Gaming
We've had more than one game developer decry integrated graphics as the bane of their existence, and it's easy to see why. With today's latest titles, you have to back off most in-game detail levels and drop the resolution way down to get frame rates that are even close to what we'd consider playable. Crysis just isn't the same with a low graphics detail setting, and the others don't look so hot, either. But on the GeForce 8300 and 780G, games at least run without visual anomalies, even if you have to turn off most of the eye candy.

Note that we have several sets of results here. Naturally, we've tested the integrated graphics offered by the GeForce 8300 and 780G. The 8300 was also tested with a GeForce 8400 GS graphics card running on its own and in a GeForce Boost SLI configuration. With the 780G, we popped in a discrete Radeon HD 3450 (which runs about the same price as the 8400 GS) and tested it as a single card and also as part of a Hybrid CrossFire config.

Focusing just on integrated graphics, the GeForce 8300 is faster than the 780G in Quake Wars, but slower in Crysis, Episode Two, and Call of Duty. Even with its cranked shader clock, the GeForce 8300 just can't keep up.

The tables turn a little when we throw hybrid multi-GPU solutions into the mix. GeForce Boost delivers a big payoff in Crysis, vaulting the GeForce 8300 into the lead. However, we didn't observe any performance scaling in Quake Wars, allowing the 780G's CrossFire config to steal the top spot. The 8300's multi-GPU performance also lags behind that of the 780G in Call of Duty and Episode Two, and in the latter, the gap is significiant.

AMD and Nvidia are both bullish when it comes to their respective integrated graphics multi-GPU solutions, and there's certainly additional performance to be had with the addition of a $50 discrete graphics card. However, if you're really serious about improving game performance, you're better off shelling out some extra cash for a more powerful graphics card like the GeForce 9600 GT, which can easily handle these games at high resolutions and with detail levels cranked up.