8600M GT memory

Hi,
Few weeks back when inspiron 1720 was out, i checked out the memory size of NVidia geforce 8600m gt and DELL said that its 256 mb dedicated, it still says that. On notebookcheck.net it said that its 256 MB.

But now when I check it again, notebookcheck.net is saying that its maximum upto 512 MB, where as on notebookreview.com I have seen a post saying its 256 MB dedicated and upto 768 mb shared from system RAM.

Now can anyone please explain? If it can become 1 Gb after sharing or atleast 512 mb, its a great feature and why would DELL not mention it?
Oh, just checked nvidia, it also says that 8600m GT is 512 MB.



Note: some claim 512 mb and some 1 GB, another contradiction, please clearify whether its 256 dedi, 512 (256 dedi and 256 shared) or 1 GB (256 dedi and 768 shared)?




SECONDLY, can anyone suggest between, latitude d820, latitude d830 and macbookpro 15'' 8600m gt, inspiron 1720 ???


I like d820 because of LOOOOOOOONG battery uptime

Also the media bay battery feature is nice, but dont know if d830 outperforms d820 in battery uptime?

Oh, notebookreview's review says d830 can do maximum of around 3.5 hours, dont remember the exact figures but it wasn't more than this figure, and that d820 does around 5 hours!!!

But notebook check says, d820 does 5.5 hrs while d830 does 6 hrs,

NOW, shouldnt they be telling the truth?! and not make the manufacturers happy?!


Thanks!

 

There are various versions of the 8600GT which easily confuses the mass. Anyways, the 8600GT that Dell uses should be 256mb dedicated. Turbocache RAM is, well, a good thing and a bad thing. It's good cause it can siphon RAM to emulate video RAM but it does not signifcantly improve graphic performance as much as it sounds. Since it siphons RAM, say you bought 2gb of RAM and the 8600GT uses 768mb of Video RAM, you're now left with 1.5gb of usable RAM.

 

There is the 256 and the 512, but im not sure if it is deticated.I wouldnt get a macbook, but the 1720 sounds good-im not really a fan of dell, so id recromend HP most, but if you like dell, the 1720 sounds right.

 

It apears Dell recieved 512MB cards early and ran out of 256MB cards so you do the math. Good time to buy Dell except there is no way a 8600 can use 512MB so do the math again.

 

Hi, thanks for the quick response guys!

1) So which one is DELL using in 1720? how much VRAM does it have and how much does it share? I dont think it shares because if it does, DELL wouldnt miss a chance to say "ITS GOT 512 MB thing!"

2) Is D830 any better than d820? Does nvidia quadro NVS 140 M share memory? and how much does it have onboard/dedi memory?

3) How long does 1720 last on battery? notebookcheck said it lasts for 6 hours!!! EXTREME LIE!!!

4) I decided to go with d820 because it has battery uptime of around 5-7 hours!!!!! Im now stuck between d820 and d830 again after reading EXTREMELY CONTRADICTING REVIEWS!!!

An indian Vikram Rao on notebookreview stated d820 lasts for around 3 hrs maximum, on 6 cell,

while another guy said he managed to get 7 hours, on 9 cell!!!!!!! ALMOST DOUBLE, but the 9cell is not a double of 6 cell,

it means the information is NOT correctly provided!!! which makes it easy for the people to get lost!

5) So d830 lasts long or d820? some users' opinions said d830 lasts maximum of 3 hrs approx!

I like to go with d820, is it a good choice? I would play games sometimes, like Flight Simulator X! Dont want highest resolutions, 800x600 is fine for me for almost highest settings!

Thanks!