Help deciding which laptop (gfx card) to get

Hey all, new here


I want to get either the Dell Inspiron 9400 (7900 GS gfx) or the Acer Aspire 5920 (8600M GT gfx)

Specs for Inspiron 9400:

* Processeur Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2,0 GHz, 4 Mo de cache L2, FSB 667 MHz)

* 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™Go 7900 GS

* Win Vista Family Premium

* SDRAM DDR2 533 MHz de 2048 MB (2x1024)

* Hard Drive SATA 200 GB 4200 rpm

* 17 inch screen

Specs for Aspire 5920

* Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T7300 (2GHz/800MHz FSB/4MB cache/1G Robson)

* GeForce® 8600M-GT 256MB

* Win Vista Home Premium

* 2048 MB DDR II RAM (2x 1024)

* 160GB Hard Drive (5400rpm)

* 15.4 TFT screen


Now I plan to use these for uni and gaming. I also want the system to be future proof.

Ive heard that the 7900 gs card outperforms the 8600m gt (probably driver issues), but the 8600m gt has direct x 10 support which is better in the long term. Which one should I get

I want to be able to play the following games on med-high settings

* Battlefield 2 + Battlefield 2142

* Counter Strike Source

* Oblivion

* Company of Heroes (patch in the works for dx 10 support)

* S.T.A.L.K.E.R

* F.E.A.R

* In the future Crysis and Unreal Tournament 2007 (both DX 10)

How would the 7900 gs and the 8600m GT handle those, which one would do them the best.

Is there any difference in visual quality of DX 10 and DX 9, the lost planet demo showed nothing to me


So, which one should I buy,

If i get the Dell Inspiron 9400 I order it now and get it for 1,188 Euros (I get tax off lol)

If I get the Acer Aspire 5920 I shall have to wait till July and it will cost me 1,106 Euros

Thanks for your help, appreciate it

 

There aren't many benchmarks out yet.
But the 8600GT seems to be slightly weaker than 7900GS while it has DirectX 10 support.
So I think either buying 8600GT or waiting for the more powerful GPUs (8700/8800/8900) will be better.

 

I dont want to wait longer lol

 

7900GS is a high end DX9 card while the 8600 is a performance (mid range) DX 10 card, therefore it is possible for a 7900GS to outperform a 8600. However I can't say for sure since I haven't seen any benchmarks yet. Just because the 8M series is newer, has a higher model number or supports a newer version of a 3D API doesn't mean it is faster.

Coming back to your candidates; despite the performance difference a 7900GS (may or may not have), I think you are better off with a 15” notebook for uni. Besides, it is more future proof cos of DX10 and santa rosa platform.

 

will the 8600M GT be able to run those games I mentioned on High settings??

i hope dell releases their 8 series card laptops earlier then july, cant wait that long lol

 

i've been looking at this lately and have come to the conclusion that it would be better to go for the 8600 gt.

have a look at this -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122876

now everywhere i've looked the 7900 gs gets about the same score 3500 - 4000

so not only can you get about the same performance from the 8600gt as a 7900 gs, but it's also (more) future-proof in that it supports dx10. this means that as dx10 games start getting released you will be able to see the full dx10 effects in use. although dx10 isn't a giant leap forward it's a significant improvement over dx9 as it allows alot of processes to be done quicker, allowing for nicer graphical effects, such as improved lighting and more detailed enviroments. and, as phoenixFx said, you also get the advantage with the acer of the updated 'santa rosa' centrino architechture, which means EVERYTHING you do should run faster than the Dell system.

 

that review is for 1074x768 resolution, which is crap

hmm, but will the 8600M GT be able to run the games i mentioned in my first post on high settings, if yes then im going for it

 

At 1280x800 in Vista: http://www.zeptoforum.com/QuickRev/photogallery/xp/VISTA3D06-1280x768.jpg and
in XP Pro: http://www.zeptoforum.com/QuickRev/photogallery/xp/XP3D06-1280x800-6625.jpg

And games in high settings? Most certainly.

Also note the slower harddrive in HP.

 

the 8600M GT scores 100 3dMarks lower than the 7900GS (making them almost equivalent.) on the other hand, the Core 2 Duo in the Acer has the Santa Rosa chipset to boost performance as well as a 5400 RPM harddrive (which is still slow for gaming, but better than the ATROCIOUS 4200 offered on the Dell).

The Aspire is simply the better laptop all around. unless you NEED a 17" screen, which I suspect you don't, then the Aspire should be your choice. I have also had much better service experiences from Acer than from Dell.

Neither of them will run all of those on the highest settings at more than 20 FPS. and if those are your price-range, chances are you won't find anything that will. However if you lower the resolution and give up a few blah settings (AF and shadows generally speaking, also bloom lighting I think makes stuff look worse.) then both will run them all pretty well. The Aspire is still the MUCH better laptop though.

 

alright, folks, thanks a lot will wait till July then lol
till then il go back to my gaming on desktop with an ATI 9600 256mb card lol

thanks again

 

get the 8600gt if u want it to be future proof.

 

yep thats what im doing, with the santa rosa platform and 8600 gt, il get dx 10 and hopefully will be able to run bf2, company of heroes, fear on max



also is the resolution thing on the screen of the acer good or bad

 

The resolution is 1280x800 max on the Acer 5920 vs 1920x1080 on the Dell. Its sufficient to play games i suppose as anything higher than 1280x800 might not be able to have smooth framerates at max settings especially for the newer graphical demanding games like crysis and lost planet. Your safe with the acer.

 

Yet again im going to re-itterate you won't see performance anywhere close to a 7900gs.

But at the resolution of 1280x800 it won't matter and considering this is for university, definitely get the 5920.

 

You can run BF2 and BF2142 on full settings with the 7900 GS CS:S too and CoH also. However I don't think you can with the other games but my educated guess would be medium-high.