Does the X1600 still stand a chance?

Actually, i had no choice. Very few notebooks come with discrete graphics on Brazil, plus i had a budget. To make a comparison, a dell vostro 1500 with a 8400gs on dell's website costs about R$ 5000,00 (they dont even have the 8600 option, lol). Thats, roughly, with taxes included, USD $ 2900. Then there you go, dedicated graphics are rare here these days.

The best notebook that i found that fits my budget (and my needs) is an HP nc8430 for R$ 2750,00 (roughly comparing, about USD $1600). It has an ATi x1600, which sounds good to me. The processor is a T7200 (4mb L2, 2.0ghz) and with 2gigs inside.

However, as a past generation card/notebook, every review i read is outdated. So i would like to know how these graphics go against nowaday games. According to chaz's, it should be somewhere between the 8400gs and the 8600gt, which sounds like it's not bad. Btw, the x1600 is DDR2 i think, so, would that still put it in front of the 8400, being the 8400 a GDDR3?

Actually i have no choice, it will simply have to be the x1600. Anyway, i'm just a bit anxious about it, you know, you have already waited for ur new buddies before...

Does anyone here still runs this card? Or maybe a nvidia 7600, which by what i've seen, is about the same? Have anyone tried Crysis on it? I'd expect it to "run" on min at least. Do you think it would be possible to live with it for still, say, 2 years? That considering i'm running on a Geforce4 mx440 (64mb) and 256 of system ram until the present moment

 

send me your money and I will send you a GOOD laptop with a 8800m gtx in it for 2K USD.

 

I wouldn't do that if I were you. Sending it to that guy....

 

The x1600 is a midrange card. It's not too bad, but definitely better (by a little) than the 8400 GS.

 

although i don't have the answer to your question this link might help you out to make up your mind -

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

although the benchmark result here are not so accurate it will give you an idea of the GPU performances.

well, u seems to be spending too much for so little... try buying the laptop from some other country if thats an option...

 

Taxes are the whole problem in Brazil

Actually i had thought about buying it in another country, but thought it was better to buy here due to warranty and eventual hardware issues. Not sure if it would be legal to bring it elsewhere without paying extra when passing anyway...

Btw, even being "little", i havent ever _seen_ somewhere with more than a GMA950 around, so thats how things are.

 

dude seriously send me a paypal ( which is guaranteed and shows proof of payment) and I will order you one using USD from Eurocom and send it to you with US tax exempt. Though Im not sure how mnuch it would cost to send it to Brazil.

 

I think you've got a fine laptop in the nc8430, especially considering Dell's prices in your country. I also am pretty sure your x1600 is GDDR3 because I have not seen an nc8430 that isn't.

You should easily be able to play older titles on high, but with current titles you will be running most games on medium.

 

price gap is more than $1000 between us and brazil?!
unbelievable,,why don't you go to USA and buy the laptop here..
i think the transportation fee will not more than $1000, besides you can travel~
just kidding,,i prefer buy the laptop abroad,,warranty is nothing to worry about,,some big brands have global warranty..

 

x1600 was alright on my nc8430. played hl2 on high settings with any lags.

 

Me manda o dinheiro que eu levo para voce.. estou indo para o brasil semana que vem para o carnaval..

 

i still think the x1600 can still stand for at least one more year, so you're still good

 

Thanks all for the (quick) replies!

Actually, I only posted those info about prices and stuff for the topic not to sound like "info pls"... Thanks to those who offered help on better bang for buck but i really think it's easier this way (plus the money isn't mine) and i feel better with the warranty.

Are you sure on the GDDR3 info? If so, thats good news!

However, in this review of the 8430:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1603160
at the very end of the review itself (end of third post) it says:
"Its benchmarks are among the highest I've seen for the X1600 graphics card, no doubt thanks to the 256MB of dedicated DDR2 memory built into the graphics card."

Now i'm confused...

 

Hmmm, either way it doesn't matter because even though GDDR3 was available last time around it never got over 500mhz memory (stock speeds). I can tell just by looking at the 3Dmark05 score of ~4000 that the card is fine. no x1600s got over that score and the ones that were crippled (macbook pro, acer 5106, etc) scored ~3000.

 

My friend had the x1600 and it was such garbage compared to my 8600mgt

 

Oh god.. now i did some googleing and found some shop (which i'm not sure if is up to date) on which:

HP Compaq nc8430
...
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
http://uqconnect.net/computing/computing-laptops/computing-hp/computing-hp-8430

Wasn't able to get any other info on that to compare.

Found also this topic:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=76595
on which at page 3 they start discussing about DDR2 and GDDR3 versions of the card. At some point there at 4th page a guy points an HP nx9420 whose x1600 clocks point to GDDR3 memory.

Anyway, I guess it'll be wait and see.

Yeah, actually, i know very well that being a past generation card, it should not compete with the 8600. I do have total conscience of that.

 

go to US and buy an asus

they have global warrenty

 

I agree. You'd save yourself a ton of cash and still get global warranty.

 

Totally stoked with my nc8430, Ive had it for 15 months and Ill be keeping it for at least another 12 months before upgrading, probably longer.

The X1600 seems very capable for an older card, and at just under 4k marks in 3DMark05 is still comparable with modern notebooks.

That tax thing sounds nasty! Any way aound it?

 

No **** sherlock, your card is two generations newer.

The X1600 is a decent card, I played the Crysis demo on all low settings at 1024 x 768 with 20+ fps most of the time.

 

Problem is when going outside his country, there are usually taxes applied to these things anyhow when shipped in country. Hard to ship a laptop and claiming a value of only $100. Governments are dumb, but not that dumb when it comes to money.

Not sure how cheap airfare is though, other option is to fly to another close country that you can buy a laptop cheap with good components, and just take it back with you as your carry-on, nobody needs to know. Still might be cheaper than buying one in-country, plus you can make a day trip or weekend out of it!

 

So...

Does anyone still have an hp nc8430 around to check if the x1600 on it is GDDR3? I would be very thankful!

And thanks again for the feedback on the performance of the card!

 

The X1600 AFAIK is only ddr2. My hp nx9420 has an x1600 ,it`s 2 years old in March and still kicks in. Hp bussiness class laptops with dedicated graphics kick arse,no doubt about that.

 

I believe I answered this earlier. It does not matter what memory is in your GPU because looking at the 3Dmark05 scores for your LAPTOP, you can see that it has reached peak levels for an x1600.

 

Well, my lappy(see spces in sig) has a 64bit x1700. I know its crippled, but that doesn't matter since i run games at lower resoultions anyway. Since its basically an OCed x1600, its a little better than the x1600. It plays crisis at low with some settings at medium @ 848x480 at 30 fps average. If you get the 128bit version you'll probably be able to pump the res to 1024. Since i upgraded to 2gb, the witcher is also playable at 1024x640 with all low except lighting and draw distance(medium).

So, if you're satisfied with lower settings, i say its a still a worthwhile card