Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900. Will it do?

[AkiBlast16]

I am contimplating purchasing a Dell XPS M140 to replace my current IBM T40. The motivation for this purchase is the fact that my current computer is incredibly slow when opening my photographs for editing in photoshop. Also, it can not handle editing some of my larger, RAW format, photographs. My concern is that the Dell XPS M140's only option for the graphic chipset is the Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900. Will the Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900 perform well enough to satisfy my needs. (The Dell XPS M140 will also have a 1.8 Ghz processor, a 60GB 7200rpm hard drive, and 1GB of RAM)

 

[Bluefinger]

Integrated graphics often mean the pc concerned is rubbish. Even a cheap, dated graphics card will rape an integrated one. Integrated graphics cards eat away at CPU and RAM resources, and in the end, there are no benefits. You might as well buy an ATI X1300... great for DVD playback and 2D work.... plus its cheap.

 

[FITCamaro]

No. You can watch DVDs. Thats about it.

 

[marneus]

IG900, ouch... only if you system has loadsa memory that the integrated chip can use, otherwise you need a proper card... a budget card with 256/512 mb onboard would be good here i would expect

 

[tvl]

Hello AkiBlast16!

I too purchased a new PC for Christmas which had an integrated Intel graphics media accelerator 950 video chip. I use my PC for exactly the same reasons your are using yours ...... photo editing, etc.

The integrated chip proved to be sufficient and I encountered no problems whatsoever. However, I wanted to free up system resources by adding a dedicated video card which also had its own memory. Several of the long time posters on this forum suggested a X300 card. I ultimately purchased an Asus AX300SE/TD/128 video card for approximately $50.00

The card has performed very well with my photo editing and video clips look extremely good. I am sure it would NOT do well at gaming, but I am not a gamer! This may be all you need if you simply wish to free up system resources and are not a gamer. Otherwise, you may find the integrated card will suffice!

TV

 

[tvl]

Oh ...... by the way:

Integrated graphics often mean the pc concerned is rubbish

I honestly do not agree with that statement! I will agree manufacturers sometime decide to "cut corners" by using an integrated video chip in lieu of a dedicated video card, but that does not mean the PC is rubbish.

My previous PC was a Pentium lll which came with a dedicated video card and performed fine. However, I am now using a Pentium D which shipped with an integrated video chip, but added the Asus AX300SE video card later. There is a world of difference in the two computers ...... the last being much faster and more enjoyable. Rubbish?????

 

[cleeve]

Guys, he's using photoshop.

Your graphics card has little to no impact in photoshop.

Photoshop speed is affected by CPU and system RAM. Video RAM isn't even a factor in Photoshop.

A better graphics card might get you a clearer display quality, but 'speed' will not be affected, unless it's in a game...

...and Photoshop's no game.

 

[tvl]

Thanks Cleeve!

That is why I made the closing statement:

This may be all you need if you simply wish to free up system resources and are not a gamer. Otherwise, you may find the integrated card will suffice!

I am assuming the original poster may be possibly looking for ways to free up system resources as I did. As stated, I used a cheap card to accomplish this task. However, the integrated video chip was performing just fine before the "upgrade".

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Apparently nobody here has noticed that this system he is getting IS A LAPTOP. The only other option is to get the GeForce 7800 Go video, but only if you get the XPS M170 version. It costs hundreds more $$$ though.

Nobody here uses the Intel 900 series graphics so how can you know? I do use it on another system, and for integrated graphics it is impressive. I can play SW KOTOR I and II with it, I hear the Sims games run fine on it, I know Star Wars: Empire At War runs quite well on it, etc. It is the first integrated graphics chipset that runs decently.

But why am I rambling, you don't game--you use Photoshop! Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900 is perfectly fine.

 

[rmthompson]

That chip is a joke, it's totally pointless, all you can do is normal stuff, internet, type document maybe even watch a movie, that's it. Don't even think about games.

*reads above again*

Yeah, he didn't say games...

 

[morg]

begins with Intel ? bad for gaming

comes from dell ? even worse

it's probably still good to have some good scores with 3dmark cpu scores but it appears to be high rated for benchmark only as referenced in the toms hardware cpu benchmark chart...

video editing will be good and maybe better for the same price ( maybe not )

it's a good thing you only do photoshop, try a good old matrox if you wanna see what can do with a card which is optimised for best quality 2d rendering

 

[darkstar782]

That GPU will be *FINE* for photoshop, dont let anyone tell you otherwise.

The CPU is all you need to worry about for photoshop, and I'm assuming that as its a laptop that is a Pentium M, in which case 1.8GHz is plenty

If you do want to play games however, even 'maybe sometimes in the future', Think long and hard. That being a Laptop there is little to nothing you can do to ever upgrade the graphics, and I have known a number of friends buy Laptops who will 'never play games' only to end up regretting not spending that bit more later when they end up... playing games....

I realise sticking with Dell means your only upgrade option is to the 7800Go, but consider looking for something inbetween from another manufacturer, even a 6200 or a mobility Radeon 9200 would be a massive step up!

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Yes, GPU is fine. Darkstar782 is right on...

 

[tenaciousleydead]

just make sure when you configure it in the bios(if you can) set it to only use 32Mb's of ram, because its way more important for photoshop than just lying around uselessly. Peace.