Why performance of GMA 500 based netbooks bad?

[Rafaeel]

Hello friends, I want to buy a netbook which I want to use for official purpose. Mainly the netbook will be used for making presentations in Powerpoint but it will also be used to run some graphics applications. I have heard that the GMA 500 based netbooks do not perform well while running graphics application. All the models of the netbooks which I have seen have Intel GMA 500 in them and hence I am not able to make a decision. Therefore I want to know Why performance of Intel GMA 500 based netbooks bad?. So if anybody has any information about it, please share it. Also are there any alternatives to Intel GMA 500?

[Tomaz]

The performance of the netbook mainly depends on the applications which are executed on it. Normally the configuration of the netbook is low. As the configuration is low, the performance of the netbook suffers during executing high end graphics applications. Therefore even if you choose any netbook you will have to compromise some way or the other in matters of the performance. Instead of buying a netbook which is powered by a good graphic accelerator, buy a netbook which has more system RAM which plays important role in performance of the computer while running any application.

[Wiro]

The main problem with Intel GMA 500 is the driver support. Drivers are very important piece of software which has to be installed on the computer to make the device associated to it work properly. If the drivers of a particular device are not installed then the device will not work properly. Drivers acts as a mediator between the operating system and the device. As Intel GMA 500 drivers are not supported by many devices hence the performance of the computer using GMA 500 is not good. If you are purchasing a netbook which is powered by GMA 500 and all the associated drivers are available then you will not face any problems with the performance.

[Deep23]

Intel GMA 500 supports maximum of 1gb system memory which is a limitation for many of the users. System RAM is very important when the performance of the computer is measured. More the system memory means good performance of the computer while running high end application. As it supports only 1gb of ram, it hampers the performance of the computer. Also the maximum clock frequency of GMA 500 is 200Mhz which is quite less compared to other graphics accelerators.

[Lambard]

Instead of buying a netbook which is powered Intel GMA 500 you can buy a netbook which is powered by Intel GMA 950 whose performance is far more better than GMA 500. The Direct X supported of Intel GMA 950 is version 10.6 while the Direct X support for GMA 500 is 10. The system memory support of GMA 950 is 4gb while GMA 500 supports only 1gb of memory.The maximum clock frequency of Intel GMA 950 is 400Mhz which is double as compared to Intel GMA 500 which works on 200Mhz. I hope all this points clear your views on GMA 500 based netbooks.