8600M GS v. 8400M GT (both 256mb)

hey everyone,

sorry to start another thread like this one - but i did a few searches and couldnt find a direct comparison between these two particular video cards

i received a new vostro 1500 from dell this week and opened it up yesterday - im sending it back tomorrow - now im back in the market lookin for a decent notebook

all things being equal, which card would have the advantage?

the important specs im looking at:

- c2d t7500
- 3 gigs of ram
- both come with vista home (although ill probably switch back to xp)

those are probably the important specs to consider...

any thoughts?

 

8600 > 8400

Bigger number always wins.

 

Bigger number doesn't always win!

But in this case, yes, the 8600M GT is a better card.

 

8600 is better

 

Fine, bigger number in a series always wins. Jeez.

 

its actually the 8600m gs - the gt is the 8400

 

Yeah... think I'm the only one that noticed that...

I think it would depend.... DDR2 or DDR3 memory?

If the 8400GT has DDR3 RAM and the 8600GS has DDR2 it would be pretty close but I'm not terribly familiar with either card. I personally have a 256MB DDR3 8600GT and I would highly recommend it ...

 

The i1520/v1500 use the 8600M GT not the 8600M GS there is a difference...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html

 

I think this thread is getting more confusing by the minute:

8700m GT > 8600m GT > 8600m GS > 8400m GT > 8400m GS > 8400m G

 

Just curious, isn't there a super crippled version of 8600GS? How does that compare to 8400GT?

To OP, why are you sending back your 1520?

 

well - i sent back the dell today - so im looking at different units - one of them is the hp dv9500t that comes with the 8600 gs - i know theres a difference between the two 8600 cards and that the gt is superior - thats why i was wondering if the 8400 gt might be superior to the 8600 gs (seeing as its a step above the 8400 gs)

sorry if i confused everyone - lol

EDIT - interestingly enough - in that graphic from nvidia - it shows the 8600m gs with 512mb - the card im looking at has 256 - i wonder if this is the "crippled" version mentioned in an earlier post...

 

the screen was quite possibly the worst i have ever seen on any laptop - completely washed out colors - it looked horrible (and actually gave me a headache from working on it for an hour)

apparently, dell has 3 different manufacturers for their screens: aou, sec (samsung), and lg - the lg is supposedly the best - when i called to get a replacement, i asked if i could get the lg screen - of course, being that it is dell, the customer service rep was completely clueless

i decided to just ask for an exchange - he wanted to send out a refurb (i only had the unit for 2 days) - i asked him if i would be compensated in some way (you know, because if i wanted a refurb, i would have saved some cash and bought from dell's outlet instead of shelling out for a brand new machine) - his response? "nope"

i told him i wanted a full refund - sent the thing back - ill never deal with dell again

you can see the screen issue i had in this post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2650620&postcount=35

mind you - the laptop im using to compare the screen to is a 2.5 year old toshiba unit - with a screen of lower resolution...

 

I've got the 128MB NVS 140M the closest relative of the 8400M GT. With the newest 169.04 lptpv2go drivers I was able to get a 3DMark05 score of 3600. With overclocking 600/900 I was able to score 5128 with no artifacting while keeping the GPU under 80c. I beleive that should put it up with the stock 8600M GS DDR2.

 

If the 8400M GT has 256MB dedicated it's pretty good but you have to be careful. The Different versions of the 8400M GT (64MB, 128MB and 256MB dedicated) have vastly different power and this is reflected in the 3dmark scores. I'd find out if this 256MB is all dedicated ram. If it is it shouldn't be too far behind the 8600M GS.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=532&card2=533

The 8600GS is still better than the 8400M GT by around 1/3.

 

The 8600GS is a better card than the 8400GT however there are some 8600GS's which underclocked meaning they perform worse than the 8400GT, such as the Asus F3sv.

From what I can remember, sony is the only manufacturer that includes the 8400GT in some of their laptops.
The 8600GS in the Samsung R70, and also the Sony FZ21s and FZ21z all contain the 'proper' 8600GS - meaning they outpeform the 8400GT by a significant margin.

 

the fz is actually the notebook im considering with the 8400gt - that seems to be the only card i can choose if its a cto machine

im gonna be heading out to the sony store later tonite, however - maybe theyll have some machines with the 8600gs, as you mention

 

Mke sure it's the 8400MGT that has 128MB or 256MB dedicated ram. The 64MB version (319MB total shared) is rubbish.

 

The "crippling" is not referring to the amount of memory. There are certain vendors that ship an underclocked 8600GS. The HP is one of those underclocked versions (as well as the Asus).

 

shoot - you know, im really starting to lean towards the sony fz unit - they pretty much just display a graphic directly from the nvidia page

that graphic shows the 8400m gt - "maximum" memory is listed at 512mb - is it safe to assume thats the 256mb card?

the other specs show:
- 16 stream processors
- clocked at 450 (core), 900 (shader), 600 (memory)
- 128-bit memory interface

and i really appreciate everyones input - im a complete noob when it comes to graphics cards - especially mobile graphics cards...

 

ok - sorry to keep double posting - but i have this other question too

you had mentioned the hp does use the under-clocked 8600m gs cards - theoretically (im thinking you cant answer for sure until someone tries it) - i should be able to "over-clock" it back up to spec with the proper drivers, right?

i only ask because my mother works for the chicago public school system - they get discounts at hp - i could order up a dv9500t for $1350 with the following specs:

- c2d t7500
- 2 gb ram (which ill up to 3 or 4 through newegg)
- 8600m gs (this is the dedicated 256mb card - expandable to 700 something with system memory)
- 240gb hd (2 x 120 gb 5400 drives)
- wsxga+ screen (1680x1050)
- 4965 agn w/ bt

it seems like a pretty good deal for a lot of computer - itll be about $100 more than the sony fz - and the fz comes with 1 gb ram (which ill have to upgrade), 160 gb hd (also 5400), and the 8400m gt card...

 

8400m GT =severely underclocked 8600GS

@kricket no you can never assume that there is 256 dedicated as pretty much all of modern entry cards regardless of dedicated ram can suck up to 512mb system memory

As to your second answer i would make my decision on priority

Screen
CPU
HDD

When a GPU is underclocked than it is not sure that you would be able to push it higher than the stock settings, that is because some of them may become unstable and that is also the reason why they underclock cards.

 

There are architectural differences involved here, and the 8600 series is the more capable of the two.

 

I've got a 8600GS (HP DV9590) and was wondering what the stock settings be as my card is currently:

Clock Core: 364.50
Memory Clock: 799.30
Temp: 54c

 

go to nvidia.com and check

 

guys - youll NEVER friggin believe the deal i just got

i just picked up an asus g1s-x1 (now, its the t7300 cpu, not the t7500) - for $1237 OUT THE DOOR - brand new - in box

best buy has these things on clearance (making room for the t7500 models) - not every store has this price (in fact, in the ENTIRE chicagoland area - only ONE store had that price and they had only ONE left in the box - in addition to the display)

if youre interested - head over to your local best buy - and ask them to do a search for the following sku# : 8397594 - if youre lucky, youll see at least one store that has it priced at $1137.99 + tax

im gonna go post this in the deals section now - i am so friggin stoked - i got WAY more computer than i thought i would - its unbelievable...

 

If you live in the US,the 8400GT in the FZ should be with 256mb dedicated memory. It also uses DDR3 memory, definetly making it a sub-performance graphics card.
It is only a synthetic test, but the 8400GT in the FZ gets about 2400 on 3dmark06 with stock drivers. With drivers from laptopvideo2go, it should jump to 2700.

The HP does seem a very good deal. If you don't mind size and weight, then I'd go for the HP (although I hate there touchpads). The FZ on the other hand, is lighter and definetly very slim for a 15" laptop.

 

8400 G GS GT
Stream Processors 8 16 16
Core Clock (MHz) 400 400 450
Shader Clock (MHz) 800 800 900
Memory Clock (MHz) 600 600 600
Maximum Memory 256MB 256MB 512MB
Memory Interface 64-bit 64-bit 128-bit

8600 GS GT
Stream Processors 16 32
Core Clock (MHz) 600 475
Shader Clock (MHz) 1200 950
Memory Clock (MHz) 700 700
Maximum Memory 512MB 512MB
Memory Interface 128-bit 128-bit

Now You Can See The Differens

 

Theoretically speaking (because I haven't tried), you cannot overclock the HP 8600GS up to where it should be because it does not have the spec DDR3 memory. It has DDR2 memory. You can still overclock it, just probably not to where nVidia lists the specs at due to the memory issue.

 

guys - thanks for all of the advice - again, i purchased the asus g1s last nite - the thing comes with the 8600m gt - so it looks like i got a lot more notebook than i was originally looking at (heck, the vostro 1500 i shipped back only had the 8400m gs!)

 

can any one learn me

how can I overclock my 8600m GT

what is the best number in core/memory

 

I prefer that you kept you vas deferens to yourself thanks!