NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M vs ATI Radeon Xpress X1200

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M

It is based on the GeForce Go 7300 with professional certified graphics drivers for applications like CAD, Rendering, 3D modelling, etc. The usability for games is limited. It is the smaller version of the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M for notebooks.

ATI Radeon Xpress X1200

The Radeon Xpress X1200 (RS600M or RS690M) is an onboard graphics card for notebooks / laptops and according to AMD optimized for a good price/value. It is based on a X700 design but with less pixel- and vertex-pipelines.

The exact core clock is not clear as it varies from 350 MHz (according to Wikipedia) to 500 MHz (some GPU-Z versions). The different RS600 and RS690 (Xpress X1200, X1250, and X1270) offer the same graphics core, but may have a different core clock. Still the performance should be compareable.

ATI Radeon Xpress X1200 is hardly apt for gamers. Only old games like Quake 3 Arena can be played in 1024x768 with high/medium details fluently. Even Warcraft 3 runs fluently with minimum details. Current, damanding games like FEAR, Doom3 and Quake 4 can hardly be played (e.g. 2 frames per second in battle scenes in Quake 4). Some strategy games like Age of Empires 3 can only be played with minimal details (20-25 fps, tested with a FSC Amilo Pa 2510).

The graphic chip supports Windows Vista Aero surface and all 3D effects run fluently. Due to HyperMemory Aero is supported with high resolutions (tested with 1280x800 + 1920x1200).

Technically the chip has 4 pixel-pipelines and either a texture unit (with 2 vertex shaders) or no vertex shaders (each source tells a different story).

The current consumption of the desktop version lies around 13.8 Watt (TDP) and 8 Watt average. The mobile versions could be more economic as they offer Powerplay support.