How Do Mobile Platform Chipsets Affect Laptop Performance?

Chipset Is A Crucial Laptop Component That Most Of The Buyers Ignore. While buying a laptop most of the buyers focus on the clock speed of the processor and the amount of RAM but they never ever look at the Chipset of the laptop. A Chipset is a central component of a laptop, it is the only component that connects all the other parts of the laptop. In simple words a Chipset is the heart of your laptop. It is here that all the components of the laptop are connected and all the data that travels in the laptop reaches its destination on time. It is through the Chipset that the processor of the laptop accesses the RAM of the laptop, hard drive of the laptop etc. So in short the processor of the laptop is as good as the Chipset of the laptop and that is why it is extremely important to choose a Chipset wisely.

The chipset’s hidden role in everyday computing

The processor in your laptop is a processing powerhouse – it does calculations to sort data, perform logic operations and more. But a large part of what your laptop can do, and how well it can perform that, is controlled by the chipset. While the processor is crunching numbers, the chipset in your laptop is managing the communication between the processor and memory, storage and I/O (input/output) devices in your laptop. As such, the performance of your laptop is dictated in large part by the quality of the chipset it has.

This also applies to storage. A fast storage media, like a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD for example, is not just defined by high storage capacity and fast transfer speeds of the storage media itself. The storage media also requires a certain number of PCI Express (PCIe) lanes in order to reach its transfer speed. The chipset of a notebook has to provide the necessary number of lanes. Thus a fast SSD does not just make a notebook fast due to the fast storage media. Also the chipsets support of the number of lanes to the SSD has to be considered.

Performance bottlenecks you probably haven’t considered

Another parameter that can give an insight into the chipset’s capabilities is the memory bandwidth. Different chipsets can support different types of RAM, and at different speeds. For example, the Intel HM470 chipset supports up to 3200 MT/s of DDR4 memory, while the BGA chipset is limited to 2133 MT/s of DDR3 memory. This means that even if the laptop was sold with 16GB of memory, as long as the type and speed of the memory is within the chipset’s limitations, it will operate at that speed.

Graphics performance tells a similar story.

Graphics performance on laptops is also dependent upon the chipset as it typically integrates the graphics processing unit into the processor and the graphics share memory with other components on the system. Thus, the amount of memory that is allocated to the graphics processing and the amount of bandwidth that is available for the graphics processing can vary significantly from one chipset to another. Thus, the frame rate of applications and the time to render images can vary significantly from one platform to another. Thus, users must compare not only the processor but also the amount of memory that is allocated to the graphics processing and the characteristics of the chipset in order to compare the graphics performance of different systems.

There is a common misconception as to the role of memory within a computer. Many believe that increasing the amount of memory a computer has will increase performance. However, the memory within a computer is the responsibility of the chipset, and the chipset can determine whether or not a computer can use additional memory. Therefore, a computer with 8GB of RAM will not perform any better with 16GB of RAM.

Power efficiency matters more than you think

The power consumption of a chipset can also be an important criterion. For example, the ability of the system to power down individual components in idle mode or to manage the voltage during operation in an optimal fashion, in order to save energy, is also determined by the chipset. Many chipsets nowadays are in a position to provide corresponding energy-efficient functions. The energy savings here can be in the order of one hour or more per operating time and therefore are not to be dismissed.

Connectivity limitations that persist for years

During design of the mainboard, the number of possible expansion ports of a laptop is fixed by the chipset (as described in chipset datasheet). The number and type of USB ports, the display outputs, the network interface, the wireless communication standards, etc. all are fixed and cannot be changed after purchase of the laptop.

It’s also important to consider the components that are NOT included in a laptop’s specifications, namely the limits imposed by the chipset (the mainboard) of the storage connections, USB ports, and other peripherals. For example, even though a laptop may include a very fast SSD, and have plenty of RAM, the chipset may be limited to supporting only a single fast storage connection, and only a few slower USB ports. Thus the laptop could appear to have plenty of capability at first, but be severely limited in practice.

Business and professional implications

When purchasing a processor for business use, it is also very important to look at the features supported by the platform’s chipset. For example, security, remote management, hardware level encryption and more. Some chipsets even have a dedicated security processor to handle security at a hardware level far superior to software-based methods that can eat up a lot of processing power.

For professionals who frequently use their laptop at work (e.g. video editors, data analysts, engineers), the capabilities and limitations of a computer’s chipset can be a very important factor when choosing a laptop to support their workflow. Before buying, a buyer should research the various capabilities of a laptop’s chipset and determine whether there are any limitations of that laptop’s chipset that would prevent the buyer from using the laptop for the type of work they typically do. If there are such limitations, then the buyer should look for another laptop. The capabilities and limitations of a computer’s chipset cannot be changed by software.

Either the chipset of a laptop can enable its users to work with the specific hardware features they require, or it will not be able to meet the necessary demands. Software cannot take the place of missing hardware functions. Video editors for example will need specific numbers of fast storage interfaces and thus require specific chipsets.

Making informed decisions

If you look up the specs for the chipset that a system is based on, you will get an idea of what a system is capable of as well as its limitations. Unfortunately, these specifications are often not detailed out in a vendor’s sales materials. In fact, processor sales materials will usually focus on processor specific details rather than details of the rest of the platform. The best place to start to look up the specs of a laptop’s chipset would be to search for the datasheet for the specific chipset on the vendor’s web site. More often than not, it will be difficult to find the datasheet on the vendor’s web site for the specific chipset that a particular system is based on.

When you look at the individual components (as well as the laptop in general) it is always important to look at the specifics to see whether or not the laptop in question is suitable to your needs. For the casual user the specific numbers and capabilities of a chipset are probably not very relevant. All that matters is that the system runs fast enough and that there are enough USB ports. Thus a cheaper chipset is perfectly fine. Users that rely heavily on powerful hardware for their work however need to check whether the laptop’s platform will be able to support their application in three years time. The only part of the platform that is not a part that can be replaced quickly (e.g. by new CPU or memory) is the chipset, because it is part of the mainboard and thus part of the laptop itself.

This, in turn, can be a long-term problem. While RAM or processor can be upgraded several times before reaching their limits, the chipset remains a fixed component. This is why you must pay close attention to the chipset’s capabilities when selecting a laptop for future-oriented purposes.