8700m GT

I ordered my M15x (the specs are in my Sig). I couldn't get the M15x cause im getting it for school and not specifically gaming. That said, how well can i expect an 8700m gt to preform gaming wise? I understand that i wont be able to play crysis at full specs, but at what settings can i play games like C&C 3, COD 4, Sins of a Solar Empire, or UT III? It seems like everyone has a 8800m GTX and i wanted to know how a 8700 would preform.

Ive heard that its possible to upgrade the graphics card. If i plan on doing it in the next few years where would i buy a 8800mgtx from, i can't find any info anywhere? And who here has had a positive experience with a M15x?

 

well I can tell you I play COD 4 all the time and don't have any problems at all with it. Haven't played any others in your list.

 

I actually really like the card. When it comes to "really new super intense games" like Crysis and Assassin's Creed I get around 25fps on medium. For me that is fine. Other games like BF2 and America's Army I get around 60-100fps.

 

**Read info on bottom. (In small letters) That information can make a huge difference in the score. I mean look they test the 8800 on a 2.8Ghz CPU whjile the 8700 is tested on a 2.2Ghz CPU.

 

Yeah, that's really lame. What good is a performance-comparison graph if there's no baseline?! They all have to be tested with the same dependant components for it to be worth anything.

 

Would it be safe to assume that the 8700 does not run as hot as the 8800 GTX?

 

I'd say the 8700 will suit you just fine gaming wise, and I dunno where you could find a 8800m, sorry. I got my m15x a few days ago and so far I haven't had any major problems, its been a joy to use. I'm one of the lucky buyers (so far...), my only complaint is how slow they were building it. Good luck

 

on a general basis, yes. 8700 users were generally immune from the GPU downclock issue that occurred months ago mainly because it took longer to get hot enough -- at least, that's what I believe. taco was here when that whole story was unfolding so he can tell you for sure.

 

I have the advantage of having used both cards, so I hope I can offer some good insight. The 8800 is worlds beyond the 8700, but the 8700 can indeed hold its own for most games...on mediumish settings. Let me try to give some comparison...I never ran 3d mark 06 with the 8700...but I have run it on my desktop and my current Sager laptop. My desktop (which has a 7950 GT and a sucky processor) scored just under 4000. My Sager with specs in sig scored 9168. The performance on my 8700 was not quite as good as the desktop.

One game that I've run with both GPUs is lord of the rings online. In both cases, I've run it with 4x AA, and maxed out settings (save for dx10 exlusive feature, which i turn off). With those settings and running at 1440x900, the 8700 did hitch quite a lot, and averaged FPS in the 20s. To run it really smoothely, the settings should have definately been dropped lower. On the 8800 however, i get very smooth frame rates (in the 30s and 40s) with those settings. Not only that, but it's running at 1920x1200.

If you can afford it, the 8800 is a much much more powerful card. If you can't however, you should have no problem running most modern games on medium settings with the 8700. No matter what you wind up getting, I hope you enjoy it. Good luck.

 

well I can say that 8700 users are not totally immune from the downclocking. it would take me longer but it would do it. I showed a graph in the owners lounge but I upgraded to the new bios and now everything is cool my GPU has not downclocked. I think Callidor may have had it to and just didn't know it but like he said if you can afford it go with the 8800 or if you don't plan on doing heavy gaming the 8700 will work fine. My 3mark06 scores are 5530 on standard and then 4768 on 1440x900 ( I pretty sure my cpu helped me with those scores a little) so yeah the 8800 is way better than the 8700 but I'm happy with the 8700 I run COD4 smooth as silk.

 

thats right, the 8700gt is still a very capable card, it just depends if the OP plays on very high resolution or not

 

yeah, I was pretty sure downclocking was found to exist so I deferred to your knowledge. did X32 bios fix it?

 

No it wont, 3Dmark is pretty immune to different CPU clocks, of course those scores would vary some hundred points but the general number wont change that much! The 8700 still scores about half the points a 8800 gets!

 

Thanks guys. If anyone has any game benchmarks for an 8700m GT please post 'em. And for people that have bough M15x's lately, have you had problems?

 

Here can be found plenty of information and reviews to notebooks using the 8700, hope that helps!

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-8700M-GT.3987.0.html

 

Hey congrats on your purchase. And to answer your last second to last question, Yes. You can always upgrade later on through AW.

 

o yeah I haven't had any downclocking