Going from an 8600mGT to 9600mGT. is it worth it?

Hey everyone looking to buy a new laptop, I currently have a 8600mGT sager but I cant handle some games. im looking at the MSI GX630 that has the 9600 in it. Will i see a noticeable framerate? Also my main concern is this. My sager has a 1650 x 1050 screen, the MSI GX630 only has 1280 x 800. I can get pretty anal about sharpness is am I going to see a noticeable decrease in visuals cuase of the MSI GX630 lower resolition screen?

 

better to go to 9800

 

9600 is not really very much improved over the 8600. It will be a little faster but it won't even match 8700 speeds (9650 is about equivalent to the 8700). I would definitely shoot for 9800GT or GTS, as cumbaya said. And if you have a 1680x1050 screen you will probably notice a pretty big difference dropping to 1280x800... I know I sure would.

 

Te 9600M will perform better in games. There should be some difference in FPS, but nothing spectactular.

Plus, theres no chance of the 9600M being defective, like the 8600M

 

You'll see a slight performance boost, maybe about 10% but it isn't really worth it. If you're upgrading, definitely upgrade to a better GPU. I'd recommend at least a 9700M GTS.

 

It also depends a lot on whether you have a GDDR2 8600 or GDDR3 8600. But either way it will be a waste of money IMO.

 

You won't be able to handle that low a screen resolution after running at 1680x1050. Run your Sager for a while at that, while it will of course be fuzzier, see if you can adjust to the screen real estate.

 

can I swap the video card in the sager?

 

Possibly. But you'll be hard pressed to actually find a new mobile video card (for a reasonable price at least).

 

Not too keen on what specifications Sager offers their 8600Ms at, but I do believe you'll notice a satisifactory jump if you decide to make the jump from a DDR2 to a DDR3 card.

 

i say go for the 9800m gts, it is a smaller die shrink of the 8800m gts with slightly higher clocks. There are some youtube vids of the 9800m gts and the 8800m gts, check em out.

 

Of course, the funny thing is that the 9650M GS is the 8700M GT, just rebranded.
If you're going from a DDR2 8600M GT to a GDDR3 9600M GT, you could see some decent gains, but not as much as moving up to a *800M series.

 

I transited from a Macbook Pro with the 8600M GT to this MSI with the 9600M GT. Definitely a difference in performance; games that were struggling to run past 25 FPS is now smooth, and Crysis is finally playable at a decent setting. I'd like to add that the Macbook had the 128MB 8600M GT, which is probably why I experienced a more significant performance difference, otherwise it probably wouldn't be much...maybe 5-10 FPS at best if I had the 256MB 8600M GT. We're starting to get to the point where 512MB VRAM is becoming the standard now.

 

My first mobile GPU had a whopping 32MB and scored a breathtaking 600 in AquaMark3.

 

32MB? Mine had 1(or was it 2?).

 

My first laptop was a Gateway Solo with a 2MB Trident Cyberblade. Silky smooth framerates with Wolfenstein 3D and Terminal Velocity.

 

Too bad these cards can't even utilize that much memory. I bet if you had the same 9600M GT core but only 256MB, you wouldn't be able to find a difference in any game.

 

In my case, yes it would. Going from a 128MB 8600M GT to a 256MB 9600M GT would still offer a good amount of performance benefit. There were benchmarks between the 128MB and 256MB 8600M GTs in the Macbook Pros, and some framerate differences were as much as 35%. It heavily depends on the resolutions being used and how much texturing there is. I know the 128MB VRAM really hurted in 3dsmax and Maya rendering.

 

In short no,i have a 8600 and have been disapointed from day 1 and havin read lots on this site.Only a 8800 or better would have any pleasing results for you, my tip would be to keep what you have and do what i am doing this crimbo get a xbox 360 and a 1680 by 1050 20" monitor and it will be half the price leaving you more money for booze,games,booze,food,etc

 

Yea im not fond of my 8600mGT performance at all. I play WoW and with the new expansion brought some graphical enhancements like dynamic shadows and what looks to be a bloom effect. If i turn these on they bring my system to its knees and its unplayable. I avoid playing on my lappy now, which I used to love to do.

 

But again going from 1680 to a resoltion of 1280 might kill me...

 

I guess ill let you guys compare. Should I save my money or nah. Here is my current laptop config.

SAGER NP2092 Custom Laptop (Built on Compal JFL92)
- Display: 15.4" WSXGA+ "Matte" Type Super
- Arctic Silver: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- Dead Pixel Policy: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Processor: ~Intel® 45nm "Penryn" Core™2 Duo
- Video Card: 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce
- External Monitor Video Adapter: None Standard
- Ram: ~ 4,096MB DDR2 667 PC2 5300 (2 S
- Intel® Robson Turbo Memory: 1GB Intel® Robson Turbo Memory (
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Optical Drive: - Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti 8X
- Primary Hard Drive: ~ 160GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 3
- 2.5" SATA Enclosure & Hard Drive: None Standard
- Floppy Drive: None Standard
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR
- Wireless Network: Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 496
- Wireless Network Accessories: None Standard
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- TV Tuner: None Standard
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audi
- Speaker Systems: Integrated System Speakers - Inc
- Case: Carying Case Optional (Select if
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (9-Cell)
- AC Adapter: 110/220V 120W Auto Switching AC
- Car Adapter: None Standard
- Docking Station / Port Replicato: None Standard
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Mouse / Keyboard Accessories: None Standard
- Notebook Cooler: None Standard
- Operating System: ~Windows Vista Home Premium 64-B
- "Medialess" Microsoft Office Sof: None Standard
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): None Standard
- Warranty: 3 Year Labor* 1 Year Parts Warra

And now im looking at the

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152073

 

If your going from a DDR2 8600 to a DDR3 9600 thats about the only way ull see any significant increase, DDR2 for both will only be very slight as with DDR3 for both, and if the 8600 is DDR3 and the 9600 is DDR2 definitely dont bother as they are practically the same performance wise.

 

I say save your money. $900 is too much money to blow on a slight upgraded GPU with a worse resolution.

 

id say wait..., or get a nice desktop with upgradeable and better gpu's.
You can wait for tha asus G50VT to become cheaper for example buying it second hand.
I dunno, just some thoughts...

but the price is nice for what you get though I guess (1 year ago this lap would cost ya 800 more

 

The Asus with the 9800M GS is a great card for not much more IIRC.

You could always turn down all the shadows in WoW and max everything else... My brothers 9600M GT maxes the game if he turns off shadows easy.

 

Why not go for the GX620-002CA with a Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4ghz, 4GB RAM, 15.4" WSXGA+ ( 1680 x 1050), Geforce 9600M GT 512MB DDR3, 320GB HDD, etc?

Then again you can wait a month or two for the MSI GT627 which has pretty much similar specs except it comes with a Geforce 9800M GS 1GB DDR3.

 

Sager never used the DDR3 variant of the 8600m GT so the 9600m will be a pretty big jump IMHO.

 

Yep, the Geforce 8600M GT DDR2 scores around 3700 in 3dmark06 while the Geforce 9600M GT DDR3 scores around 5200 in 3dmark06 with similar specs. Though 3dmark isn't the best tool to get real life gaming pefromance comparisons.

 

Whaaat? I hope not a month or two, I thought the GT627 was due this month.

 

Why not get the Asus from Best Buy for $1100? It has a 9800M GS which blows the 9600M GT away.

 

With MSI you usually never get a good date on a release.

If you mean the G50Vt-X1 then its more like $1249.99 without tax and even then it still has a cr*py resolution and doesn't stand a chance against the aluminum finish of the MSI.

 

im also thinking of upgrading from a 8600m gt to a 9600m gt or probably 9650m gt, but i have the same question as the TS

i know someone who got his 8600mgt to score a 5k+ mark on 3dmark06, making it perform similarly to the 9600m ( well i think it does ), thats why it got me thinking if i should upgrade

and the heat that comes of from my laptop also worries me, another reason why i want to upgrade

 

Well, there are perhaps 2 reasons as to why the upgrade to 9600m GT GDDR3 would be justified.

1. It is about 25 to 30% faster than 8600m GT (I think the 8600m GT scores in the high 3k (3dMark06), while the 9600m GT (GDDR3) scores about 5450 (3dMark06).
2. For now, there are no indications that the 9600m GT could fail before it's time.

 

The 9600M GT is mostly a more efficient version of the 8600M GT. It performs better for less power intake and output. An overclocked GDDR3 8600M GT can match probably even a 9600M GT GDDR3 stock clocks, but it will be at the cost of the overclocking "risks".

The 9600M GT will yield a noticeable performance gain(among other things), but IMO, if you're going to upgrade, you might as well go past the threshold and get a 256bit interface GPU. The 8600M GT and 9600M GT are among the top of mid-range 128bit interface cards so there isn't much above them.

 

I agree that shelling out a bit more money for a high-end gaming card would be a better solution.
9600m Gt will produce a noticeable performance gain in games ... however, it's still a mid-range card.

If the OP desires to play latest games at higher native resolution ... then going with a high-end gpu is what would be a better option

 

Honestly, the 8600mGT is a very overclockable card. Read threads where they pushed it by abt 25% with it still running stable. Know of a guy who pushed his to 5800 on 3dmark06. Mobile GPUs IMO arent really worth upgrading, the whole price to performance ratio thing. I'll say to invest in some better cooling and overclock your 8600mGT. Getting 5200+ scores on mine