More memory or Faster Memory??

I am about to buy a new laptop, but I have a quick question. I am looking at an Asus F8VA-C1 and a Sony FW290JAB. The asus has an ATI HD3650 with 1 Gb of DDR2 VRam and the Sony has 512mb of GDDR3. Which one would be better for gaming?

 

if we are talking about the same version of the card (HD3650) then the 512mb DDR3 would be better

 

GDDR3 is an upgraded version of DDR2 with higher clocks and lower heat generation.

You gotta understand that Video memory is just where images are stored before they are sent to the monitor. vRAM size isnt a big deal.

Though if a gpu intensive program/game somehow fills up the vRAM, you might notice some slowdowns. 512mb is more than enough for todays games.

 

The two cards are probably 256-bit therefore you will, most likely, never completely use the 512mb and I can guarantee you will NEVER utilize the full 1gb on the ddr2 card. Definitely go with the ddr3.

 

Not really, video memory is used to store those textures and stuff which is needed for the gpu to start rendering images.
crysis vhigh at 2560*1600 needs over 1200mb of graphics memory but that's just a one off thing, 512 is enough for 1920*1200 and below.

 

Get one with the DDR3 memory, since it is much faster than DDR2 and that amount will be just fine for all new games.

 

I dont think they are even 256bit, they are 128bit. so even 512mb is an overkill. the card will not even use more than 300mb. so get the Gddr3

 

Second question, the sony has a much larger native res, 1900X1200 while the asus is 1440X900. I know it will be more resource intensive to run on the native res of the sony, but is it so much so that it would be better to go with the DDR2 card? Sorry I hope that made sense

I am thinking I will probably go with the sony, or skip them both and go with a G50Vt

 

i dont think he will want to play at over 1280x800..

 

If you are buying the laptop for gaming, you won't be able to play the latest games at high setting on 1920X1200 resolution. You can always scale it down, though. 1920X1200 is AWESOME for everything else, like spreadsheets, word, internet, etc... but the 1gig memory will be a complete waste with that card and it is probably affecting the price (wasting your $$$). If you are going to use the lappy mostly for gaming i'd go with the new asus from best buy... It has a lower rez screen (16:9) but a much better gpu: 9800m GS (most say it's a downclocked 9800m GTS) for like $1250.

 

Rule of thumb I use is any graphics card with GDDR2 is not fast.

 

Even the 9800M GTX can't use 1 GB of video memory. So go for the 512 MB version. BTW, the card won't use more than 256 MB of memory as it is a 128 bit one.