AMD Radeon HD 7670M vs. NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

[w7y7a7t7t]

Okay, so my first question is, what's the performance difference between these NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256mb) and AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1GB)? my current laptop has the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, and the one i'm looking at has the AMD Radeon HD 7670M, I don't do much gaming, i pretty much only play a few indie games (which are so un-intensive netbooks can run them) and some RTS games (aoe3). however, i've been wanting starcraft 2, so i'm wondering if i could play it with AMD Radeon HD 7670M, at 1600x900 with low to medium settings?

I also have a second question, the laptop i'm considering is a vaio and for a GPU there's a choice of:
- Intel® HD Graphics 4000
- AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1GB) graphics + Intel HD Graphics 4000

wtf does AMD Radeon HD 7670M (1GB) graphics + Intel HD Graphics 4000 mean? how are there two GPUs that are different? now i'm sure the latter is the better option, but it would be cool if someone could explain to me how it has two different GPUs or if i'm just confused, thanks .

 

[daswilhelm]

7670m is way better than a 9400m

 

[dudewitbow]

about the 7670m + hd 4000 laptops have a special function where it turns on the gpu when a heavy load gets put on the computer. when you arent gaming/computing, a graphics switches over to the hd 4000 to conserve battery life

 

[w7y7a7t7t]

7670m is way better than a 9400m

how much is way better? would i be able to run a game like starcraft 2 at 1600x900 on low to medium with it? thanks.

 

[DRosencraft]

I can't speak specifically about whether to go with the Intel or the Intel plus AMD option, but I can tell you that your 9400M is dated, so you can probably benefit from either option. The Intel plus AMD option is all about graphics switching. When you're doing light stuff (using a word processor, surfing the web) it will use the considerably less powerful Intel 4000 graphics and turn of the dedicated 7670M. This will save power and help keep up battery life. When you jump into gaming, the Intel 4000 is usurped by the AMD 7670M to deliver the better performance.

If you can afford it, I would go with the AMD 7670M plus Intel graphics option. I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure Starcraft 2 will have trouble running on Intel HD series graphics. Remember, the Intel HD series is essentially embedded graphics, which is almost always worse than a dedicated option which the AMD would be. Definitely keep looking around though.

 

[morgoth780]

Actually, HD 4000 (At least in desktops) can run starcraft 2 pretty well. Definitely get a 7670m, though, it'll perform significantly better.

 

[dudewitbow]

as a reference, a 7670m will play SC2 on high on 1360x768 at ~30 fps with antialising i believe on. medium at around 40 fps.

 

[w7y7a7t7t]

thanks a lot guys!