laptops-reviews.com notebook review

NVidia GeForce 8400M GS is the DirectX 10 capable successor of the GeForce Go 7400 for laptops and technologically a slower 8400M GT video card. The performance is slightly above the 7400 and therefore it can represent current games fluently with reduced details / resolutions. For people who play occasionally, it may be sufficient.

The particularity of this video card are the "Unified Shader". Pixel- and vertex-shaders do not exist any more but 16 of the so called stream processors do the graphic work.

Specifications :

manufacturer: NVidia
performance class: 3
series: GeForce 8M
codename: G84M
chip clock: 400 MHz
memory clock: 600 MHz
memory bus: 64 bit
hardware acceleration: DirectX 10, Shader 4.0
maximal memory: 256 MB
shared memory: no
features: Shader clock frequence 800 MHz, PureVideo technology (H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, WMV9 decoding acceleration), HDCP-capable, PowerMizer 7.0 power management (dynamic switching between performance and energy economizing), HDR (High Dynamic-Range Lighting), designed for Windows Vista, 16x full screen AA, 16x AF independent of angles, 128-Bit HDR illumination with AA, PCI-E 16x, OpenGL 2.1, Gigathread technology
size of the laptop: small and light-weight (e.g. 14.1")
date: 05.09.2007

nVidia's GeForce 8400M GS is, quite frankly, ubiquitous at this point. It is the go-to mass dedicated graphics part for both Dell and HP, the two biggest notebook retailers in North America. If you're getting dedicated graphics in your laptop, chances are it's going to be one of these (with nVidia's 8600M parts running a moderate second).

Hardware wise, the 8400M GS boasts a minimal 64-bit memory bus and 16 unified shaders, offering the bare minimum for basic gaming performance. It remains comparable to its desktop counterpart.

Of course, the big question is: can it actually game halfway decently? Certainly a lot of people on the forums here will attest to this, but I figured I'd examine its performance for myself.