits and that of 8400 GT can be up to 128/256 bits. Core clock speed is different as well. Programming shaders for DirectX is currently at the version 4. That’s why, when talking about graphic chipset, we will be seeing which shader model we will be able to work with. Example, game written with shader model 4 will not be able to run well in Geforce 7 because Geforce 7 support only DX9’s Shader model 3. In that case, we might need to use software emulation, not in hardware acceleration. In order to run this kind of game, Geforce 8 and above should be used as it supports shader model 4 of DX 10. In Radeon, HD series should be used for DX 10’s shader model 4.Hence, if you want to work with latest DirectX10/OpenGL 2.0, Geforce 8 and above, ATI Radeon’s Radeon HD 2000 and above should be used. Eg, ATI Radeon HD 2400, Radeon HD 3450 are basically the same. Both consist of 40 unified shader but HD 2400 used 65nm and HD 3450 used 55nm. Clock speed in HD3450 is faster. HD 2400 support DX 10 ‘s shader 4.0 only and HD 3450 is fully support DX 10.1 ‘s shader 4.1.
If you want to look at the details specification of graphic processing unit, go to the following link and explore more by just selecting the model of your graphic card (processor).
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-280M-SLI.17191.0.html
Now, I have shared about different GPUs and their usage as much as I know. I believe you can get some knowledge and idea about them.
