Nvidia 8400M GS or 8600 GT?

I know that this has been asked before, and there's a sticky, but I think only in relation to gaming.

My question concerns non-professional photo editing and basic video editing instead. I doubt that I would do gaming, but I want a snappy, fast-booting laptop with Vista that would last at least 4 years. I would not do any upgrade except maybe RAM. Battery life is unimportant.

I am considering a Dell Inspiron 1520 with a 15.4 inch screen with 1280x800 resolution (maybe 1400x900). It would have 3 GB RAM and a 7200 rpm disk.

The laptop offers the option of a 128 MB Nvidia 8400M GS, or a 256 MB 8600M GT for $100 extra. I don't know if they have DDR2 or DDR3.

What do you think, would it be a waste to get the 256 MB 8600 GT?

Fuzzy

 

Photo editing and Video editing are controlled by the processor, not the GPU.

 

Even though most video processing and encoding is CPU dependant, I'd still recommend the 8600 GT. Just for that one instance you'll need it, it's worth the $100.

Also, Dell Inspiron 1520 and Vostro 1500's come with the DDR2 versions of the 8600m GT.