8 series info

Over at hexus.net. No benchies just yet.

Ginga

 

It's official:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebooks.html

 

"However, until the introduction of revised drivers in June that are compatible with Windows XP, GeForce 8M Series will only work under Windows Vista."

That's weird.

And 128-bit memory interface =

 

These specs are very interesting... can't wait to see the benchmarks
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=2407

 

Guess the GS is not for me... GT all da way!

 

Man, they are going all weird with things. They "updated" the 256MB Quadro FX 1500M to a 512MB 1600M, but the 1600M has a 128-bit bus (vs. 256 for the 1500M) and lower memory bandwidth (obviously). More memory doesn't give you anything if you don't have enough bandwidth.

On top of that, the 8600GS looks like it is marginally better than the 7600; I expected it to do better than the 7700. Strange.

 

exactly what I was thinking... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122038

 

The 8400M and -GS variants have a 64-bit memory interface which is disappointing in my opinion. I'm interested to see the performance difference between the two lower-end 8400s and the top-end 8400M-GT, which has a 128-bit interface.

Fast memory should be able to compensate for the 64-bit bus though; the Go7400 has a 64-bit interface and its on par with the Radeon X1400, which has a 128-bit bus thanks to very fast memory.

 

And the 8600GS only has 16shaders compared to the GT... wont be good in perlin noise.. i guess

 

Well, I'll definitely be waiting to see something better come out i.e. 8700 or 8800 unless the benchmarks will be radically different from the desktop 8600s. I still don't get why Nvidia dropped the ball on this one. Even my old 6800GT from over 2 years ago had a 256-bit memory bus.

 

Since the performance of 8600M GT seems to be pretty much the same or even a bit better as the previous generation ATI MR X1800 and GF Go 7900GS, isn't it a fine upgrade over Go 7600/7700? Aren't X1800 and 7900GS high-end cards that are meant for 17" laptops, unlike the 8600M GT which fits even in 14". I think 8600M GT is really a great card even though it has 128bit bus. I believe you can play any current game with max settings as is almost the case with X1800/7900GS.

 

IMHO 8600GT isn't a worthy upgrade over the 7700. Honestly what games isn't the 7700 going to be able to run before the 9-series (dx10.1) comes out.

and dont give me this crysis stuff! , id be willing to bet that the 7700 could run crysis at 1024x768 - high settings with a very good framerate.

 

Really??
no less than 40fps?

 

The 8600M GT may look fairly decent and perform like a Go 7900GS, but I guess the question really is will it be as common as the Go 7600GT? (In other words not common at all) nVidia has never differentiated their mobile parts so finely. It seems to me that the only reason to introduce so many parts is because they can no longer produce good all around GPUs from a price, performance, and power perspective. It's only my opinion, but it wouldn't surprise my if the 8600M GT has problems with either price or power or volumes that make it unattractive and it's only there so that nVidia can talk about 8600M series performance in generality while the 8600M GS is the real mass-production part that most notebooks will have. From the clock speeds that nVidia are stating, the 8600M GT will be noticeably slower than the desktop 8600GT. The 8600M GS will be a good bit faster than the desktop 8500GT thankfully, but is really crippled by only 16 shaders. Anyways, hopefully I'm wrong and the 8600M GT is cool running and ships in volume, because the 8600M GS won't be that impressive.

 

Reviews at hardocp.com have shown that pixel pipelines and memory bandwidth don't always mean better gaming performance. Wait until the benchmarks come out, until then all we know is hearsay

 

A crysis benchmark was supposably already run, and I don't believe it at all! But if it's anywhere close to true, then dual 8800GTXs in SLI and a Quad core CPU can only get 35 or so FPS at 1280x1024 0aa/4af max graphics. Although I HIGHLY doubt that! The graphics are fantastic, but if an Xbox360 can handle the game, then any 7600/x1600 can too!

 

Actually both machines (360 and PS3) have 7800/x1800 class chips in them.

 

I'd wager we'll see a lot more laptops with the 8600M GT than the Go 7600GT. If I'm not mistaken, the Zeptos are coming out with the 8600M GT, and so is the Asus G1 and C90.

Compal will be next to follow with some type of 8600M for their HEL80/HGL30 refreshes, Dell still hasn't refreshed their consumer XPS line (possibly an M1410 on the horizon?), and Asus hasn't refreshed the A8 with the 8600 either.