ATI RADEON GRAPHICS CARDSATI Radeon graphics cards have become the fastest for laptop computers. When you compare graphics cards they leave Intel graphics cards in the dust, both the separate cards associated with the older CPUs (GMA 4500HD) and the on-chip accelerator on the new core i chips. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 is the fastest single card now available. The remainder of the 5000 series are also fast, top end cards, although the 128 bit memory bus does seem to be holding them back. While there are not yet crossfire versions of these cards they are among the fastest single card graphics solutions with the 5870 the fastest. The same older crossfire (ATI) or SLI (NVidia) cards are still the fastest cards. The new ATI cards are Direct x 11 compliant, the first available in laptops. Cards which are not Direct X 11 compliant will not be able to get the maximum performance from the newest games. More than 20 direct x 11 games are in development. The cards also deliver output to HDMI. Graphics cards today almost always provide HDMI output, even Intel Graphics Media Accelerators. Graphics card comparisons that concentrate on speed are only part of the story though. Power consumption and the graphics card's impact on battery life are also important to most users. The new 5000 series card have TDPs that are about the same as the power usage of the 4000 series that is out on the market now. Like I always say, more speed means shorter battery life and more heat. If you don't have better cooling, the increased heat can result in a shorter life for the entire laptop. There are very few laptop computers available today with ATI Radeon graphics cards from the new 5000 series although several have been announced. return from ATI Radeon graphics cards to laptop video cards
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