8600M GT 512MB or 8700M GT 256MB?

Guys, I want to buy a notebook for games and I'm betwwen choosing the Toshiba Qosmio G40-11D and Toshiba Satellite X200-15K (It had to be a Toshi cuz I get it for half-price from a friend's store).

Qosmio G40-11D:
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe....p/productPage.do?service=EU&PRODUCT_ID=131020

Satellite X200-15K:
http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe....p/productPage.do?service=EU&PRODUCT_ID=131332

The problem is the graphics card... Shall I go for the Qosmio's 8600M GT 512MB card or the X200's 8700M GT 256MB?

I know that the 8700M GT is about 40% faster, but with half of the 8600M GT's dedicated memory (I know there is also a 512MB version of the 8700M GT, but it's is not available to any laptop I can get).

Thanks for reading my thread.

 

I'd take the 8700GT it's working with a lower resolution and is the faster card which should equate to some decent performance. It's probably GDDR3 rather than 2 as well which is always a benefit.

 

But what about the less dedicated memory? Should this cause me a serious problem with games?

 

the 8600gt wills struggle with 1920 x 1200 even with more dedicated memory.

I'd take the 8700GT if it were me it should deal with its limited dedicated memory well

 

Take X200 with 8700GT.

 

Will the TurboCache (Sharing RAM for graphics memory) improove the system's gaming performance at least a little? Note that I'll replace the 2GB RAM with 4GB and this is equiped with 1GB of Intel TurboMemory.

 

It may do. I'm not a firm believer in TurboCache but will that much RAM it may help a little.

 

Nice, Thanks very much staffsMike.

Oh, and another thing I would like to ask: I heard that the 8700M GT is just an overclocked version of the 8600M GT. Perhaps, would anyone recomment getting the Qosmio with the 8600M GT and overclocking it to the same clockspeeds as the 8700M GT?

 

It depends on the memory like i said before. If the 8600GT is GDDR2 and the 8700GT is GDDR3 then it will have big advantage. It would be worth you finding out before you buy.

Even so I think due to the screen resolution you really would be better off with the 8700GT laptop.

 

So, do you think the 8700M GT is quite future-proof? Or in two years I won't be able to play any games?

 

I think i'm right in saying that the 8700gt should be upgradable down the line.

The 8700 be better down the line that the 8600 i'd imagine.

 

If you're talking about the 8700 in the Toshiba then no it's not upgradeable. Only the 8700 in the Sager NP5790 is upgradeable atm...

 

Yup, thats right, laptops with MXM graphics module can have upgrades on the GPU, like the Asus C90 and but the X200 doesn't have the MXM.

 

True. And the 8700M GT 256MB would do alright at 1440x900 since 256mb should be more than enough at that resolution for a 8700. The 8600M GT 512mb would perform worse than the 8700M GT 256mb. So yea, go for the X200. Man you must be lucky... I wish I can get it for half price at a friend's store...

 

Yeah, I think the actual price of that laptop is about 1600 Cyprus Pounds (About 3200 US Dollars) and I'll get it for only 800 Cyprus Pounds (1700 US Dollars)!!!!!!

 

what about a 8600 GT with DDR3 memory? Overclock that, it would be almost comparable to the 8700 GT

 

False.

The 8700 can get scores of 5194 on 3dmark06 at 1280x1024 (external monitor) when you overclock it. (775/938, shipped Toshiba drivers)

I haven't seen an 8600 get even close to the stock-clock 8700 performance, let alone the amazing OC-ability of the 8700.

The 8700 is considerably better than even the GDDR3 version of the 8600.

 

Remeber that most games WILL NOT USE ALL 512 MB memory. infact most games will barely go over 350MB. I have 256 mem in my laptop and it works fine for Bioshock and WIC.

The amount of overclocking that you would need to do to get it to 8700 standards will more likely burn your computer or ur lap before you can actualy play. Go with the 8700, You will not regret it.

 

When we are talking about "upgrading" the 8700, there is NO upgrade available and really only one upgrade slated for the near future; and that would be the 8700GTX.

No one (except nvidia) knows the stats or requirements of said card or if the MXM-III card of the x205/x200 series or if the MXM-IV card of the clevo units will be able to handle it.

It IS more likely the MXM-IV card of the clevo units will be able to handle the higher power ratings the 8700GTX is likely to have, but no one knows if even the MXM-IV has enough juice or if the 8700GTX will ship in ANY MXM format.

 

having DDR3 over DDR2 is better than more ram. therefore, 8700 w/DDR3 is significantly better than 8600 w/DDR2 even if the 8700 has less ram.

 

I tested Acer with C2D 1,8+86GT DDR2 and Toshiba with C2D 2,2 and 87GT DDR3and the results on X200 were 40% to even 100% better than on Acer. So I would definetly take X200 with 87GT. Of course I'm talking about real life games, not 3dmarks.

 

Don't know if that's so false if it's true that an OC'd 8700 get's 5194 points.
I have a DDR2 8600 an have it OC'd and i get 4385 points. I believe that's stock of the 8600 DDR3? So an OC'd 8600 DDR3 should be able to get very close to those 5194 points.

TBH, i find 5194 points for an OC'd 8700 very very dissapointing. I would have expected that for a stock 8700!

 

Sorry but it sounds to me like you are not comparing fairly.
Stock G1S and G2S score in the 3800s at 1280x1024.
This is the best known 8600GT with GDDR3 and a 2.2GHz C2D7500.

Stock Acer Aspire 5920 with the DDR2 and a 2.0GHz C2D7300 gets 3249 at 1280x800!

Dell Inspirion 1520 scored a 2905 at 1280x1024.

Somehow you are telling me your overclock (please fill us in what clocks/drivers you are using)
helped you gain over a 50% score boost?

Even my pretty nice 24 and 34% OC for the 8700 from 625/700 to 775/938 netted only a 10-11% score boost.

Something doesn't match up...

More than likely your are comparing my 1280x1024 result to your 1280x800 result which isn't an apples to apples comparison.

If this is 1280x800, then 8700 users' results are over 1000 points higher at that resolution.


To give you a comparison, 7950GTX single-card laptops get 5000-5400 at 1280x1024.

 

what about a stock 8700 GT vs a 8600 GT DDR3 OCed.. Ive heard people say that the scores are fairly close (though the 8700 GT still pulls ahead) but im not exactly sure on the credability

 

Guys, thanks for your useful comments on my thread, you can't imagine how much all of you helped me out. Thanks.

I would really want to know something about the TurboCache memory sharing system: Can I adjust the amount of RAM to be shared with my 8700M GT, because I'm plaaning on replacing the 2GB RAM with 4GB so I can replace the gap of the graphics dedicated memory a little (and something extra: the factory RAM is running at 667MHz, will my motherboard be compatible with some 800Mhz RAM?).

 

comparing 3dmark scores is as stupid as comparing pokemon cards, game performance obviously is MUCH better with the 8700gt, it has much higher clocks and and can be OC rediculously; also has dual rank 128bit bus

 

Unfortunately, comparing real game fps is also unfair as unless someone writes a decent and balanced game-based benchmark... which then someone who didn't like the result would claim was synthetic...


3dmark is a raw benchmark... but frankly two people running timedemos of one specific game with differing hardware is a raw benchmark as well.

Woohoo cardX beats cardY in game1 while cardY assasinates cardX in game2!
Which card is better?
Overall, neither... pick the one that plays your favorite game better for now... of course that's no guarantee that driver release 2.76535352 won't change the story!

Anyone who has been interested in this market know that it is a cycle of tests that make a real comparison work.

I compare with it because frankly it seems to be the most fair single test I can run. If someone has a better and more fair comparison device without running 80 hours of benchmarking, I am all ears.

 

Then what about 2 8600m GT GDDR3 in SLI ?