GeForce 440 Go vs. Radeon 9000

[Megaquad]

So which is faster?
I am little disappointed that graphics in 17" are not GeForce 460 Go but 440 Go.
Here is comparison on those two: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=geforce4go

[Over Achiever]

Sorry I'm in a rush.

Here's a comparison:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,701217,00.asp

[Over Achiever]

Ok I'm back...

Looks like that article was wrong. That compared the latest chip from NVIDIA (the GeForce4 4200) which preforms much better than the Radeon 9000, with a power cost.

As for comparing the NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go with the Radeon 9000, this truly was a step backwards. The Radeon was released a mere months ago, whereas the GeForce4 440 Go was released almost a year ago...old technology. Here's a more relavent comparison:

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1692

A quote from the review:
First off, in many gaming situations the Mobility Radeon 9000 is able to offer substantial performance increases over the GeForce4 440 Go, on the order of around 20-25%. In others benchmarks, like two specific levels in Unreal Tournament 2002 and in at least one level of Serious Sam 2, the performance increase is not so pronounced (5-10%). The times that the performance difference is pronounced can mean the difference between playing a game smooth or choppy at a high resolution. The times when the performance difference is not as large, you are still left with the highest performing mobile GPU available, although by a fairly trivial amount.

So even tho' its old tech...its not all that bad. Seems at times just "trivially slower"...I can live with that. ;)

[Megaquad]

fascinating...
GeForce 440 Go is about twice as slow as 4200 Go.

That means - NO POWERBOOK FOR ME!! :mad:

[mmmdreg]

so umm..why did they put the 440 in the 17inch if the one in the 15'er is "better"?

[benixau]

to cut costs.

nvidia gives apple a discount at the factory if it uses its cards.

ati can not yet compete. the fact is that nvidia cards anyway are cheaper as there are a lot more of them.

apple wanted to bring costs down as much as possible. also nvidia is likely to be releasing it own programming language for games. this is already supported by microsoft (xbox = nvidia) and i guess apple wanted nvidia to share it with them and the mac community too.

shame. i always liked ati.

[mmmdreg]

so the 15inch powerbook is actually better than the 17inch graphics wise..

[hvfsl]

Apple had better use the Radeon 9000m or Nvidia 4200m when they upgrade the 15in models or I will not get one. I have been waiting to upgrade but I am not going to get a computer with old tec (graphics wise). Otherwise the new Powerbooks are great!

[BenRoethig]

Originally posted by mmmdreg
so umm..why did they put the 440 in the 17inch if the one in the 15'er is "better"?

Rumor has it, the GPU on the 17" and maybe even the 12" are on a seperate module. If this is true, the Geforce4 Go 440 may be the entry level GPU. Radeon 9000 Mobility and Geforce4 Go 4200 become options in the near future. Probably when the 15" Powerbooks are updated to the 17" architecture.

[iJon]

i know everyone will disagree with me on this one but I could care less if we have the best video card. it just means more money the powerbook will cost and then you have a computer that sucks at games anyways. i tried mohaa and jedi knight on my powermac mdd and the graphics are terrible and fps. luckily im one of those guys who has a pc for games and my mac for everyone else. maybe if someone got an equvilent port of battlefield 1942 to the mac i may could play at my mac instead. i dont count on it happening.

iJon

[Megaquad]

Xbench tests have proven that new 17" Powerbooks are faster in OpenGL then 15".
Looks like we dont have to worry...

[fudgey]

Originally posted by Megaquad
Xbench tests have proven that new 17" Powerbooks are faster in OpenGL then 15".
Looks like we dont have to worry...

Old gnarly veterans have found that regardless of chipset, driver quality makes a big impact...

I assume that in time the newer Radeon 9000 will get faster as ATI release revised firmware & drivers.

I'm drivin' an 'old' iBook 300Mhz using 10.2.3 - too afraid to buy a replacement for it cause the platform is stagnating IMHO & anything I buy from Apple now is gonna look sick in no time.