Choosing a notebook graphic card?

Hi, I would like that someone solves me a question about choosing a notebook graphic card. I´m gonna buy a laptop of 17", and I´m not sure of what graphic solution is the best that I can choose. There´re some notebooks with a 7900gs nvidia solution, and another one with an ati 1800 solution. I want the laptop basically for gaming, cad 2d displaying and to see dvds. In your opinion, what´s the best choice? Taking into account some important features, such as, temperature, battery lasting and performance. Thank you very much for your opinions.

 

Read the gaming stickies for info like that...however, I'm fairly certain that the consensus here is that the 7900GS beats the X1800 by a fair margin. I'm also somewhat certain that the 7900GS will have a longer battery life than, and lower temperatures than, a X1800.

 

In both cases, It´s a good idea to buy any notebook cooling system to decrease temperature, or it´s enough with the internal cooling system of a typical laptop, such as dell or fujitsu-siemens.

 

I'd suggest the 7900GS in both cases. ATI's OpenGL support is historically bad, and doing CAD stuff, you will probably be working with OpenGL. That, and the 7900GS is faster. Battery life will be abysmal with either of those cards. 17" is up to the "luggable" status, it's not really "portable". It's like a movable computer that happens to have a built-in UPS

 

Additional cooling always helps...and it might increase the life of the notebook as well.

 

Thank you for your answers, but a question comes into my mind, It´s a good idea to make efforts in paying overprice for a 7900gs or x1800,thinking in the near future of videogames, or it´s better to purchase a mid range card like 7600 or x1600, knowing that my preferred videogames are strategic and rpg games.
I´m an ocassional player of some shooting games as Doom3 too, and I´d like to think that I´d be able of playing to those videogames for two years at least with good levels of fps

 

Read through the GPU guide Chaz wrote:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

The go 7600/x1600 level is quite powerful, but I wouldn't go with them unless I was going with a 15.4" or smaller system. If you're going to commit to a large 17" and want to play games, you might as well get the go 7900 GS or better.

 

If you would wan't nice design and style and were willing to pay a little more for it, go for 17" Sony Vaio AR series. They have option for Geforce go 7600 gt, which is more powerful than go7700, go7600 or x1600. So it's actually the most powerful "performance" card right now. But if you prefer pure gaming power over design and 15,4" portability, then by all means go for those high end cards. The Geforce go 7900gs is better choice than x1800 (even though I have it ).

 

Thank you guys, your opininions have brought light into my mind.