Nvidia 8400M performance, general discussion

Hey,

I'm looking to buy a laptop soon and I would appreciate any input about which graphics card will best suit my computer needs. Basically, I just want to be able to play Halflife 2 and other related games like Counterstrike: Source, as I'm not really a big gamer but do enjoy the odd fragfest.

I plan on customizing the laptop to include 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm and Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB). Will that, included with the graphics card, be able to run those games smoothly? I'm not looking to play them on the highest possible settings, and I don't plan on buying many other games in the future.

Also, would it be better if I upgrade to a 8600M card? Money is not really an issue, I just want what I will need.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

First, yes, i would upgrade the card to a 8600M GS at 512MB. --I would get 3 or 4 for gaming, and upgrade the processor to the 2.0 Ghz.--That will give you Max Proformance.

 

the 8400m gs is powerfull enough to play cs: source very well. I would however consider upgrading to the 8600m gt.

for the processor, and core 2 duo is fine really.. just get whatever fits your budget.

As for ram, 2gb is plenty.

 

I totally agree.......
The 8400 is below average, consider somthing that can give you a reason to be proud of. 8600 is pretty good, although more was expected from it, it still is way better than the 8400.

HL2 and its family will play good on the 8400, although watch out for little compromise in Lost Coast or Episode 1/2/3.

2GB is more than enough, the best option for laptops.

 

Im thinking of buying the ASUS A8SC- instead of the more expensive xps m1330.
Can the Nvidia GeForce 8400M-GS 128mb handle games well though?
I would have 4GB of ram to back it up.....make a difference

 

Depends on what games you'll be playing (old games perhaps), but the 8400M-GS is a slow card and it doesnt have alot of game potential.
If you really want to game I suggest you go for an 8600M-GT card, else you will just get dissapointed.

 

dont waste your money on four gigs of ram. 2 is plenty for gamiing and 32 bit vista wont even recognize all four gigs.

 

Source games should easily run well at high settings on the 8400GS.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3199

Here are some benchmarks a reviewer took on the 7400M : on high settings w/o AA or AF, he benched 53.83 in the CS:S stress test, and 41.13 in the Lost Coast stress test. I've heard the 8400GS is about 50% faster than the 7400, so at least without AA or AF you should easily hit 60FPS in either game with high settings.

 

I would upgrade the processor as well. The T5450 is not a Santa Rosa processor.

 

I'm a little confused here about the role of 8600M GT. Since the 8400 GS/GT is "below average" for modern games. So the 8600 GT is just "average" for modern games ?

 

8400m will be just fine.

 

8600 Plays games at maxed res and settings with still a decent amount of FPS where as 8400 might have to compensate for the resolution (or degrade quality) to achieve the same performance. 8400 is for light gaming where as 8600 is for standard gaming performance.

 

it all depends on what ur standards are for gaming for instance one person may need all the eye candy but another may be happy just being able to play the game low-mid settings.

 

This is the thread where to ask a question like this.

We are getting a lot of threads on the Nvidia 8400M and its gaming capabilities so I am consolidating the information into one thread. The forum is getting too cluttered.

 

I'm buying an m1330. Because of the extreme performance to portability ratio.

Although I am considering to sell off the m1330 and purchase a 14" ASUS (most likely an F8). Thats if I can't put up with the 8400m GS in the m1330.

What I would like to know, is the 8400m GS able to access RAM to increase its memory? sorta like turbocache?

I'm interested in this because I bought 4GB of ram with my m1330. I know its overkill but the upgrade difference was $11 so I would of been really stupid not to take another 2GB for $11.

If it can access the extra ram then I think it may be able to make up for the lower specs overall? Time will tell I guess.

My main concern with getting a 14" lappy is simply the thickness. despite the small size, if it is like 2 inches thick I personally don't think its very portable.

I wonder when they will release 14" laptops with LED screens and slot loading drives... that would definitely shave off the thickness.

 

8400M GS have turbocache, but no it shouldn't help performance, core clock, memory clock and memory bandwith influences your gaming performance . video memory size only matters if you game at very high resolutions

 

I own a laptop (dv2500) with a 8400 GS, and it will play Source games absolutely fine. I get around 35 FPS with all settings maxed, the Fake Factory high-resolution pack, 2 x AA and 8 x AF.

Right now nVidia laptop drivers have a problem if you put AA to anything more than 2 x in Source based games that you'll get abnormal framerate hits, but expect it to be fixed in the next drivers. The current desktop beta drivers already have this issue fixed.

 

what if it's not maxed... say medium high?

 

Hi, both cards can scale up to over 800mb i think with system memory, but one has 2x the dedicated ddr3 ram.
the 2 systems im looking at are the dell xps m1330 vs sony SZ650N

would there be a big difference in terms of in game performance (fps) or a slight marginal diff?

thanks,

 

There should not be a very big difference, I saw on the gaming forums people discussing the same thing. Here's the link to the thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=133310

 

I would say there would be a decent difference.

 

For anybody that has recieved their 1420 with the 8400m gs card, I'm just curious which games you have installed and how they are running!
-Thanks!-

 

cs source = great
company of heroes = medium/low
f.e.a.r. combat = low/medium

 

Really on Company of Heroes? Only Medium / Low? Cause on my Geforce 7500 LE (Standing for Limited Edition Piece of ****), I can get High all across the board with no AA and get 30FPS.

 

How do you think this card will perform on Battlefield 2142 and Flight Sim X, with 2 gigs of RAM and a T7300?

 

Hi there!

Ive been looking at benchmarks from the 8400GS and they look very poor. This is one for example. look at PREY and COH benchs. is just depressing:

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/16/0,1425,sz=1&i=163496,00.gif

Do you think this card actually performs in such a crappy way? is it normal?

ARE there any other Benchmark SITEs?

thanks

 

Those benches aren't that bad, as I'm pretty sure that's the minimum FPS achieved, in other words that's the lowest you'll ever get in that game. Also you can always turn the settings down until you get gameplay that you consider smooth. Remember, though, that the 8400M-GS is not really a gamer's card. You should really look for an 8600M-GS or and 8600M-GT, both of which can be found in 14.1" and 15.4" notebooks. Another card to look out for is the HD2600.

 

These benchmarks are for the M1330 right? anyway i remember reading that there were driver issues for this particular review...

 

ok... thanks...

i just want to play games that are already in the market... except from BIA 3 (i didnt know that there were such quantity of people on this forum liking that game!)

is the 8400gs decent enough to play this game? it is based on UNREAL 3 engine, and i would be more than happy to run at med quality and 800x600 or 1024x768 without AA or AF.

is it possible in your opinion?

 

I'd say the 8400M-GS can handle Unreal 3 engine at 1024x768 low settings or 800x600 medium settings, AA and AF off. Any game on the market now it should be able to handle at 1280x800, low to medium settings, AA and AF off.

 

what about medieval 2? maybe 1024 and med-high?
.
thanks... BTW, the Dell m1330 is sexy... ladies will love it

 

Medieval 2 is pretty system intensive, so I'd say if you're running it at 1024 you will probably be able to run all medium settings with maybe a few set to high. Probably medium settings with some low if you up the resolution.

 

thanks a lot odin... last question and I wont bother again:

How do think the upcoming Storm of War:Battle of Britain will run on the m1330?

thanks a lot

 

That appears to be a very intensive game, though I'm not sure what engine it's built on. I'd say don't expect to be able to run it past low settings, but I may be mistaken.

 

Epic is well known for making their games amazingly well optimized... I'm positive that at least Epic's games will run on the 8400 GS in some form or fashion.

 

Does anyone have this setup? How does a 8400GS / 1440x900 / Company of Heroes combination perform?

thank you

 

I have the dell 1420 running on an 8400m gs and at 1440x900. Company of heroes runs on average (using the performance test) at around 36fps average when I've maxed all settings except shader (set to low) and antialiasing (set to 2x)

 

Can someone actually post up screenshots of games running of the 8400 GS while being at a playable level?

 

what is the most similar DESKTOP gpu to the 8400gs? maybe Geforce 6800?

do you think performance will be improved with new drivers

 

I would say get an 8400 GT if you can. Its there or there abouts with the 8600 GS - thats what I've heard anyway. Plus, tell if I'm wrong, but the 8400 GT uses GDDR3 memory, which should give a slight boost in performance.

 

any1 have an idea of how crysis may run on the 8400 gs at 1024 res with medium-high settings?

 

Streamline, from what I've heard it will play at lowest settings if it will play it at all. I wouldn't count on the 8400M being able to handle the graphics of crysis very well.

According to this site, an ATI X1600 or Nvidia 6600 could be an estimated minimum requirement to play the game. http://www.crysis-online.com/Information/System%20Requirements/
I don't know how the 8400 stacks up against the 6600 but the ATI X1600 is faster than the 8400M GS.

 

CRYSIS = LOW-MED on dx9 mode WITH A 8400M

 

is the 8400m gt any better than the gs?

 

yep...the 8400 GT is close to the 8600GS inpower

 

Yes, as stated above the 8400M-GT is the same as the 8600M-GS, but with lower clock speeds. It's a performance graphics card, much more suitable for gaming than the mid-level 8400M-GS.

 

8400GS might be below average

8400GT may be is the average

 

kk thank you

 

Quick question: is an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450, 1.66GHz, 667Mhz, 2ML2 cache processor good enough for an 8400M GS graphics card? what about an 8600M GT graphics card?

I'm deciding between:
HP notebook with a duo 2.0GHz processor and an 8400M GS graphics card

Dell Inspiron 1420 with a duo 1.66GHz processor and an 8400M GS graphics card

Dell Inspiron 1520 with a duo 2.0GHz processor and an 8600M GT graphics card

Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

If you mean will the T5450 bottleneck the video card, that's a no.

The only real advice I can give you right now is that if you want to game, get the 8600M-GT. It is more than twice as powerful as the 8400M.

I recommend that you complete the FAQ in our What Should I Buy forum so we can help you better decide on a notebook.