whats considered best(graphics card)

Are intel graphics not so great and the likes of nvidia and ati radeon better, would appreciate some feedback as im going to replace my dead laptop.

ram and processors i know about but graphics are a bit of a mystery,

many thanks

I personally go for nVidia.

If you're looking for one to play the latest games with decent graphics then I'd recommend 7 series onwards i.e 7600, 7800, 8600, 8800 etc

ok cheers for that.

nvidia and ati will as a rule be better than intel as they specialise in the area whereas intel have branched out into it. although that said brand doesn't always mean the best - always check the specs and reviews of the individual model.

Personally I favour ATI mobility chipsets in my laptop and nVidia cards in my desktop... simply because I generally find while nVidia cards are better, the scaled down versions you get in laptops are better from ATI...

It really depends what your goals are. That's a cheap reply but it fits.

Generally, nVidia has been producing the fastest single desktop chips but those have no application in a laptop at all. Since you talk about replacing your laptop though, you will not be able to get the latest generation of ATi/nVidia technology in your mobile environment - too high energy demands and too much heat production rule them firmly out.

Thinking of pure benchmark results, the fastest mobile GPU's are either nVidia 9800M GT(X) or ATi Mobility Radeon 4850, but while there have been some benchmarks on the chips, you won't find them in notebooks yet. At least here in Germany/Austria it's a hopeless cause.

The best you can hope for in terms of performance are some MSI Megabooks with the old ATi Mobility Radeon 3850 or some nVidia 8800M chips in various (noname) models. Those are really high performance chips and you will have a hard time getting them in notebooks below €1200/£950.

If that's too expensive for you or if high performance is not what you're after, ignore this post and listen to what TheOriginalJez said about ATi's mobile chips

In answer to the OP's question the best/fastest GFX card is the ATI 4870x2.

All I know is go with ATI for seemingly (for graphics) error free gaming, Nvidia for top gaming but some incompatibility issues, and avoid everything else.

Even then, you'll never be able to install and play a Lucas Arts game first time. >_>

Which is card best depends on the game/application your using. Right now the fastest cards are all nvidia. From best to worst of the 15 top cards benchmarks:

Overall performance 	 fps 	 Percent fps
GeForce GTX 280 (1024 MB) 	3765.6	402.2
GeForce 8800 Ultra SLI (768 MB)3534.8 	377.6
GeForce GTX 280 SLI (1024 MB) 	3522.0 	376.2
GeForce 9800 GTX SLI (512 MB) 	3505.8 	374.5
Radeon HD 4870 CF (512 MB) 	3482.9 	372.0
GeForce GTX 260 SLI (896 MB) 	3481.1 	371.8
GeForce 8800 GTS SLI (512 MB) 	3468.9 	370.5
GeForce 8800 GT SLI (1024 MB) 	3467.2 	370.3
GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB) 	3464.8 	370.1
GeForce 8800 GT SLI (512 MB) 	3411.9 	364.4
Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB) 	3355.7 	358.4
GeForce 9800 GX2 (2x512 MB) 	3351.4 	358.0
GeForce 9600 GT SLI (1024 MB) 	3318.1 	354.4
Radeon HD 4850 CF (512 MB) 	3241.4 	346.2
GeForce 8800 Ultra (768 MB) 	3119.8 	333.2 

^ Well actually a 4870X2 is faster than a GTX280. Plus there is no way a 280SLI rig is slower than a solo 280. And 350+ FPS shows they're testing an obviously ancient game (like Quake 2 ancient). And tri-SLI is obviously faster still. Crossfired 4870X2s must be pretty speedy.

^ Well actually a 4870X2 is faster than a GTX280. Plus there is no way a 280SLI rig is slower than a solo 280. And 350+ FPS shows they're testing an obviously ancient game (like Quake 2 ancient). And tri-SLI is obviously faster still. Crossfired 4870X2s must be pretty speedy.

This is a tomshardware benchmarks, they benchmarked them on a bunch of different games (crysis, world at conflict etc) and applications then averaged them out for each and those were the results.

Plus there is no way a 280SLI rig is slower than a solo 280.

It is in some instances, using such a powerful card in SLI mode increases the temperature an incredible amount and most games, especially at lower resolutions, had a higher FPS with the single 280 than with 280's in SLI mode.

I'm not a 'die-hard' nvidia fan though and even toms hardware awarded the Radeon HD 4850 as the overall winner, not the fastest but because it performed very well for a cost to performance ratio and was much quieter than other cards in its category and above.