8600M GT DDR2: That outdated?

Yea, I fear Battlefield 3 being a system killer and not running well or at all on my new laptop when it comes out. Assuming there's ever going to be a BF3.

As stated before though, the 8600M GT will almost surely be a survivor with games until 2009, you'd just have to expect lower graphical settings as time passes by.

 

The only way you're going to get a gaming laptop to last 4 years is to get a fully loaded XPS M1730 and drop $5000 on it.

Even by todays standards the 8600M w/ DDR2 is a crappy card, the 8600M DDR2 is roughly on par with a desktop 8500 DDR2.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=859&model2=722&chart=318

As you can see the top cards are 4-5x faster then this card, and this is single card solution. Sli scores are roughly 50% higher. We're talking 6-7.5x the speed of the 8600M DDR2. Seriously, that's already roughly 3-4 years behind technology, asking a card that's already behind by 4 years to last an additional 4 years is simply imposible.

If you're on a tight budget and need something to last, I would recommend what another poster stated, and that's to go with a non-gaming laptop and an Xbox360 or PS3. It's the only way you're going to futureproof your gaming habit for 4 years on such a tight budget.

 

dont look at speed, I have a 1.6 Core 2Duo and I dont plan on upgrading it for a year or so. It is very fast still, coupled with 3GB of ram it is just fine.

 

If the ddr2 8600m gt is roughly on-par with the 8500, then what is the dd3 version on-par with?

 

Since we are talking about the Geforce 8600M GT (DDR2), can someone with one of these cards(none overclocked) do me a favor and post a screenshot of the 8600M GT DDR2 GPU information using the latest version of GPU-Z?

 

Is this what you want?

 

I'm assuming you meant the 9500m GT?

 

Ok, I only needed to know about how my processer would be and about the GPU, thats it. I actually expect how things are to last for 3 years at least now, not 4 years I guess. 8600M GT with DDR2 or DDR3--either way one of those two will work out well, even if it means I end up with the DDR2 GPU. And I guess maybe the Intel Core 2 Duo with 1.83GHz will work great for 3 years, after all, its Core 2 Duo. In terms of power, a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo compared to a 1.83GHz Celeron is out of the question, so 1.83GHz in terms of Core 2 Duo is a lot more power than you'd think it is... so I may be good to go. If I should be notified of anything else, please do so...

I updated the details on the first page concerning the RAM and hard drive,so if you'd like to respond to those things, please read them on the first page than respond...

 

Both HDD and Ram are easy to upgrade. About HDD, it depends on how you plan to use it. Games and multimedia contents are two biggest space-eater. However, it is easy to put multimedia contents on external drives, if you need so. How many games do you want to put on your HDD at the same time? I know a friend who's laptop has only 500MB HDD space left, and it does run slow.

2gb is okay for now. However, having more RAM helps, obviously - especially for Vista.

Remember, price of RAM and HDD will continue to drop as time pass by, so IMO you can just update them when you feel you need them.

Don't except 8600GT to handle games well 3 years later. Delta between desktop/laptops GPUs keeps increasing (because Desktop has no heat/power limitation), and they design games for desktops. And no, DDR3 won't help in that situation anyway.

 

You're not gonna get a laptop GPU that'll hold up well for 3+ years. You're lucky to get a desktop GPU that'll even hold up well for 3+ years. As mentioned, I recommend getting a xbox 360 or PS3 for hardcore graphically good games that'll last you for 3+ years. Unless you are the type that wants a new gaming laptop every 3 years or upgrades their desktop video card every few years.

 

Which makes no sense to me. I understand in a college environment or some other circumstance where space is limited a powerful laptop makes sense. But for $5k, I'd still rather only spend $2500 - $3000 on a "desktop replacement". And even today, getting one of the Gateway's with the 8800m GTX cards should suffice for a couple years anyhow and at less than $2000.

 

As long as you've got 15GB of free space(Vista) and there aren't many applications running in the background you'll be fine.

 

No it's not going to slow down your computer.

 

Oh wait, I got ya. I guess I wasn't clear about the fact that I won't be doing a WHOLE LOT of gaming on PC. Out of multiplatform games (360 and PC, PS3 and PC, etc.), I'd be buying probably 70% of them on consoles, 30% on PC. Like for example, I'd buy the Orange Box on PC since its laggy with online for the 360 and PS3 versions. I really shoud've notified this in the first place, as it will have a big impact on what I had asked from the start. I'm guessing in this case, an 8600M GT is really enough for what I need when you consider what I just said...