Re: Determining if onboard VGA is used

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:09:36 +0200, "Maarten Wiltink"
<maarten@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I just found out why I keep ten years of computer magazines in the
attic. Personal Computer Magazine (Dutch), February 2006, pp. 52-55.
Comparing several add-on graphics adapters to (among others) the
GA-K8N51GMF-9 and GA-K8N51PVMT9 motherboards from Gigabyte, with
nVidia GeForce 6100 and 6150 chipsets onboard, respectively, and
the MSI 945GM2-FI with Intel 945G integrated video.

The competition are GeForce 6200 variants and an ATI X300.

Predictably, a GeForce 6200 is faster than a GeForce 6150. But not
that much; they recommend against spending your money on it.

I'd have to see the actual article to see the exact type and
methodology of testing that was being done before I could give it any
consideration, but it sounds to me like the people doing the tests and
writing the article weren't exactly what I would consider "experts" in
the field.


The point was that you said "a crap PCI-E
card will still outperform even the best onboard video".

They always will, as long as you're comparing apples to apples (modern
video cards to modern onboard video). The reason that a crap PCI-E
card will always outperform the best onboard video is because of the
simple fact that all manufacturers use the exact same GPU on their
cards for any given generation of processor. So if you're comparing a
video card with the nVidia 6200 processor from 10 different
manufacturers, you will find that their performance is always within
1% of each other. It's not like an ASUS 6200 card will be 50% faster
than a 6200 card from XFX or BFG. As long as they're using the same
processor, their performances will always be nearly identical.

Let's say you go into a computer store, and you see 4 different video
cards, all of which use the nVidia 8600GT processor.
Card #1 will cost $150
Card #2 will be $175
Card #3 will be $195
Card #4 will be $215

Each card is made by a different manufacturer. So which one should
you buy? The "crap" card for $150, or the most expensive one for
$215?

In such a case, the card for $150 will give you the same performance
and output quality as the card selling for $215. And in such a case,
the "crap" video card would still run circles around anything you
would find on a motherboard. We won't even talk about the fact that
the 8000-series of GPUs will not even be showing up on motherboards
for at least another 6-12 months because onboard video processors are
always trailiing behind current GPU technology.

And I invite you to use a little bit of logic and common sense for one
second, and put down your Dutch magazines, and consider the following:

The average motherboard (with onboard video) sells for between $80 to
$130. So regardless of which make or model you buy, your onboard
video will never be worth more than $20 to $40 (a fraction of the
overall motherboard's cost). Now consider the fact that if you buy a
peripheral video card, they have GPUs that are so powerful that just
the video card itself costs $800. Do you really expect that a
motherbaord selling for $100 will have the same graphics power as a
PCI-E card selling for $800?

So I don't understand why you were under the impression that the
performance of onboard video will be equal to an actual video card.
Maybe it's because you're more of a programmer than a hardware
guy...which is fine...or maybe because you've never been a gamer,
which is also fine. But if someone doesn't have a certain expertise
on a particular topic, why do they feel the need to act as though they
do?
.

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