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) 3100-- Until the last several months this was the standard integrated graphics in laptops with Intel processors.
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500-- The newest Intel integrated solution. 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.

The GMA 4500 was by far the most common integrated notebook video card in the computers I saw for sale. The GMA 3100 was a distant second. Nothing but net books had the GMA 950.

Among the other Laptop video cards with shared memory were

ATI Xpress 1200/1250 -- these are actually rated as slower than the GMA 3100.

ATI Mobility Radeon 3200, ATI Radeon HD 3430, and Nvidia GeForce 8200 M -- all considered faster than the GMA 4500, but not suitable for serious gaming.

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