8600M GT DDR2: That outdated?

Ok, this whole thing with getting the right laptop has driven me nuts. I want to make sure I get a laptop that is future-proof for 3 years. I've been told that the 8600M GT with DDR2 is not very well future-proof. I'm just gonna say right now, I'll play Sims 2, some FPS games like Far Cry and Counter Strike, and Crysis. Now I don't care how the settings would be for Crysis, I know it is playable on this card.

I'm aware that FPS games (or med-spec games) can currently run med/high on this card. High spec games like Crysis, low/med/high, but I don't worry so much about high spec games as they rarely come along. Yes, these kind of games over year after year will decrease in the kinds of settings they can be played with, but by the time games that require medium computer specs, are barely unplayable with this card, will this be before 3 years can even go by? Would it be THAT outdated before 3 years can go by? I'm trying to make the DDR2 version of the 8600M GT a possible good choice because GDDR3 is rare. I can think about getting the XPS 1530 since it has GGDR3, but thats if it goes on sale, but I could be waiting for weeks or monthes for it to go on sale, it may NOT even happen, and I'd hate to possibly waste time...

That being said, I wanna know if trying, and WAITING to get a notebook with an 8600M GT with GDDR3 is really worth it and worth the trouble, even when including everything I said. Would the 8600M GT with DDR2 still be bad to get when for 3 years EVEN when including what I said?
Oh, and maybe be a little specific with exactly how long the DDR2 8600M GT could last being playable with the kind of games I mentioned...

Possible Dell Notebook:
Dell Inspiron 1720
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5550 (2MB cache/1.83GHz/667Mhz FSB), English
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
Spring Green Color with Microsatin Finish
Anti-glare, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
160G 5400RPM SATA HDD
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT DDR2
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Integrated Stereo High Definition Audio
Dell Travel Remote Control, IR

P.S. I realize that some of you people may have seen my threads up quite often. I apologize if I'm posting too many threads quite often. I'm not so smart with the laptop stuff in some cases, and I could be quite questioning... I owned an Inspiron 1525, but I realized how it wasn't good enough for my needs and pretty weak (GMA X3100= ), so I gladly returned it and since then, I've wanted to get a new laptop as soon as possible...

UPDATED: Please read through some of the pages, as some things have already been answered..., before you bother responding. I'm curious about the processor as well now (as stated above in 1720 specs)and if 2GB of RAM is ok, and if I had a 160GB HDD like stated above that how much space could be taken up before the PC would start to run slow; but anything you don't see mentioned that I should be notified about, please do so...

ALERT!: Dam, sorry to write so much, lol, but things have really gotten screwed up. As stated on my last post on page 7, I'll probably be doing 30% of my gaming on my PC, 70% on consoles. There's the PC exclusives I'll buy and there's the crossplatform games, in which most of the time will be purchased for consoles. So because of this, this may REALLY change this whole situation completely and maybe the 8600M GT maybe be really enough for my needs. Sorry to all of those people who replied to this forum... but all replies have to be based on what I said here right now...

 

this card is almost a year old....it is starting to get out of date for sure.you can still play games with it just fine but the lower end 9 series should be out soon.

 

Yea, you may want to wait a little bit if you can to see what new cards come out. I don't think that the 8600 w/ DDR2 would be the best card to get if you want to be future proof for 3-4 years....

 

Aging but not outdated imo. I can play cod4, cnc3, coh p, and a bunch of other games at 1680 x 1050 with mid 20s and above fps. This is with overclocking of course. Yeah but a few of 2008s games are certainly going to put a hurt on my poor 8600.

 

8600M GT DDR2 will be enough for at least 1.5 years from now, maybe even more.
It's just a matter of "I want only the latest video card".

The only thing that I wonder is: would it be possible to upgrade the 8600M GT w/ DDR2 in the future to let's say 9xxx series ?

 

Uhm NO
read the stickies.
And why not get the Gateway FX , with the 8800M GTS? that is surely going to last at least 2 more years
You can find it at BestBuy.

 

Sounds expensive. I can only go as high as $1100, and I prefer to stick with Dell, I've had enough with Best Buy, their notebook just don't offer enough for their prices and are all low-wnd on the GPUs.

And ok, so it may be worth waiting to get a laptop like an XPS 1530 for an 8600M GT card with GDDR3 over the DDR2 version, but when I think about it, the GDDR3 one is more future proof, but is that to say it will still stay future proof for at least 3-4 years as according to what I said?

 

3-4 years? that`s pushing it. The 8800M GTS might make it that far, the 8600M GT will probably die in less than 2.
It`d be better overall to get the Gateway, it is duall hdd capable,it`s a 17` screen and has great reviews. 2-2.5 times faster than the 1530.It`s well worth the 200$ more...

 

The gateway is I believe the most bang for your buck. Its a gateway laptop that is just being sold by best buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8651167&type=product&id=1195599780039

^ What ele said.

 

Yeah...DDR2 is a bit outdated now, even if it does have more vram...won't save a crappy card...

get the 1530 if you can, and it IS on sale this Wed, so check up on Dell.com, might be able to get a decent lappy for under 1500...

 

Ok, so the 8600M GT, even at GDDR3, may not be as "mid-range" as it is right now, but what cards performance would you compare the 8600M GT to in like in 3 years? Would it be like a low-end 8400M GS in 3 years?

 

No. Look at a 4 year old laptop with a (then) mid range card.

How well does a GO 5600 FX play games today?

Mid range + 4 years = ~IGP performance.

 

dude just get it if youre in a hurry, wait if ure not, all this talk about outdated is bull IMHO, ofc a card cant last more than 2-2,5 years, ofc youre gonna have to decrease details and resolutions as time goes by its the way it works, but if youre not into HIGH DETAIL HIGH RESOLUTION like most people here are
then you should be just fine, i think most people here dont quite understand that some other people are on a budget so you have replies like get 8800

 

That card is "Barely Games-Capable". My guess is that it was mid-range for 1.5 to 2 years, low-end for 1 to 1.5 years, than became barely games capable after 3 years. At least it isn't compared to a GMA X3100 (crap)... I'm assuming that the results with the 8600M GT will be similar to those results of the Go 5600GTX over 4 years, but a little better with GDDR3...

 

Other than the dedicated memory advantage, it is crap to an X3100---slower, lower tech (Pixel Shader 2.0), and less pipelines.

 

Note, I'm NOT saying that the 8600 is in any way bad/crap. It's just that your 3-4 years requirement is very demanding. Even high end stuff looks bad by then. I bought my laptop (in sig) back in 2006. By 2010---4 years old, it'll be badly out of date, and it was near state of the art when I bought it. A midrange one will be even worse in this requirement.

 

Forget the Notebook....

IF u are that paranoid about being 3.4 years future proof then get a PS3 with a T7500 laptop.

and get a 8400 M GS.



laptops are NOT for gaming... its just that we mad fans love to try games on laptop.


If u really love to game & would love to do so... then trust me


Get a PS3.



No one can give u a wiser suggestion.

 

Alright, so I assume the 8600M GT performance will decrease like the 5600GTX did over 4 years, but I'm gonna assume that the GGDR3 version's performance won't go down as fast as the 8600M GT with DDR2 would. So this may sound good for 3 years... if I get the GDDR3 GPU...

 

I think maybe 3 years for your 8600m GT. I mean my over 2 year old XPS M170 with a go 7800GTX plays games fine even today with overclocking of course, though of course the go 7800GTX were high end back in those days.
That card even pulls off 1920x1200 in some of the newer games with good framerates. I even average 30 fps in Crysis at 1280x800 and Medium settings, except Post Processing set to High and this on a single core 2.13GHz PentiumM.

If you are not into high res then you could probably pull off 3 years at least with a 8600m GT. I had two 8700m GT´s in SLI myself for a little while, these are good "mid end" cards for sure both the 8600m GT DDR3 and 8700m GT DDR3. I would recommend you get at least the DDR3 version of the 8600m GT.

 

Go 5600GTX is no more a Computer GFx card.

It is being used on O2 phones for DVD playback.

So now u know how crappy it is.

 

cool so now i get an o2 phone and i can play AOE and AOE2 on it

 

Game requirements ALWAYS go up as time goes on. The faster RAM on the DD3 card might give it "playable" performance a little longer depending on future game requirements, but obsolescence is inevitable. FWIW, they're both mid-range, 2007 cards.

Is there really a big difference today between a GO 5600 FX and a GO 5650 FX?

Chances are that if 1 card won't run a game, neither will the other.

Same thing for the 8600 DDR2/3 in 4 years.

 

Well I guess knowing how a mid-range (than) GPU from 2-4 years ago holds up to today is the perfect way to know how a today's mid-range GPU would hold up. I think I'll try to get a Dell XPS 1530 with a 256MB 8600M GT, and I'm sure it'll hold up well for at least 3 years... with the help of GDDR3...

 

Umm.... read his post again. A 7800GTX was a high-end card in its day--like buying an 8800 today. It was not mid-range.

 

double post

 

Well what was said about that 7800GTX can be compared with the 8600GT in 2 years: it'll still be an ok mid-range card, just like how the 7800GTX is an ok high-end card now... Well, I get it. I'll get a 256MB 8600M GT that'll hold up well till becoming low-end in after about 2 years... with the addition of GDDR3... I understand DDR2 isn't so good now...

 

I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but your kidding yourself if you think you'll be playing games at decent settings with an 8600 in 3-4 years.

Since you now mentioned 2 years (a much more realistic goal) You should be fine.

That's like a 7600 today, playing Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, or CoD 4. While a 7600 can't do max settings @ 60FPS, it's certainly playable.

 

It's a great budget card, if you want to run games currently on mid-high settings and are low on cash it's great. if you can, grab the 8800m GTS or GTX.

 

Yea, exactly, maybe 1 year of great mid-range performance, another year of just good/ok mid-range performance, than low-end for a year, than well, yea...

 

Seeing how the mobile Geforce 9 series so far are just Geforce 8 series with minor improvements, I think the Geforce 8600M GT is still a mid-range option for 2008 gaming; typically in notebooks. My guess is that it'll last for another 1 and a half to 2 years. For example my older notebook with the Radeon Mobility X1600 managed to still keep up with modern games such as CoD4, Bioshock, and Crysis on low.

 

looks like overclocking will prolong its life a little more

 

I guess there really isn't a very good reason to get an 8600M GT with DDR2 at this time now. I did read a thread thats people overclocked their 8600M GT DDR2 cards to run like a stock GDDR3 one, but I don't trust that stuff...

 

Dam... I hate to say this after all this talk, but I oughta realize that the Dell
XPS 1530 is the only notebook I could get (better value) with an 8600M GT with GDDR3. But I had mentioned that only be possible if it were to go on sale. If prices don't go down low enough, I'm screwed. I could be stuck with getting an Inspiron 1720, with has DDR2. Sure, it ain't as powerful as DDR3, but will there be a HUGE difference in terms of "future-proof", relating to what I had said on Page 3? Or will I still to get by 3 years just ABOUT as well as I would with the GDDR3 GPU?

(BTW, I'm Canadian, so don't refer to Dell.com deals)

 

You just can`t rely that many years on an already 1 year old GPU . I mean it`s ok in the desktop world,but a laptop with a NEW card can last for 3 year,max in terms of gaming.Unless you wanna play all low and low res.
The ddr3 is about 20-30% faster than the ddr2 version,runs cooler and OCs better and more.

 

I've been playing with my Dell for a month now and here are what averages I get for my games:

WiC (1280x800 = at least 25 frames)
COD4 (1024x768 = 25 frames, 1280x800 = 20 frames)
Crysis (800x600 = 25 frames, 1024x768 = 20 frames, 1280x800 = 15 frames)

Frames I listed are in fluid action/motion, not just standing still and taking in the scenery so you tack on 5 frames to each value if you wanted a stationary value. I'm using 169.09 drivers and my card is not OCed and its DDR2. Crysis doesn't look so good and it's extremely ugly on my notebook. Are you sure you don't care how it looks? Because you'll most likely play at 800x600 for fluidity's sake.

Glad to see you've given up the 8400M dilemma. It really should have been should I get the 8600M GT as a baseline or perhaps something higher like the 8800.

In my opinion, you should expect at most 1-2 years outta this card for playing new games at medium settings (depending on whether the game scales and if it's a FPS or not). I tend to err on the side that games are gonna demand more sooner rather than later.

What is your budget? Cuz the Gateway with the 8800 is a good deal, especially if you can get it on sale.

 

Ok, I understand that, but if I have to get stuck with DDR2, am I still ok to go?

 

Yes, you're fine. There's not a HUGE difference between them, but there is one.

 

I do care, its just if I can't find a deal on an XPS 1530 soon enough, I may need to make some sacrifices and get an Inspiron 1720 with a DDR2 8600M GT

 

I think Tuesday there's a deal on it... and that's tomorrow. Saturday they just had a $600 off on it I think.....

 

I'm Canadian. But the same XPS Spring Deals are going on, on Dell.ca. Deals between Dell.com and Dell.ca are different I believe...

 

My advice is to just get a desktop for gaming. Gaming laptops are ridiculous when it comes to price/performance, and you will break your wallet trying to get the latest mobile graphics. On the other hand, with a desktop it is easy to upgrade and it is cheaper compared to getting new gaming laptop (or even just the gpu, which is upgradeable in some cases but not in most, and is ridiculously expensive compared to desktop versions while offering less performance)

 

If you want a 15", 8600m GT is about it for the time being unless you throw lots of money at the Alienware 15" with the 8800m GTX. Otherwise a 17" laptop is what you want with an 8800m GTX and preferably with an MXM card for future upgradeability.

Expecting 3-4 years for gaming with a latptop is asking a lot, especially for a non upgradeable video card. For general purpose use, ok. My wife's 6 year old Sony Vaio served the purpose for web surfing and office apps, and basic desktop games, or year 2000 or prior 3D games.

If you want gaming, expect two to two and a half years out of a laptop max. An 8800m GTX might get you an extra 6 to 9 months of gaming compared with an 8600m GT, but you'll need a 17". That being said, so far I don't see anything to be released in 2008 that won't run well at decent settings with the 8600m GT, and probably most of the stuff midway through 2009.

So if you opt for an 8600m GT expect to be able to play the latest games for a year and a half with 1280x800 resolution at minimum settings in some instances, but for 2008 mid to high in many cases. Otherwise an 8800m GTX will get you through 2009 probably quite well.

 

I think this is the correct answer. Sure, the DDR3 will be a little better, but it's about 20% today, and will be the same percentage better in 4 years. So if today that means you go from 30 FPS to 36 FPS, in 4 years you might go from 10 FPS to 12 FPS - still not playable. Also note that if a game requires GeForce 9, the difference between 8600 GDDR3 and DDR2 won't help you at all.

I wouldn't spend significantly more for the GDDR3, certainly wouldn't go over budget for it. If you really want more longevity you ought to go 8800.

Realistically, you'll probably still be able to play most new games in 3-4 years, with a few exceptions, at kind of low settings. Your options for new games may be more limited soon before you upgrade, but if that's not a problem the 8600 will serve you fine.

 

For the cost of one gaming laptop, you can get a regular laptop and a gaming desktop. Unless you plan on playing the next installment of Crysis at Starbucks, I would advise this course of action. +1 @ htwingnut

Also, please note that one used Go 7950GTX still costs more than two 8800GTS 512 and an SLI motherboard new (600 series).

 

8600M GT DDR2 with Laptopvideo2Go drivers and a slight overclock will do same as 8600M GT DDR3.
Either way the 8600M GT is quite future proof til 2009, it will all the games til 2009 at least medium settings, most of course high.
After that you might want to tweak some newer games or just use a smaller resulution than your native is. (Example for 1280x800 - you'll use 1024x768 or something) and your FPS will stay between 25~4x.

Cards like 8800GTX will last 3 years for sure, maybe not everything (including AA's etc) maxed, but most of the settings on high. (Talking about 1280x800)
Also make sure you'll get a good CPU aswell, anything below Core 2 Duo (at least 2Ghz) isn't worth it. A fast HDD will also reduce your loading times, and it wouldn't hurt to get a notebook with fast ram too.

 

Yea, uhh, no gaming laptops, TOO expensive for my money, can't come close to affording it. And second, why get a desktop when you can get a more organized machine that can be brough on the go like a LAPTOP. I mean I'm aware about having the ability to upgrade CPUs/GPUs when they get outdated, but I don't mind paying $1100m for a laptop good for 3-4 years. By the time I'm ready for a new laptop, I'll have more than $1100 easily...

I'm hoping an XPS 1530 will go on sale for low enough for me to afford during the XPS Spring Savings, but if not, I'm stuck with an Inspiron 1720. Sure it doesn't have DDR3 like the XPS, but I'm sure it'll STILL handle things well for the time I expect it to.

 

I could end up with Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz at the lowest. For the HDD, could end up with 160GB 5400RPM at the lowest, and RAM maybe 2GB (possibly 1GB). Would these still be ok?

 

I'd say get at least 2 GHz CPU and (if you can) a 7200rpm HDD. Ram is cheaper to buy afterwards.

 

Yea, I know, I'd try to do that with the processor, BUT IF I HAD TO END UP WITH Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz, no ability to upgrade, would this still work out ok? Future proof?

 

Exactly. Thanks for the +1.

I have been using my laptop a lot for gaming only because we have a new baby and our PC's are in our finished basement, which my wife doesn't want him down there in the winter because its too cold. So I suffice with my laptop on our main floor on the kitchen table.

I bought my Vostro in Sept 2007. I can see it lasting me through middle of 2009 for gaming, unless there's something that I absolutely have to play using the laptop (Battlefield 3 maybe).