Comments on: First look: Nvidia’s integrated graphics

By: David Bayon

David Bayon — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:42:06 +0000

The results are in, and Nvidia’s claims aren’t far wrong.

In our Low Crysis test at 1,024 x 768 the MacBook averaged a playable 29fps – compared to around 5-7fps on the average Intel X4500H laptop. Impressive stuff.

@Jimbo: yes the 9400M does support 8GB, but right now the MacBooks don’t. I’d expect the first Windows laptops won’t have this issue.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:37:45 +0000

Perhaps, in your testing, you can resolve a question that has not yet received a definitive answer: can the 9400M support 8GB of RAM, or is it indeed limited to 4GB as Apple says for their new laptops?

If the 9400M is limited to 4GB of RAM, then that is a substantial drawback compared to the 8GB of Centrino 2. Please run a test w/8GB, and let us know.

By: David Bayon

David Bayon — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:25:58 +0000

@Skarlock: It’s not so much that the MacBook was chosen by Nvidia, more that Apple was the first to the punch with its MacBooks. There are plenty of other manufacturers lined up to announce products in the next few weeks, but Apple’s big launch put the 9400M out in public before anyone else could. Makes no sense for Nvidia to hold off.

@Jonathan: The 8400M is a discrete graphics chip, nothing like the 9400M in this article. All CUDA advancements should be supported by CUDA-compatible cards. The real news was that an integrated chip could benefit too.

By: Skarlock

Skarlock — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:57:09 +0000

I think if the price is right for this chipset then it really could revolutionise budget laptops. Of course it is interesting that a laptop like the new Macbook was chosen given it’s price is anything but budget, yet clearly uses a budget chipset for graphics rather than a discrete GPU as you’d expect for the price.

By: zuborg

zuborg — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:11:21 +0000

“There have been beefy laptops for a while. I get the feeling that sometimes these articles were written by chimps or Apple fanboys. Whichever you like to call yourselves.”

This article is about intergrated graphics. The 9800M is a standalone chip. And no, I’m not a fanboy in fact I hate Macs.

By: muck

muck — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:22:23 +0000

why was this aimed at a Macbook saying ‘and that’s something no manufacturer has yet offered us.’

A laptop with a 9800M 1GB graphics,
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/05/zepto.gaming.notebook/

There have been beefy laptops for a while. I get the feeling that sometimes these articles were written by chimps or Apple fanboys. Whichever you like to call yourselves

By: Jonathan Blakes

Jonathan Blakes — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:34:48 +0000

The 8400M is CUDA compatible also, will that be able to do upscaling and pixel interpolation?