Debating between NVida 9600GT DDR2 and 9600GT DDR3

Hi, first post here, and hopefully you guys can help me out with this.

I am debating between purchasing the Compal JHL90, which has the 9600GT DDR2 card in it, and the MSI-1651, which has the 9600GT DDR3. The two laptops are identical in all other aspects (chipset, processor, etc). I am basing my purchase on the performance of these GPUs.

Now the dilemma is that

1.) The MSI notebook is a little more expensive (I'm looking to buy from xoticpc or powernotebooks). I realize its got a 3-year warranty with it but it stretches my budget a bit too much.

2.) I need the notebook before the 22nd, because I am going overseas for a year (I live in the U.S., travelling to Russia). The MSI WXGA version is not in yet, with either of the above resellers, and the eta is still uncertain. The Compal JHL90 is available right now though.

Now, my question is whether the 9600M GT DDR3 in the MSI is worth the extra money and inconvenience if it does not arrive on time. The JHL90 can be had for around 1000 bucks but the MSI (coupled with the rush shipping I would have to get would drive the price up to around 1300).

I am a gamer (not hardcore though), so the performance on the GPU does matter to me. But would there be that great of a performance difference between the DDR2 and DDR3 on these cards? I realize there aren't any benchmarks comparing the two but maybe some people with more experience than me can cite some past trends in performance between different memory types on the same model GPU.

 

To my knowledge the Geforce 9600M GT DDR2 scores around 4500 points in 3dmark06 while the DDR3 version scores 5100 points. Personally I’d go for the cheaper option.

 

Personally i wouldn't base my decision on the memory clocks of the gpu. Performance wise it would make some* difference at higher resolutions and AA but at WXGA you should be fine either way *IMO*.