FX380M vs. ATI 3450HD

I'm trying to decide whether to buy the new HP 8440w, which has a 512MB Quadro FX380M, or to buy an older refurbished HP 6930p which has a 256MB ATI 3450HD (the 6930p is about 1/3rd the price of the 8440w). For gaming purposes, how much of a difference will there be between the two cards (assuming all else equal). Benchmarks seem to suggest the FX380 has about a 30-50% performance advantage over the ATI card, but is it really worth the extra cost? I want to be able to run current games and have the system be ready for what's coming out in the next year or two.

And by the way, why would a new notebook have an effective downgrade over similar products from two years ago? The IBM Thinkpad T61p featured an FX570M (and a 14.1" SXGA+ screen...no crappy widescreen but that's another argument entirely), which appears to benchmark higher than either the FX380 or ATI 3450HD.

 

For your needs, you will really want to stick to the Nvidia Quadro FX 380m, it is a good Mid-Level card.

The Nvidia Quadro FX 570M is indeed a more powerful card than the Nvidia Quadro 380m and the ATI Radeon 3450 HD, the number or release date do not account for performance.

 

So in that case should I go looking for a T61p if I'm looking for maximum graphics power? It's only got 128MB of RAM on its FX570M card (and is a 64-bit version of the FX570) compared to 512MB for the FX380M in the 8440w.

 

The 3450 is crap, it's literally just as bad at gaming as any Intel integrated card. My old Studio 15 had one, and it was good for rendering videos, and literally nothing else. No games could run on it.

 

The FX 570M is supposed to be 128-bit, unless you're saying that the T61p uses a 64-bit version?

 

Is there a reason you're looking at professional cards if you're gaming? Should be cheaper to get a better consumer card.

 

The T61p apparently uses a 64-bit version when paired with the SXGA+ screen as opposed to the WSXGA+ screen which has the 128-bit version. As to why I'm looking at professional cards it's because I'm looking at business notebooks. The Elitebooks and Thinkpads tend to hold up far better than the Pavilions and Presarios. I'm currently using a Compaq Evo that will be six years old in August and still looks and feels new (but is unfortunately stuck with a now-obsolete ATI Radeon 7500M). Ultimately I want as much graphics power as I can get in a thin-and-light (14.1" screen or now much to my annoyance 14.0" 16:9 screen) business notebook.

 

guess my 2400 is magic then as i sit and play Batman AA and L4D2