I got a new laptop, just a "basic" one as far as the graphics card.

What's the easiest way to test its limits? Is the GPU usually the limiting factor these days?

I'll tell you what I've done so far:

1. Looked in Device Manager

2. Ran "dxdiag"

3. Downloaded "glview"

4. Decided against downloading the megafile "3DMark"

5. Downloaded the latest display driver that did nothing

Do I have to download the latest Direct3D? Are the runtimes current with the development version?

EDIT: Ran the latest DIrectX Runtime Install - Just extras.

The OpenGL Extensions Viewer shows support up to 4.2. Is this determined by the driver or the hardware? Even if it's supported, does that mean it's decently fast? 4.3 is 38% supported. 4.4 is 0%. The only test that wouldn't run was OpenGL 4.4.

DxDiag shows DirectX Version: DirectX 11, but under drivers it shows "Feature Levels" up to 11.1. This suggests that the hardware is limiting me to OpenGL 4.2, DirectX 11.0.

How do I test things like fill-rate and polygon-count? My old laptop was always fill-rate limited.

I found the tool WinSAT. Have yet to investigate what the numbers mean.

How do I test things like fill-rate and polygon-count? My old laptop was always fill-rate limited.

You can get the theoretical specs off of the manufacturer site or probably even Wikipedia.

In practice, the limiting factor depends on the program. One game might be polygon limited, another fill-rate limited, another bus limited, another shader limited, and so on. If you're on the NVidia side, both Nsight and the Visual Profiler can help identify them, in AMD land you'd use GPU PerfStudio.

Of course, if you are just trying to see what you can do rather than actually develop and profile and fine-tune the program, then your best bet is to just fire up your favorite games and see how they look and feel.

You can get the theoretical specs off of the manufacturer site or probably even Wikipedia.

Thx frob. I found the exact graphics card model through "glview" because the driver wasn't being very specific.

I found this site helpful:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/

If I remember right, all the OpenGL extensions supported through the driver are not necessary hardware accelerated. Is that right?

It looks like Direct3D is not updated as frequently as it used to be around version 9.0.

Testing fill rate and polygon count is tricky, because you will almost never reach theoretical limits with either. You have to end up knowing things like if you have a theoretical pixel fill rate of 16 gigapixels, that hitting only 8 gigapixels in real world tests is actually normal. It becomes even more tricky with polygonal capabilities.

If I remember right, all the OpenGL extensions supported through the driver are not necessary hardware accelerated. Is that right?

It looks like Direct3D is not updated as frequently as it used to be around version 9.0.

I think you are getting caught up on the wrong things.

What is it you are REALLY asking?

You aren't asking about a future purchase, if a specific card will work for you. You aren't asking if a specific card can handle a specific need. You're worried that a specific card might theoretically be limited by a theoretical factor that you aren't able to quantify.

It looks like you are trying to validate "Did I make a good laptop purchase?"

The answer there can be answered easily enough: Does it play all the games you want it to play? Does it satisfy the needs you have for it?

If it meets your need at present and for the near future, then stop worrying about it and enjoy your laptop.

If there is some program you absolutely must have running and it doesn't support that program, then return it and get a laptop that fills your actual needs.

Don't waste your time going through the hundreds of extensions, worrying about if GL_SGIS_sharpen_texture is hardware accelerated or even present. Unless you are working on a specific project and you know that you need that specific item, which you don't.

Any hardware you can buy today is already out of date as far as specifications go. There are always new specifications coming out. If you buy something that meets the 7.3 specification, the next ad you see will be for the 7.4 specification and you'll see news releases that the 8.0 spec is being finalized. Technology is always advancing. Buy hardware because it is a tool that meets your needs.

Thx frob.

What is it you are REALLY asking?

My old laptop couldn't do fragment shaders, so I just wanted to make sure my new one could.

Any hardware you can buy today is already out of date as far as specifications go. There are always new specifications coming out. If you buy something that meets the 7.3 specification, the next ad you see will be for the 7.4 specification and you'll see news releases that the 8.0 spec is being finalized. Technology is always advancing. Buy hardware because it is a tool that meets your needs.

I know how quickly graphics hardware becomes obsolete, and I didn't even get the laptop specifically to be able to handle the latest 3D specs. I just needed the right tools, like "dxdiag" and "glview" to be able to see what was under the hood.

I found an Open Source game that let's you choose a number of different display properties and shows you the resulting FPS, so that helped to see which settings cut the FPS in half (FSAA) and the ones that hardly hurt performance at all, but improved the visual. The game is AstroMenace if anyone is wondering.