The Vista graphics showdown- HP 2710p vs. Fuji P1620

As I sit here eating my Pad Thai in front of the display my mind keeps returning to the speed difference I notice between the HP 2710p and the Fujitsu P1620.  Both machines are snappy running Vista Business but I have noticed that the HP is snappier than the Fujitsu most of the time.  Not tremendously snappier but when you can notice it the speed is definitely a factor.  Both devices are configured almost exactly the same with Core 2 Duo 1.2 GHz processors, 2 GB of memory and slow hard drives.  The only real difference is the installed graphics accelerator, the Fujitsu runs the older Intel 945 chipset family and the HP the newer 965 family.

Watching the discussion about the Vista Windows Index ratings of many different devices in Kevin’s thread it occurred to me I would be interested to see how my two devices compare in that regard.  I don’t put much stock in the Windows Index ratings as a rule but in this case with two identically configured systems except for the graphics the WI would be a good indicator of how Vista thinks the older chipset stacks up against the newer one.  So while munching my noodles I had both systems run a system scan on their respective hardware and here’s what came out of that, the HP on top:

2710p_wi

P1620_wi

The only appreciable difference as expected is the graphics subsystem but I have to admit I was surprised how much lower the rating is for the older 945 chipset.  As you can see both graphics ratings are down significantly compared to the 965 which certainly explains why the Fuji is a bit slower than the comparable HP.  The Windows Aero rating is much lower so that’s probably what I am seeing as far as the performance goes.  Don’t get me wrong, the Fujitsu is plenty fast and I’m happy with that but I sure wish Fujitsu had upgraded the graphics chipset along with everything else.  I’m also surprised that apparently the memory in the HP is faster than that in the Fujitsu if the second rating is to be believed.  Now that we know the Fujitsu graphics rating is lower than Kevin’s new Q1 I’ll never hear the end of it.

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