Is there THAT much a difference between 8600 M GT DDR2 AND DDR3 editions?

Because sadly most the laptops i can afford at moment only have the DDR2 option. Is it THAT much a difference i really should do without at moment?

 

the performance difference is pretty big.

if your budget cant take the hit, its not the end of the world.

honestly, if you're really on budget, get a console and cheap portable laptop, and a nice big screen.

 

Need a laptop that can play WoW so that is simply not an option.


EDIT: Already own a 360/PS3 anyway.

 

You can overclock the DDR2 version to get ballpark results as the DDR3; WOW should not be a problem for either as long as you are conservative in your settings.

 

I would have to be conservative with a 8600 GT M 256 MB DDR2 GPu? On WoW?

 

The difference is in the line of 20-30% , the ddr3 also generates less heat and uses less power.

 

PSX: if you max it out on a high resolution monitor you will see degradation. Load up fraps and change options till you get in that 50-60 range. There a are bunch of threads with hard information concerning benchmarks and playability, hit the search button.

 

not unless you're playing at 1680x1050+

I have everything maxed out on my DDR3 (I play at 1280x800), and it doesn't ever even come close to laggy. In fact, I play on power saver most of the time for less heat, still doesn't drop below 50fps. I think Vista is a pretty big performance hit for WoW for some reason, but if you're running XP WoW isn't a problem at all for any 8600m.

 

PLAYED *read not play* WoW up til a few months ago. i have an 8600m GT 256 DDR2, w/ a 1440x900 screen, 2.2C2D and 2GB 667RAM, everything is maxxed out, aa included, at native rez. org, shat, UC, stormwind, anywhere i go, raid or no raid, never seen a drop below 50fps unless i'm playing in windowed mode. even then i'm at 45fps. which is fine for me so i can chat on AIM or do coursework at same time.

 

The difference between them will depend on the resolution you select. If you will play 1280x800 the difference is about 10%, which is almost negligible for modern games. For higher resolutions, 1400x900 and above, the difference is close to 30%, then the difference becomes noticeable.

 

Yup if I were you I'd save for a 8600m gt ddr3

 

If I were you I`d go for a 9600M when they show up. No sense in going with ancient hardware.
Look who`s talking, I`m still using 7th series gpus

 

WOW is not an intensive game at all, and if he can hold back on the res, the DDR3 8600m GT will do just fine. I mean come on I have the DDR2 version, and you don't see me complaining do ya.

I hope the 9600m get released though, there hasn't been any information on it yet.

 

If you get a card just for a game, might as well not even bother. I mean who games just 1 GAME EVER ?

 

I played CS 1.6 for 6 years straight......I quit though, now I am addicted onto TF2 instead.

 

like 10 million people?...speaking of WoW of course.

 

Come on people, the difference is NOT that big. At stock, you're talking maybe 10-20% difference in framerates not 30% if you're comparing 400MHz DDR2 vs 700MHz DDR3. That's like running at 28 fps with DDR2 or 32 fps with DDR3. You be the judge. You will be running at 1280x800 with either memory anyways.

Most DDR2 cards can easily be overclocked anyways to easily exceed a stock clocked DDR3 memory. Overclocking the GPU makes the biggest difference in fps when compared with memory overclock in this case.

I toiled over this but it runs every game I throw at it so far, even Crysis. Think about it. Will that small FPS improvement with DDR3 allow you to play a game and not with DDR2? I don't think so. It's up to you, but usually you can save a hundred to two hundred bucks by getting a laptop with DDR2 rather than GDDR3.

 

I`m not talking about chinese WOW addicts or my brother
I`m talking about the average Joe Gamer
Shame on you Pai