8600M GT vs 7800 GTX

Im going to buy a new laptop really soon, and I needed to see what to expect. My current desktop has a 7800 GTX GDDR3 in it. How would this compare to a 8600M GT, both the GDDR2 and GDDR3 variants of it?

Cause Im either going to get a XPS 1530 or a 8510p/8510w (maybe, the ShopBLT ones dont have N wireless cards).

How would it perform? I mostly play TF2, CSS, Portal, bunch of MMOs. Used to play WoW, and Im going to be playing Warhammer Online. SO nothing crazy overpowered, but will I be able to pull off the same performance on the 8600 as my 7800?

I will be playing at 1280x800 resolution in window (so the actual desktop resolution will be 1650x1xxx. (WSXGA+) (i think that was the widscreen resolution, im used ot the 1280x1024 standard sicne thats the kind of monitor i have).

[Edit] Also, would waiting for the Alienware m15x be a good idea? Since i would need to wait for the M1530 for better resolutions anyway.

 

If you can wait for laptops equipped with the 8800GTX do so, that card will eat both the 8600GT (both variants) and 7800GTX at any settings and resolutions.

If you can't wait then the 7800GTX is more powerful than the 8600GT in most scenarios, the only exceptions being shader-intensive games and games which offer a DX10 mode (no comparison there since the 7800 isn't DX10 compatible).

 

Both variants would have less performance, of course, probably by about 25% and 50%, respectively. However, on WXGA resolution in newer games, the difference would probably be less, maybe something like 15% and 35%.

As a note, both the M1530 and the 8510w have the 8600M-GT GDDR3, and the 8510p has the HD2600 GDDR3.

And yes, for gaming waiting for the m15x would be an excellent option, but keep in mind it will likely be as portable as a normal 17".