Hardware requirements for high resolutions "Intel X3100"

[bubs]

Hi there,
I am thinking about buying a new laptop with a very high resolution (WUXGA 1920x1200 probably). I am thinking about a videocard Intel X3100 and a core2duo. I would like to know if beryl/compiz would be "really usable" now or in the near future with such hardware, or if I should wait for a more powerful system. Please note the high resolution: I don't want to cut back on the resolution.

Notes on "Really Usable":
I tried beryl on ubuntu 7.10, on Pentium M Centrino 1.73ghz, a WSXGA+ 1680x1050 and a Radeon X700 mobile 128Mb ram: it was not usable to my standards. More specifically, the problem was that when I would click and start dragging the titlebar of a window which was not focused and not the topmost one, it would take like 0.3-0.5 seconds to come up and start following the mouse. It seemed like it had to copy some big memory region before it could start moving. OTOH, this seemed to be the only showstopper bug for me.
If anybody can comment on this "problem" and explain why it does that, I would be glad.
All the rendering options were set to Auto: I tried other rendering options but they wouldn't work or anyway were not faster. Ubuntu was at its default settings (booted from live DVD 7.10, beryl was installed on the fly).

Note that I use compiz/beryl only for eliminating the need for windows redraws on linux. If the windows dragging becomes slower or has such an initial delay at high resolutions, compiz/beryl loses its purpose for my case. I don't use wobbly windows nor any special effects and I don't care much of the FPS when I rotate the cube.

[Jupiter]

I am not familiar with Intel but i just read that specs on the X3100 and it seems
impressive. I think adamk is going to be your best resource to help with your
question. I am however going to add Intel X3100 to the title to highlight the
specific subject of your question.

[ianegg]

My desktop Antlon 64 3000+ with GeForce 6800 (non ultra) handles 1920x1200 perfectly well. (That's with wobbly, blur etc. enabled.) In terms of CPU power, any Core 2 processor is miles ahead of me, but I don't know much about Intel graphics chipsets, or AIGLX vs nVidia rendering. An ATi X700 should be not too far off a 6800 in terms of performance, so I would guess your problem was either with the CPU or AIGLX. My hunch would be to see how the X3100 graphics chipset compares to your old one, or my card, because I can't see the AIGLX rendering path causing such a big delay by itself compared to nVidia.

[adamk]

Heh, I've never used beryl/compiz on an intel chispet, so I can't comment at all :-)

Adam

[xSacha]

I believe your problem previously, with the X700, was the ATI drivers. Any videocard with good drivers shouldn't have that result. For a high resolution (1920x1200), any nvidia or intel made in the past two years should work flawlessly IMHO. Of course, a dedicated videocard (nvidia because ATI lacks the drivers) should outperform an integrated notebook chipset though.

I realise X3100 would be an ideal choice as it is cheaper, will save on battery power and has fully open sourced 3d (vertex, fragment and all the rest).

Best bet would be to google X3100 and check how good it is with compositing. Note that it will perform worse on Windows than Linux, so don't take note of Windows benchmarks.

[chaosgeisterchen]

I have testet Beryl with a i915 chipset notebook with WXGA resolution (1440x900) and it was smooth as hell. Haven't ever seen it working smoother than this.

So I think that a X3100 will handle it perfectly, using a 1920x1200 screen.