9500M Blows Away 8600M GT

Posted in another forum (that's pretty much dead).

In the HL2: Lost Coast Video Stress Test Area Scores I see a XPS M1530 , which is close to my F8Sn-B1 spec wise , with a 8600M GT video card.
The F8Sn-B1 has the new 9500M video card.

My 9500m scored 112 out of the box (stock drivers). The M1530 has a 83.5...not even close.

Alot of posts , obviously by people who do not have a 9500M , have been saying there will be little , if any , difference between the 9500's & 8600's in real world use.

I think there will be. This being only the first.

 

I would quite like to see some more benchmarks if that ok.

 

Me too! There's not that many F8Sn's in circulation but that will soon change as they are excellent buys.

 

This card has been bechmarked here.

For now, the 9300m G, 9500m GS and 9650m GS seem to be exclusivly Asus and Acer. The way that X1700 and go7700 only appeared in a few laptops. This could change though.

 

I noticed right away from the info that the reviewed notebook has the usual 2 + 1 = 3gigs of ram , which is great , being the Hynix brand(?). I changed my 3gigs from Hynix to 4gigs of G.Skill & saw an immediate improvement in ram scores with the Vista benchmark going from a 4.8 to 5.

I would like to see more data on this subject but for me it was nice to see.

edit...Forgot to ask re the "475/950/400" numbers what the "400" stands for ?

 

But, you know, Wei is a really crappy benchmark. In notebooks value ram and expensive, OC'able ram at the same frequency and latency perform the same way. And 965 chipsets can't use 800 Mhz ram, so they clock those down to 667 MHz. So unless it was 667 Mhz CAS 4, the performance is identical.

 

That's exactly what it is now that you mention it..."667 Mhz CAS 4".

Oh I don't know re the Vista benchmark as they all have their pros/cons. It's just meant to give people some info compared to other Vista benchmarks nothing more nothing less.

 

but it's not always correct. It rates the GMA X3100 above many dedicated options, even if it's worse. There are more examples, but i can't remember them. Basicly, WEI scores many, many times don't represent true performance.

 

Whatever. Benchmark utilitys are always questioned.

On your review of the other notebook you note re the 9500M "475/950/400" numbers. What does the "400" stand for ?

 

Oh, and having a Penryn CPU (T9300) also boosts scores for ram.

And the 400 stands for 400MHz Memory clock. That's the standard clock frequency for DDR2 ram in video cards

 

I'm sure a T9300 would but my F8Sn-B1 has a T8100 (2.10GHz).

Checkout http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_9500M.html

They list the "Memory clock" @ 700. That's why I asked about the "400".

 

Sorry, I don't see how the 9500 "blows" away the 8600, and certainly not with 3Dmark06 scores.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=234512

The only difference is the processor and the LCD resolution between the B1 and the C1, which does scale the performance level(at a very minimal).

Well that's because there has been direct comparisons. the only difference is if the 9500M memory whether it's DDR2 or DDR3, where there is a difference in that level as well with the 8600M. The 9500 is slightly faster(about 5-10%) on the same memory platform but I wouldn't call that "blow" away...

 

The op talks about HL2: Lost Coast Video Stress Test. Those numbers 112 to 85 are "blows away" numbers to me. Obviously not to you.

 

I'm sure the T8100 does the same too, as it's a penryn. Though I can't be sure, as the tested was a T9300.

 

I'm sure you are correct.

One thing I was worried about with getting a new notebook with a high end video card was heat. My Sony laptop gets uncomfortably hot & it's a P3.

However Asus has the heat totally under control inside & outside. That has to help with all the electronics life time usability not to mention my lap.

 

Well, i also just got a F8. And the fan is veryannoying. As is the fact that i can't OC.

 

The M1530 is a 8600M DDR2, and looks like the B1 might be DDR3(700 mhz memory), so that may be the difference right there.

 

The XPS M1530 is GDDR3. The Inspiron 1520 was DDR2.

Where did you see the F8S-b1 is GDDR3?

 

Wow. I would not know my F8Sn even HAD a fan if I had to go by sound.

I never quite understood "OC". I mean if you want it to go faster buy a faster machine! I know I know...because you can. But it always seemed self destructive.

I guess I'm just an old fart.

 

I meant overclock the GPU when Gaming. The laptop either crashes, or just won't do OC.

And yours should be a bit quiter than mine, as it's supposed to be cooler. But mine has been behaving a bit oddly, so there could be something wrong somewhere

 

That's a funny comment. Aren't you the op?

Well no, one single incident with benchmarks really doesn't prove anything. It could have been a driver issue or an improvement somewhere that created a greater difference in results. The other thing is that the memory speed may be the factor here as DDR3 is significantly faster than DDR2. The 9500M in DDR2 format has been benchmarked a couple times on this forum and the numbers were really close to that of the 8600M, the other thing is the pipelines and core specifications were identical, which is why most of us here have concluded that the 9500M is a revamped version of the 8600M.

Now I'm not saying that the 9500 isn't worth getting, it's definitely a fast card and considering the benefits of the die shrink, it's worth it if you are buying a new system right now.

 

Maybe you can try one of those utilitys that tells you the temps inside your laptop & see if that's a problem. I use "PC Wizard" now & then. If you minimize it will leave a small info screen available that gives you real time temps as you do things with your p/c.

 

Well I haven't followed the Dell XPS line, and last time I checked, the M1530 had a DDR2 card. It's nice that they upgraded it to GDDR3.

Not sure of the F8S-B1 being DDR3, original op said it was "@700". He needs to confirm that.

 

yeah, most of those don't seem to work... At least for the GPU. CPU is a bit high. And no decent ACPI tool.

 

OP ='s original poster or , in the case of original poster posting , OP ='s original post. Not exactly a gut-buster laugher but to each his own.

Now that's a profound thought. I got'a remember it.

Another profound statement. I've learned so much today.

Thanks.

 

The XPS M1530 Always had GDDR3. From the start. That was the whole point of it. The 1520 only had DDR2. And it is now discontinued.

 

@D3X

 

yeah the 9500m gs actually has the same specs and performance of the 8600m gt.

since you have the gddr3 version of it, it will perform better than the ddr2 version that many people have.

 

What in the world are you talking about ?

 

He's talking about D3X's statement that XPS m1530 has a 8600m GT DDR2, which is wrong.

 

Got'ya...thanks.

 

Op here...I didn't say that...Nvidia says that. I think a link was provided.

 

There is NO WAY a 8600m GT would be slower than a 9500m GS mainly because the 9500 comes with DDR2 instead of GDDR3.

Then, perhaps the 8600m gt of the benchmark you saw was using DDR2 or even the notebook tested had a slower CPU than your F8Sn-B1.

Cause both cards have the very same specs and the only difference is the memory type they use.

However, I've heard the 9500m GS would overclock the gpu better because of the die-shrink... which generates less heat and could achieve higher clock speeds than the old 8600m GT.

 

The type of memory doesn't mean anything but they have the same specs & same clocks so they should be equal...

 

One's things for sure...everyone has different opinions & just knows theirs is right.

Got'a love it. I know I do.

 

No the Dell XPS 1530 never had GDDR2, always had GDDR3.

And Dell has the WSXGA option.

 

the Inspiron1520 discontinued?

are you serious?

 

Dude, the 9500 does not blow the 8600GT away. I have an 8600GT GDDR3 and it is almost identical in terms of benchmarks and performance, ie. FPS in games. NO DIFFERENCE, Get your facts right and make sure they're reliable before you post something like this.

LOL, not trying to be serious but just don't want to get a lot of heat for that comment

 

Yeah, it's been replaced by XPS m1530 and Inspiron m1525.

 

This doesn't sound right to me. AFAIK they share the exact same specs, but the one uses a smaller die, and that's about it.

 

Oh , so bad then , thank you.

 

Actually, the 8600M GT GDDR3 version beats the 9500M GS. The DDR2 version 's performance is similar.

Let's look at Nvidia scores, look at the first post of this thread. I'll grant you the fact that the 8700M has come a long way since it was first introduced. Nonetheless, Nvidia claimed that it outperformed the 7950GTX. As you can see, it didn't. Note also that synthetic benchmarks can lie, as you can imagine.

My point is, Nvidia's not going to tell you that its newest release is basically its old model wrapped up in a new box. Not if they want any sales, particularly among people interested in buying the newest and "best" forms of technology but might not otherwise know better.

But you know what? You have the 9500M GS and obviously want yours to be newer and better. And as you mentioned, everyone has their own opinion.

 

Hers a video I made less than a week ago running Crysis on my ASUS notebook with the Geforce 9500M GS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bxeFdaKUoE

1280x720 at the following settings:

No Anti-aliasing
Texture Quality: Very High
Objects Quality: High
Shadows Quality Medium
Physics Quality: Very High
Shaders Quality: Medium
Volumetric Effects Quality: High
Game Effects Quality: Very High
Particles Quality: Very High
Water Quality: Very High
Sound Quality: Very High

System:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (Penry)@2.5Ghz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: Geforce 9500M GS 512MB
HDD: 250GB
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64

Frames Per Second(FPS): 15-22FPS with lowest drop at 10FPS. The game runs better at 1024x768.
Unfortunately the FRAPS version I have doesn't seem to work with Crysis under Vista(seems to work fine with CoD4), so I'll try to make a better video soon.

 

This would be useful. Good job. Doesn't Crysis have a inbuilt FPS recorder as well?

 

I still didn't see the point of this thread. It started off of a comment with no factual support.

Yes this is basically equal to a ddr2 8600. I'm not surpised since the amount of performance and above mobile cards in the 9 series.

9500 GS, 9600 GS, GT, 9650 GT, 9700 GT and 9800 GS, GTS, and GTX.

 

Thread closed because it is pointless.