7700 vs. 7600

I'm currently comparing the Asus A8Jm and the A8Js, which has the 7600 and 7700 resepectively. Their specs are about the same, except that the A8Js has merom, and a higher res screen (i don't need that though). But I checked out the 3dmark06 scores, and the A8Js got a score of 2665, whilst the A8Jm got one of 2365.

Now, my question is, is this 300 in performance noticable? Or will I really benefit from that extra 300 marks?

 

I think the real reason to go for the A8Js over the A8Jm is to get the higher-resolution WXGA+ screen, which is really a nice feature. WXGA is a bit low these days in my opinion.

The difference between the Go7600 and the Go7700 is not that significant. The extra power is a welcome addition to the A8Js though because of its higher-res screen. It takes considerably more power to run a game at WXGA+ than it does at WXGA.

 

You also have to consider that 3dMarks takes CPU scores into their marks, hence that 300 increase might not be all GPU performance increase, but also the CPU.

 

I agree that the biggest benefit of going with the A8Js is the higher resolution screen. The Merom is nice as well. The GPU upgrade is somewhat insignificant but is icing on the cake.

 

I concur with the earlier mention of the 1440*990 resolution. Can't go wrong with either one. Pay for the one you can.

 

Is the build quality the same on both of them?

 

They are the same system. Build quality will be the same.

 

will there be a noticable difference in performance for video editing between the cards?

 

video editing is more cpu intensive so the answer is no

no difference between 7700 and 7600 in vid editing

 

Real world performance won't be all that different between the two, although the extra 4 shader units on the 7700 means you'll probably see less of a performance hit when using AA + AF.

For video editing, either will be overkill... I'm currently using a Geforce4 MX440 with no problems at all.

That being said, for video work I'd go with the A8Js for two reasons:-

1) The Core 2 Duo in the A8Js has 4MB of onboard cache; this will give a marked improvement in video transcoding speed.

2) The WXGA+ (1440x900) display will make things a lot less cramped in most video packages. I was previously running UXGA (1600x1200) on my Mac at work. Moving up to WUXGA (1920x1200) doesn't sound like a major improvement, but it makes the UIs for Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro much nicer to work with.