8400 GS enough to support mid gaming ?

I'm deciding between laptops (1420 and 1520) -- is the 8400 GS able to support games like CSS, HL2 Orange, maybe the new Unreal tournament, WOW ... or do you think I should go for 8600 GT and bigger laptop?

I don't think I will play much more graphic intensive games than these ><
thanks for your opinion

 

I think you should be able to play everything but the new UT game fairly well with the 8400M GS, though not with advanced rendering options turned on. The 8600M GT is much more powerful, and would definitely do a much better job. The 8400M GS isn't really much of a gaming card, but since the Source engine and WoW are no longer extremely demanding, it should suffice. This really comes down to whether you value your quality enough to warrant the weight and size gain.

 

As the previous poster pointed out everything should run fine (not on max settings, but enough to be playable) on the 8400M GS except the new Unreal. Even the 8600M will be hard pressed by the next gen Unreal Engine (depending ofc on resolution/filtering options), but it will definitely outpace the 8400 by a large margin on this title (at minimum I would expect twice the performance (16 vs. 32 stream processors). Could you however live with quite reduced details in that particular game you could gain the benefits of portability and reduced heat output from the 8400 GS

 

Everything will be able to run at max settings, except for the new unreal tournament. WOW, for sure, CSS for sure, and HL2 Orange box for sure. Maybe not with anti aliasing all the way up though.