The Video Accelerator -- the Standard Answer

A video accelerator is the video card you find in most computers you see retail stores. Almost every manufacturer's mass produced laptop computer models are built with these video cards.



They render graphics slower than notebook video cards with dedicated memory. They use what is called shared memory. That means that some portion of system memory you see listed when you buy your laptop is always being used to generate the image you see on your screen. If you are running a program that is graphics intensive like photo editing or streaming video, everything on your computer could slow down. There isn't enough memory left to run other programs.

Having said that it will slow you down to have a graphics accelerator, I have to add that you might not notice. I know a lot of people with three or four GB. of ram and a graphics accelerator who do not have a problem. They aren't into gaming or high end graphics applications.

I will start with what the consensus says are the slowest graphics accelerators.

• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950-- This is a solution you will now see only in net books and very low entry level laptops with Intel processors.
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150-- The newer graphics Accelerator in Intel Atom based netbooks. Even though it is numbered higher than the 3100, it is slower.
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3100-- Until mid 2009 this was the standard integrated graphics in laptops with Intel processors.
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500, 4500HD, 4700HD-- The last Intel integrated solution with Core 2 Duo or Pentium processors. Intel claims it is as fast as or faster than ATI or Nvidia cards without dedicated memory. Other people say real-life performance is slower. It is difficult to judge. You rarely see a video accelerator other than an Intel GMA in a laptop with an Intel processor these days.
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD Graphics The integrated processor with the first generation Intel core i3, i5 and i7 processors. About as fast as the ATI/ 42xx or 6250. Slower than the Nvidia Cards listed below.
• Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge) The integrated processor with the newest Intel Celeron and Pentium CPUs. About as fast as the Nvidia cards listed below. It lacks some of the features of the accelerator on the second generation core i chips
• Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000 The integrated processor with the new second generation core i chips. The Intel HD Graphics 2000 is a bit faster than the Intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge). It has features that allow HD and 3D processing to be done much more quickly. The 3000 has these features and can play many games which are not graphics intensive.
• AMD Fusion Chip APUs The integrated processor with the AMD fusion chips are listed at AMD Llano. Looking at the Intel chips they are competing with, the AMD graphics buries Intel for anything other than the procedures Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000 has dedicated solutions for.

The Intel HD Graphics 3000 is reasonable, but I would try to avoid the 2000.

Among the other Laptop video cards with shared memory were ATI Mobility Radeon 3200, ATI Radeon HD 3430, ATI Radeon HD 4100, and Nvidia GeForce 8200 M -- all considered faster than the GMA 4500, but not suitable for serious gaming.

AMD Radeon 6250, ATI Radeon HD 42XX series, Nvidia GeForce G 9400, 320M, 205, 107m, 102, Ion, and Ion 2 -- faster than the Intel HD graphics but still not suitable for serious gaming.

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