XPS M1710 or Inspiron 1720

Hi. I've been waiting for the XPS M1710 to implement the NVIDIA 8 series graphics cards and today stumbled across it in the Inspiron 1720. I'm a bit confused. Presumably, a high-end XPS should outperform a high-end 1720 for graphics and gaming but the specs don't add up:

Apart from a slightly lower clock speed and 256MB video card memory instead of 512MB, you can get a 1720 with similar specs to the XPS several hundred pounds cheaper (that's double in dollars) and NVIDIA 8 series video card, or if you spend the same money, say about £2,000 you can even give it 4GB memory (could this offset the lower video card memory?) and a 500GB hard drive.

I must be missing something but why would a gamer go for the XPS when the specs for a same-price Inspiron 1720 seem to be much better?

 

the xps has the 7950gtx which will kill the 8600m gt, the only thing it really doesnt have it dx 10 support

 

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that an 8xxx is somehow faster than a 7xxx, but its not true.

The GeForce 78xx and 79xx cards are all significantly faster than any of the GeForce 8xxx cards- go here for comparisons of all graphics cards:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

The XPS, in other words, has graphics cards that the inspiron can't match. Thats why the XPS is twice as much $

 

That's good to know. Very useful link too. I guess I'll wait for the 8800M.