Next technology for 15.4"?

I am just wondering when the next best graphics cards will be available for 15.4" laptops. I want to decide if I should just buy something in this generation or wait. Is the Dell 1520 the only "consumer" laptop with the 8600gt? I know that the Asus G1s, Sager 2090, macbook pro and the hp 8510 all have them, but is there any other option? Will HP or any other "consumer" laptop have an 8600gt in it?

 

Magic 8-ball says: "Outcome doubtful".

 

The 8000 series just came out a few months ago. I would imagine that these will be the norm for about 10-12 months.

 

Lucas is right.... don't expect a new jump for a good while since Nvidia and ATI just upgraded their cards in July. There might be some subtle upgrades around Xmas or this spring but nothing big. The Ati X1400 and Vnidia 7300 have been the market reference for more than a year.

 

hp 8510p does not have an nvidia 8600gt, it has the ati hd2600

 

doesn't it cost premium tho?

 

I'm not exactly sure as to what you are asking, but you can get an Hp 8510p c2d 2.0ghz, ati hd2600, 1gb 667 ram, 160gb 5200rpm hard drive, for $1395 at www.shopblt.com

 

yeah, the price it is...i saw an hp mobile workstation that i thought was the above mentioned one for more than 2 grand! my bad, if i'm wrong..

 

yeah, they can get pricy, since most are pre-configured and over-priced. But $1395 compared to 2 grand seems like a much better price

 

Well, the Acer 5920G has the 8600M-GT, I would consider that to be a consumer laptop. The current 8600M and HD2600 laptops I imagine won't be refreshed until Penryn next year, and it's possible at that time they'll get a graphics card refresh (either to the 9M, or merely to the available 65nm 8m/HD2 series cards). I wouldn't expect a major refresh until the Montevina platform in about a year though, which should come with the 9m and/or HD3 cards I would imagine.

 

9000M series won't be out until next summer,It's long time if you want to wait but there is a good chance that 9600M be 2x faster than current mainstream gpus.

 

Just gets back to the point to buy when you're ready to buy and with what you can afford. Waiting a few weeks or so is fine if a new tech is on the horizon, but usually that will just drive the price of current tech down, and new tech will be more expensive, so you'll have to wait a few more months anyhow for the market to level out a bit.

 

The roadmap for the future consists of the following:

In mid 2008, Intel is releasing Montevina. This is the successor to the Santa Rosa platform. This platform will support Penryn for higher clock speeds and larger caches, and the new Cantiga North and South bridges. Information on these chips are scarce, but I personally believe they will support at least DDR2-800. DDR3 is a possibility, but not certain. This will provide a nice performance boost, and if you are going to be waiting this is something to look forward to.

Also, Intel's Larabee GPU is set to demo in 08, but there is no word yet on production or laptop availability.

nVidia's next GPU is rumored to debut at the end of the year, although there has been very little hard evidence on this. Based on the 8-series product cycle, it would probably be summer (April, maybe) before we see a mobile 9-series.

ATI's new GPU should debut around the same timeframe.

Like htwingnut says, buy when you are ready. Waiting too long will put you in a perpetual waiting game. This is just information in order to help you make an informed choice.

 

FYI, the Asus G1s and the Sager NP2090 (which is actually the Compal IFL90) are 'consumer' notebooks as well.