Is the C90 my best bet for a future 8800 GT compatible notebook?

I'll be purchasing a laptop no later than early-August and I'm leaning towards the C90 at the moment but the only thing that worries me is how the 8600 GT won't last me very long. Given the upgrading capabilities of the notebook, would this be my best choice for a notebook that will likely be able to run an 8800-series card in the future. The 8600 GT doesn't do justice to the rest of the system (I'll be customizing mine with 3 GB of RAM, Vista, a 7200 RPM HDD, E6600).

 

No, the best bet is the Clevo D900c, since that's been gauranteed to support enthusiast level DX10 graphics cards when available, or the upcoming Asus 17" C series notebook (C80 I think it's called).

 

I wouldn't say for sure that it can support a high end graphics card, with the power of something from the 8800M range. nVidia has never previously implemented there migh end graphics cards in notebooks smaller than 17". There are other notebooks which are probably more likely to support an 8800M graphics card, like the Clevo M570RU, but they are larger.

 

Equipped with the same components I planned to include in my C90 (except minus one gig of ram and plus the much faster 7950 GTX) the D900c costs me about $700 more. And that's about $700 out of my price range (around $2000).

The C80 could be an option, that is of course if it's released before mid-August, which I doubt it will be.

The M570U, when equipped similarly to how I planned to equip my C90, costs me about $400 more, which is about $400 out of my price range.

 

That's the premium you have to pay for enthusiast level graphics. I doubt the C90s will ever go above 8700mGT, though you never know.

 

I might be able to find some extra bucks and splurge for a Sager NP5790.

The 7950GTX should last awhile and I could always buy another one and run them in SLI in the future when they are cheaper to get a good performance boost.

I vastly prefer the looks of the NP5790 (awesome orange trim) to the C90 and it's ugly back fan. I really don't know just how big a 17" laptop is going to be and how practical it is to carry it around (not that I'll be taking it everywhere, it will mostly sit on my desk, I think).

Is there a 15" notebook roughly equivilent to the NP5790 in specs?

Man, laptop shopping for University is a lot more difficult than I had imagined it would be! Too many options and concerns.

 

The upcoming (not announced yet) Toshiba X200 comes with a 8800M GS, should be around in 1month time.

 

Thats a good suggestion. Its got a good specification, but the only problem with it, is that its a 17" notebook. At the moment, no 15.4" notebook has the same power as what the M570RU can offer, and its likely to stay that way until a stronger graphics card can be offered in 15.4" notebooks. The 8700M GT may not be implemented into 15.4" notebooks, because, according to early reports, its thermal output and power consumption are too high.

 

Well, get another notebook like the Asus EEE... u can use it as word processing notebook to fulfill the portable needs. And another big 17" to play ur games. That ll solve ur problem, if ur budget allows it.

 

what is M570RU???
sorry,i'm dumb like..

 

nvidia anounced that the 8800m card will be within 22w wich meets the MXMII spec of the C90.

However they didnt say wich of the 8800m models it was. Most probably the lowest one like a 8800gs. Should still be rather strong tho, and the 8600gt seems to be fairing pretty well in my opinion especially if you overclock it and add some system ram.

So the big "IF" is if the 22w 8800m card will be produced as a MXMII module. If so then yes the 8800m will be ok for the C90.

You can only expect so much from a 25w max MXMII module there will be a limit in the amount of performance and power it can give before it must go past the size/power specs. Thats why all the 7950 notebooks are big, or thick and hot running.

When the 65nm process rolls out they can squeeze more out of it tho. the soon to come ATI/AMD 2600 moble card is supposed to be on the MXMII platform and also listed on some sites as one of the 3 current gpu options for the c90.

its benching ahead of the 8600gt on some sites, but that doesnt mean ingame performance will be much if any better.

But even if its performing equal, being that its on 65nm instead of the bigger 80nm the nvida uses it should give less heat and use less power wich is good, this also agian leaves room to make a stronger card. (also means much like the desktops 2900xt you can probably overclock it like mad for huge performance gains)

This is a card I would have a sharp eye on, I think it has potential especailly the "XT" version of it.

 

Yeah, the ATI HD2600XT should be a very powerful card, though given the already insane overclocking ability of the 8600mGT, I'm not sure that we can expect too much more from the ATI card. Still though, more choices can never hurt

 

Yes but the 8800m is on a 65nm platform.

Also the c90 was released today!!!

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7741

 

Great now let's get some reviews! =)


EDIT: I know this is a bit OT but we hear a lot about overclocking the CPU by 20%, but can the 'Turbo Gear' overclock the GPU as well?

Also the G1s has 256MB of video ram, while the C90 apparently has 512 , why is this the case?

EDIT2: They are saying the C90 will get 4.5h battery life? I doubt that even on powersave mode, but it would be incredible if true.

 

I think they got confused, since the battery IS rated for 4.5 AHrs. I guess if the computer used 1 Amp per hour I guess that would be true =P. (seeing at the GPU alone uses a little over an AMP per hour (rated at 20 Watts right?) that would be very optimistic =P.)

 

I doubt the 8800 will ever be out on Type II. As far as I understand, the 22W denotes the power consumption of the GPU, not of the entire card. So, add a few watts for memory and power conversion.