1405 :
@maxx_power and airanp
Thanks for all the insight and trying to help me get this nomenclature thru my thick head. No, I didn't order yet. I wasn't sure what I had assembled. Is there something faster than the 7670M that does dual graphics?
I'm a little surprised that one has to be this well studied to order a laptop w/dual graphics capabilities. Especially when there is no information on the site one is ordering from. And with such a limited selection, I may be better off just to wait a little longer. The whole draw of the Trinity to me was the ability to have a decent gamer without spending more than one would for a desktop PC, in order to do it.
The Graphic systems avialable at HP were simply stated:
1) AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7600 Series Discrete-Class Graphics (included) ...which I assume is the built in item.
2) 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7670M Graphics (+$50)
3) 2GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7730M Graphics (+75)
I just figured if a 1GB HD 7670M was better at +$50, the 2GB HD 7730M should be even better at +$75. How's one to know what works as dual graphics and what doesn't? And what combinations are better than others? I already learned that AMD's numerical hierarchy doesn't necessarily relate to faster.
The 7730m does not do dual graphics as far as I know. BUT, it is faster than the 7670m alone, and probably faster than 7670m+7660g in dual graphics config too when the game you are using isn't explicitly optimized (or the drivers) for dual graphics rendering. The thing about dual (or more) GPU configurations is that the gaming performance is highly variable depending on driver implementations and game scaling possibilities. With multi-GPU, you also have the problem of microstutters (you can google this) even if the frame rate is high, but it is much worse when the frame rate is low. The dual graphics config in trinity laptops can be best described as a low performance multi-GPU crossfireX. It WILL have microstutter issues in dual GPU mode when the frame rates are low in a given game.
The 7730m is a different animal. It has newer, more efficient shaders, and more shaders than the 7670m, and the combined (nearly so) render back ends of the 7670m+7660g (it has 32 texture units and 16 rops, the 7670m has 24 texture units and 8 rops, the 7660g has 8 rops, not sure how many texture mapping units).
According to average scores, the 7730m scores around 1500 in 3dmark11 at 720p whereas the 7670m scores 1100 in the same settings. The dual graphics mode is about 500 points more than a single 7730m, so around 2000 points. Here is a few links you can get more information on these cards with benchmarks, and different games so you can make direct comparisons.
http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7660G-HD-7670M-Dual-Graphics.81173.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html
Here is a quote of the dual graphics from that same page:
"Therefore the combination also suffers from micro stuttering (different spaces between two images lead to stuttering altough the framerate is high enough for fluent gaming with only one GPU).
The performance of the Dual Graphics solution depends greatly on the driver support for the used games. In some games the performance may even degrade by 10-15% compared to using only the APU graphics card. Therefore, due to the micro stuttering and performance problems, Dual Graphics may impose more problems than bring performance gains."
EDIT: I would go with a 7730m. But if the price gets too high, I would personally go for a core i3 + discrete solution since with the 7730m you don't get dual graphics anyway (even just for the fun of it, if it is usable in your games).