Inspiron 1520 & the 8600 GT - a few questions

I’m the proud owner of an Inspiron 9300 which I will have owned for 2 years this November. The specs are as listed below:

Inspiron 9300
2.00GHz Intel Pentium M
256mb GeForce Go 6800
1.25GB RAM
60GB 5400RPM

I’ve been very pleased with this computer so far, but I’m looking to upgrade now. The 17inch is just getting a bit large for me, and the 6800 isn’t playing the games I’d like it to play.

Now I’m looking to purchase an Inspiron 1520 with the 256mb 8600 GT. My only concern and hesitation to purchase this notebook is the power of the GPU. I’m not a heavy gamer, but I do like to play the latest games when they come out; and I’m okay with playing games at medium settings. However, low settings will not be acceptable.

I know the 8600 GT is a topic that is debated regularly here, so I’d thought I’d see if I could get a few answers.

1. Seeing that the 8600 GT is offered in the 1720 as well, would I get any extra power by purchasing the 1720 over the 1520?
   
2. I currently own a 6800 Go. I’ve been extremely pleased with this card, even at two years old. But how much more power will I gain from the 8600 GT over the 6800 Go? Would it be a significant increase?
   
3. Will I be able to play the following games with the 8600 GT?
   
   Bioshock, MOH: Airborne, Call of Duty 4, UT2007, Stranglehold, Stalker, Crysis, Gears of War, the next GTA, Dirt, Oblivion, CC3, Orange Box, GRAW, Rainbow Six, NFS: Pro Street, etc?
   
4. When can we expect another powerful video card for a 15inch notebook? And will it be much more powerful than the current 8600 GT?

I’m looking at getting a laptop with the following specs:

Inspiron 1520:
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
256mb nVidia 8600m GT
160GB 7200RPM
4GB RAM

Thanks for everyone’s help! I haven’t registered until now, but I’ve seen how helpful this community is.

 

there is no difference in the 8600m gt between the 1720 and 1520... its the same.

The 8600gt will obviously be an improvement over what you have now, go on the orb and comepare scores to get a rough idea.

As for as how games will run there are a million threads about this.... search!!!

There will be another more powerfull card for a 15inch notebook, ofcourse. Expect sometime new early 08 based the the g9X revision.

 

1. No
2. Significant increase
3. Yes
4. Hard to tell, 6 months to a year would be my best guess. Either they manage to fit the 8800, shrink the 8700, or develop the 9600. Whichever comes first.

Edit: Got beat. I'm getting slow these days.

 

The 8600mGT is one of the most powerful you will get on a 15", but on the inspirons it's DDR2. If you take a look on notebooks that have DDR3 version, there will be a significant gain over the DDR2 ones. The only one with DDR3 that comes in mind now is the Asus G1S...

 

Currently these are the only models offering GDDR3 8600GT:

Asus G1S/G2S, Apple Macbook Pro, Lenovo T61p (professional equivalent but same memory), Vaio AR48C.

 

So the DDR3 is that much better? Seems like it wouldn't make too much of a difference. I mean obviously some, but not crazy much. Does it, though?

 

As much as 10-15% compared to the DDR2 version, difference is less pronounced when screen resolution is lowered. Use the search function to look up masterchef's comparison between the two variants.

 

I'm quite sure that different can be far more then 10-15% in the newest games.

 

Do you think Dell with put the DDR3 in their 1520 anytime soon? Becuase I'm looking to order one tonight with this $425 off coupon.

 

Not going to happen.

 

I'm also a proud owner of Inspiron 9300 and moved towards a G1s. Its definitely an improvement, but I would suggest sticking with the 15.4" Inspiron rather than 17" specially if you feel 9300 was bigger for you. If you do go for a 17" notebook, get a 8700M GT or 7950GTX (those are better cards than 8600M GT).

8600M was definitely a huge improvement over 6800 and I loved playing C&C3 with high details. On 9300, I had to tune down everything to get smooth framerates. You should be able to play all the games you listed above fine in medium settings.

 

On my Vostro 1500 (identical to the Inspiron 1520), RivaTuner and the NVidia control panel state that my 8600 is DDR3.

Is this false information, or have others gotten units sourced with the DDR3 version?

It certainly plays Bioshock at nearly all high settings, DX9, at 1680x1050, and runs well.

 

False information. Dell also insists that the 8600m GT in Dells are GDDR3. It's been misproven by clocks and benches many times.

 

Actually, Dell admits that it is a DDR2 card, they never even really said it was GDDR3, they just posted misleading specifications.

And to the OP:
You will see a very nice increase going up to the DDR2 8600M-GT at low resolutions, as the 8600M-GT has approximately 10x the shading power of your old card. However it's fill rates are similar, and the DDR2 version has less memory bandwith than your 6800, so don't expect to be able to scale to high resolutions as nicely as you can on your old card.

In new games, at resolutions equal to or lower than 1440x900 or 1280x1024, you'll likely see a 60% performance increase with the DDR2 8600M-GT. At resolutions higher than that, performance will drop off, how much depends on the game and settings (especially AA). With the GDDR3 version you'll see up to 100% performance increase (especially in new, shader intensive games) which will hold steady at pretty high resolutions.

The 8600M-GT will likely be the 15.4" champ for a minimum of 4-6 months, so I'd recommend going ahead and getting something now. If you can, I'd definitely recommend looking into the GDDR3 version, found in the Asus G1s, Asus C90s, Apple MBP, Thinkpad T61p, and HP 8510w.

 

I purchased the Inspiron 1520 on the 25th but I’m really concerned that I might have made the wrong choice. It seems like the GDDR3 version is a lot more powerful. The only problem is, I’ve always owned dell laptops because of their service and experience that I’ve had with them.

Will I be able to run these games at med-high settings with the DDR2 version?

Code:

Bioshock
MOH: Airborne
Crysis
Call of Duty 4
Orange Box
UT2007
Stranglehold
Stalker
Gears of War
The next GTA
Dirt
Oblivion
C&C3
GRAW
Rainbow Six
NFS: Pro Street

I really appreciate all of the posts here. I don’t know what I’d do without this forum. I really hope I didn’t make the wrong decision. I really like the 1520 and I LOVE its battery life with the 9 cell, but I really hope I’ll be able to play these games. Could anyone who’s had some experience with this laptop/card help clue me in onto how well it will be able to run these games?

Thank you!!

 

Good news is that you will be able to run all those games you listed above. You will need to tweak settings to medium/low. Some games will take high settings (C&C3, COD4).

 

Would a DDR3 be able to play everything at med-high?

 

Nope. It would still be low/medium with a couple more settings turned on and a little faster performance.

 

dude, the ddr2 version will be able to play most, if not all, of those games at medium-high settings...

 

where are u getting that info from, i wonder?
p.s. i have 1520, and most of the games he mentioned that are already out play at 1280*800 with medium-hi settings...

 

Can't be played (average 30 FPS) on High Textures, no AA at 1280x800:

Bioshock
MOH: Airborne
Crysis
probably COD4
probably GoW
Dirt
Oblivion
GRAW
R6:Vegas

And this is for the GDDR3 version in my Asus G1s-A1. That's over half the list.

Edit: Add NWN2 to that list. God I hate the requirements of that game, runs worse than Oblivion.

 

u r correct, lithus, they do not run consistently at 30fps, but it doesn't make games like moh, bioshock, and crysis unplayable.

 

If a first person game drops to <20 FPS every 3 seconds, it's not playable in my book.

 

it doesn't do that on mine....

 

It most likely does. Do a some benchmarking and see what your minimum FPS is, and what percentage of the time your FPS is below 20.

 

If you're this concerned about casual gaming may I suggest getting a cheap laptop and a moderately priced desktop? Otherwise the 8600 is the best option you're going to get on a 15" laptop and there's not really much worth nitpicking it because that's how it's going to stay for a while.

 

it does get in that range, but not as frequent as mr.lithus stated.

 

As I said, do some benchmarking and see. Dropping below 20fps every 3 seconds would roughly correspond to probably 15-20% below 20fps. That's probably what you're getting if you're averaging mid 20's.

 

i'm not trying to argue or make a 7950gtx out of 8600gt lol. it probably is so, but i do like the way the game runs at those settings. for example, moh plays everything high and drops in the low 20's, yet i do not really notice that much of a drop in the way the game plays. a lot of it has to do with personal preferences, i understand. but that's just my imo

 

I have yet to hit a graphical power wall with this 8600m GT (albeit a GDDR3 model). Supreme Commander, C&C: 3, BioShock, HL2: EP were all blown away. With the newest drivers, all of today's newest games can be run at medium-high settings. In all cases, I set absolutely everything to max except for shadows and AA (which sticks between 2x and 4x). In SupCom, I stuck at around 28 FPS unless the map filled, at which point it was 20 FPS.

Bioshock required a tiny bit of tweaking, but just start with new drivers, max out the settings, and then slowly back away graphically intense options until the game feels smooth. Essentially, keep going till water flow (in certain areas in the beginning of the game) is completely 'fluid' without any hitching.

I still managed to run BioShock in DX10 mode with all medium-high.

You may need to alter my results by about 10-15% for it being GDDR3 and running at 1440x900, but still... I find it a REALLY solid card. It goes down in my book as one of the all-time best mobile midrange cards in terms of power.

Driver revisions are STILL unleashing potential with this little beast.

 

save your money and get aftermarket upgrades for ram, dell charges like what, 400 bucks for a 4 gb ram upgrade

 

Yeah I always do that. I ordered it with 1GB... I'm upgrading it myself to 4GB. Sooo much cheaper this way.

 

hate to burst your bubble..but

Inspiron 1520 Midnight Blue
Core 2 Duo @ 2.2GHz
15.4 inch display (1440x900)
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
160GB @ 7200RPM
1GB RAM (upgrading)
Vista Home Premium
CD / DVD writer
2MP Webcam
56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)

$999

 

The price I indicated in my signature is the final price after tax. I got the 9 cell battery, bluetooth, upgraded screen, and 2 years of complete care... plus tax and shipping total: $1555.

 

bluetooth - $20
upgrade to 9 cell - $50
screen - $50
2 year - $70

= $190

why'd you pay almost $300 more?

 

big v i know how u feel man cause im just like that with games....the 8600m is a solid gpu for its price. its great for the medicore gamer and mabye those who play even more frequently..honestly imho ppl who complain about the 8600mgt are those who expect sli 8800gtx performance and got money to throw away..in such a case, the 8600m prob wun do u justice. but for those that are like big v and i, the 8600m plays exceptionally fine. (excluding playing games on dx10 mode but how many games are actually in dx10 rite now...and dx10 is just oo overhyped and with vista it not worth it)

 

thanx for understanding, lucirz!

 

It's not that significant. Maybe 10-15% faster - so instead of 30 fps you'll get 33. I easily O/C'd my Vostro 1500 8600m GT with DDR2 (same as Inspiron 1520), and it far exceeds a stock clocked DDR3 version. So take that with a grain of salt.

Just as reference, 3DMark06 went from about 3200 to 4200 with improved drivers and overclocking. If you want to use 3DMark06 (which isn't the best bench around) that's about a 25% performance improvement. So now, games that would teeter on 22-23 fps will now be closer to 28-29.

Also, the 8600m GT is THE fastest GPU for 15" notebooks right now. Probably in six to nine months you'll see a succsessor to it. So if you want to wait that long, then do so. But for the moment, the 8600m GT is king of the 15" notebook hill.

 

On my 1520 (stats in sig) I can play MoH: Airborne, Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Bioshock, and Unreal Tournament 3 on medium-high settings at 1280x800. I don't have frame rates to give, but by playable I mean that everything felt smooth, and I noticed no slowdowns except on rare occasions. I would imagine that all the other games you listed would run without a hitch on medium-high provided you have up to date drivers. Overclocking can also give you a significant boost.