Longevity of 8600M GT in today's world

Hi guys,

I'm on the lookout for a new laptop that will serve me for the next 4 years in college. I'm getting a 15.4" with a T8300 if not T9300 CPU and 4GB of DDR2 RAM. As to the graphics card though, I'm undecided.

I have literally searched around and customized at tens of different sites, and I am able to find a comfortable customization with the aforementioned CPU and RAM (and other satisfactory parts) with a 8600M GT 512MB at $1300-$1400.

I have been told, however, that the 8600M GT is not very future proof. And thus, I have been on the lookout for builds with a better card. However, any build offering an improvement to this card (usually an FX 1600M or 8800GTX/GTS) immediately jumps up to $2000 and above, offering parts I'm really not interested in so much (17" displays, WSXGA+, double HDD's, etc).

My question comes down to this: on a 1440x900 resolution, how will a 8600M GT 512MB perform for the next 4 years to come?
Also, to what desktop VGA is it comparable performance-wise?

I guess I qualify as a semi-hardcore gamer. I don't game ALL that much, but when I do, it's new, good games (HL2, FEAR, COD4 etc all when they came out), not your backgammon-over-internet kind of thing. I intend to play Starcraft 2 a lot, but other than that I can't be more specific I'm afraid. I enjoy RTS, FPS as well as MMORPG games.

Thanks a lot in advance guys.

 

i'm new here, but let me try to give you a perspective. my current laptop, lg s1, is not all that great. even worse, the gpu is an ati x1600 with 256mb vram. i have a core duo, not core 2 duo, 2.1 ghz, and 2 gig of ddr2 ram.

i can run crysis at almost lowest setting and 800*600 res and achieve about 20 avg fps. now, my laptop is 3 years old, and im fairly certain ill be able to run newer games at similar or lower settings for another year.

the nvidia 8600m gt is great to run games for now and the future, but don't expect it to give you outstanding graphics, gameplay, and resolutions for future demanding games. they'll work, just not as great as some of the better gpus out there

ps. i believe the 8600m gt will run starcraft 2 well in my opinion because it is not as graphically demanding as fp shooters or games like devil may cry 4.

hope this helps a bit

 

Here you go: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220307

 

it will obviously be dated 2 years from now. would you mind future games looking as good as CoD4? then sure, it'll last you 4 years. would you be tempted up upgrade when they release another game like Crysis that your card can't handle? well it's really up to you. what i'm saying is the technology wont slow down during your 4 years and judging from what you've wrote you don't really have much of a choice unless you want to spend $2k+ for 8800GTX. be smart and do the right thing by purchasing XPS 1530 w/ coupons . if you're only going to have 1 notebook for college then don't get a 17".

 

I could push mine to max DX 9 settings in Bioshock at 1440 x 900, but that's as far as it would go without noticeable lag. Might want to wait though... it's one of those chips that NVidia's claiming to be faulty, and indeed mine does heat up to 90 C regularly (103 before I cleaned out the vents).

 

That seems like great bang for the buck (assuming the Radeon is in fact better, I know little to nothing about ATI's cards). There's a few cons I was looking for my setup to have, though, notably a 7200RPM drive, WXGA+ resolution and Vista 64 bit so I would actually have those 4 gigs of ram. But certainly thanks for the suggestion!

 

Dell only offers the 8600M GT 256MB though, and I can get that for $1,650 (without discounts: $2,400). But I can still get that (actually with GPU 512MB version) for $1,300 on Xotic PC, AVA Direct, CyberPower and LaptopDiscounts (or was it called NotebookDiscoutns) (though I've pretty much discarded CyberPower because of mixed reviews).

 

Well, the HD 3650 is a bit faster than 8600M GT GDDR3, so yes it's a great deal. Note that 8600M GT 512MB is DDR2, which is slower than the 256MB GDDR3 version.
EDIT: Actually the HD 3650 in that Asus is only DDR2, so it's slower than the 8600M GT GDDR3, but still faster than 8600M GT DDR2.

 

you can get gateway for 1200 with 8800gts,tho it is 17"

 

Don't bother with the 512MB versions... The 8600M has a bottleneck bandwidth of 128-bits... It can't use the "Extra" 256MB even if it wanted to.

Its like you have a worker using 2 computers (he only has a pair of hands) so thats the most he can use... If you give him a thrid computer to use he can't because he only has a pair of hands.

 

you can get gatewaye 6860fx for $1350 (8800gts 17inch 64bit vista)
or you can wait few days and see the prices of new notebook with 9500m gt- 9600m gt. I think 9600m gt is close to 8700m gt which is better than 8600m gt.
i've been researching and gateway 6860fx is best bang for the bucks and will last you longer than 8600m gt. Look at the benchmark between 8600m gt and 8800 gts. 8800 is almost twice faster than 8600m gt.
I'd jump on it if it goes on sale again

 

you can't play next year's game at med to high settings anymore. probably at low to med settings, the 8600m gt is a very weak card (for me )

 

i Believe that a 8600gt could run DMC4 decently at 1200x800 all high, no dips below 40 FPS. thats my hunch

 

the 8600M GT 256MB DDR3 is better than 512MB DDR2. the Gateway PX is cheap alternative if you want raw performance w/ limited budget but for college purposes the XPS M1530 is the better choice.

 

I agree the M1530 all the way... You can't go wrong!!

 

m1530 is a good choice, if you're looking for an 8600m gt, my personal opinion is to wait, toshiba is coming out with the new qosmio f50 pretty soon an will have pretty decent gpu.

I believe its the 9650m or 9700m and its supposed to be cheap. like 1500$ price range, no official word though sorry.

plus it will run centrino 2

 

http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio/F50

i mean 512mb discrete ddr3 9700m? that sounds good enough for the next coupla years, plus its 15 inch, and has "stunning good looks" according to toshiba. lol

 

Sadly no, but 7950 GTX SLi owners really shouldn't be making guesses about mid-range cards when comparing them with their own high-end setups.

 

I'm well aware of that and it is by no means a significant factor to me, which is why I wrote it in brackets.

 

About the Dell m1530, that only comes with a 8600M GT. So you guys are recommending me to go with that. But then there's others saying it will only be able to run next year's games at low (1440x900 resolution). I don't know.

Also, I don't see Dell offering a choice between Vista 32 and 64bit, which leads me to believe you can only go with 32-but and thus not have the effective 4GB of RAM. Would this be correct?

 

Some people recommended Gateway, and I actually have been checking their laptops out. But their resellerrating is around 2.5/10 lifetime I think (and they're not on epinions), so I struggled. What is your guys's experience?

 

That is a good deal, except that the CPU is a poor T5550 I'm preferably looking for a T8300 or better.

 

All I can tell you is to wait until the last moment to buy. I Pm'd Justin @ Xotic PC and he says there will be new cards in the coming months as well as something new in that Asus M50-A1 (This tuesday-the 15th). So your options could be very different in a month.

I'm also going to school in September but I'll probably go with that M680tu which is about 1/4 over an Ideal price. But I'm going to order the notebook with pretty much only the 8800M, the 2nd 'slowest' of the processors only, with no RAM, HDD, or Operating system, so I can cheap out on those things for now (order separately), and upgrade as I please. Maybe you could do something simillar

 

Doesn't sound too bad. But I doubt retailers will give you a better deal on a stand-alone Vista than Xotic will bundle it. RAM - I'm not sure how expensive Xotic makes it. And doesn't (re)placing your HDD void your warranty?

 

If pro's doesn't want an 8600M, then I wouldn't recommend the ATI 3650, it still has a 128bit bit interface.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Grafic-Cards.130.0.html

At the very least, you should be looking for an 9600M or a 3670 mobility, they are also 128bit but clocked much higher.

 

I have copies of Operating Systems (XP'ss )

RAM, it depends on what they tell me the price is when I'm comparing.

And no, never having a HDD @ at doesn't void my warranty.

My main reason for going this route is to take less of a hit on Canadian customs, taxes, shipping, that will add up. I can get those kinds of hardware much cheaper at Canadian wholesalers than I can having one huge sum of money to pay taxes and customs on...

 

The CPU can be replaced (a lot of people buy a T9300 separately and put it there instead of the T5550).

The main problem with that laptop is that it weighs 1.5 times as much as the 8600M GT ones and is substantially bulkier so it is not the optimal laptop for someone who travels often and/or carries the laptop with them every weekday.

Also, to be honest, I don't think any card you buy now will last you 4 years -- it's just too long a time. For comparison, look at the cards from 2004 and see which ones are still any good today.

 

And a T5550 is more than enough (even for gaming).

"Also, to be honest, I don't think any card you buy now will last you 4 years -- it's just too long a time. For comparison, look at the cards from 2004 and see which ones are still any good today."
+1

 

Are you talking about the Toshiba?

Very True.

 

I'm pretty usre the HD 3650 is a DX10.1 enabled HD 2600, making the 8600M GT faster.

@Arom: Not really, 9600M GS is a shrunk of of the 8600M GT (it's clocked at 500/700) and the 9600M GT is clocked at 600/800 so amost a 8700M GT.

 

With regards to DMC4, I took a quick benchmark. Settings: 1200x720 all high and keep in mind that the stress test is actually more demanding than the actual game on scenes 2 and 4 (scene 4 had an obscene amount of enemies on screen). GPU: 9500m GS at 525/1100/460 max temp 78C.

The 9500m GS is in between the 8600m GT DDR2 and GDDR3 in performance.

 

If that is accurate, then it's not so bad after all. I mean, I've been playing with a 7600GS @ 1280x1024 for the last year, which means I need to play at low-medium in order not to have any fps lag..

Though, I was thinking of getting WXGA+ (1440x900), since that would serve me better outside of games. Unfortunately, if I want to stick to the native resolution, this will probably be quite a bigger push for the GPU.

 

Just about the Dell, what's the point of getting 4GB RAM when they don't offer 64-bit Vista? It seems a good choice other than that, just a little pricey.

 

just wait for them to start unloading w/ price cuts before they roll out the new models. also make sure you get extended warranty if you really need it to last 4 years. there's really no guarantee how long your hardware will last.

 

Is there any general date new models will be released, besides M860TU and Qosmio F50? Just so I know till when to wait for price drops. And yeah, I guess I'll wait to see how those two new rigs turn out. If they're no good for me, I'll just hope they'll cut the prices on the other models.

 

Just as he said. the Benchmark is waaay more intesive than the gameplay. so judging Scene 1, which is as intense as most of the game parts, thats some great performance there.

 

It's a bit more than just DX10.1 enabled HD 2600: atleast different core, smaller fabrication and higher clocks. Basing my judgment roughly on just GenTechPC's reviews, HD 3650 DDR2 might be just slightly faster (in Crysis and 3DMark06, slower in COD4) or about the same as 9500M GS DDR2, which again is a bit faster than 8600M GT DDR2. But then again, there are no extensive comparable game tests with best possible drivers with otherwise similar setups and game settings, so we can't make clear claims.

But I must take back my previus statement that HD 3650 in that Asus M50 I linked would be faster than 8600M GT GDDR3, because it's only DDR2. However, if there was a HD 3650 with GDDR3, it would propably be faster than 8600M GT GDDR3. But this again is just guessing, until we see benchmarks. Atleast I couldn't find any laptops with it by googling.

 

The 512 version costs just as much as the DDR2 256 version. (besides the macbook pro one)

It depends on the laptop.

Only a few laptops use the ddr3 version, but telling him to avoid the 512 version doesn't make sense. The DDR2 version is cheaper and still a powerful card.

 

Right, but he was letting him know the card cannot utilize it, hence if they were charging for for the 512mb version, to stay away.

 

The question is, will your GPU last that long, or will it turn into melted plastic in the next year or two?

 

new intel chips should be release on 15th with 9500m gt series and 9600m gt series. Seriously wait week or 2 then you'll see some price drops

 

Sounds like a good idea.

Moreover, I just read that ALL 8600 GT's (among others) are in fact defective ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=270732). Doesn't seem like getting a 8600 GT is a good idea at any rate. Damn.

 

No. Actually not "in fact". Only according to an anti-Nvidia website.

 

Seems like it may not be a fact it goes for every single production of those cards; but problems exist, even Nvidia has confessed so. And in view of the origin of the problem, there is no reason why it should be limited to a small number. I'm not saying it's not, but you get my point.

 

There are some problems, but nobody even knows for sure exactly what chips are involved and/or if it only involves some models. One company (Zepto) has already come out and said their cards are fine.

 

Does anyone think it's possible that in like 4 years we could be looking at the possibility of external GPU technology being perfected to the extent where you could buy one that could improve an older laptop's capabilities to the extent where it could still handle cutting edge game? Just a thought.

 

Could be, but you would better off buying a desktop.

$400+ External GPU Case
$200+ High End GPU
$250+ Good external monitor (Has to have an external monitor)

 

Is it possible that they technology could somehow be enhanced to not require another monitor? Sorry I stupidly didn't word my first question to include that as part of it.

 

Well, you never know. Technology does crazy things every day. Maybe they can figure something out.

 

I know there was no real way to answer that other than the way you did. Sorry sometimes I start talking in stupid hypotheticals that go way beyond anything that anyone could feasibly answer.