Processor speed vs. graphics card power

I'm looking at Lenovo T61s, and have found two that I am considering buying. One has a 2.2Ghz processor and a 128MB nVidia NVS140 graphics card, while the other has a 2.0Ghz processor and a 128MB nVidia FX570M graphics card. All other specs are equal. Which is the better system for playing games?

 

The FX570M is WAY better. You sure it's 128MB? It should be a 256MB one.

 

the 14inch t61p has a crippled quadro fx 570m, memory bus down to 64bit from 128bit. and total graphics momory down to 128mb. the 15inch model has the standard fx570m.

 

The FX570M is on par with a 8600m gt while the 140 is equal to a 8400m gs. Nuf said

 

Okay, DDR2 or GDDR3? Still better than the NVS140 though

 

not sure it's ddr2 or gddr2 or gddr3. sorry

 

nvs140 is a slightly pumped up version of 8400m gs, still the same level though.

 

I'd like to know, how much better is the crippled FX570M in this model vs the NVS140?

 

The FX should be better, although if you're looking at the 14" models, it isn't going to be as good as the 8600M GT, contrary to what the others in the thread have claimed. It's the crippled 64-bit version which, on paper, isn't much of an improvement compared to the NVS.

Try looking at the 15" T61 p instead, if gaming is a priority.

 

My biggest priority is sticking with a 4:3 aspect display. If I go widescreen I'll just wait for the Lenovo T400, Dell E6400, and HP 6930p to come out which will all have more powerful graphics chips.

But yes, I am looking at the crippled 128MB FX570M, and my biggest gamng concern is that I want to be able to play Deus Ex 3 when it comes out.

 

it will run, not pretty though.

 

Twice the stream processors and higher clocks equals SIGNIFICANT improvement.

The smaller bus and memory size will mean you will have to play with lower resolutions and texture detail but you'll be able to add shadow and shader detail so it won't look so bad

 

So basically I should be looking for a T61p or wait for the HP 6930p.

 

T61p gets my vote.

 

All in all though, is it better to get the additional 0.2Ghz of processor speed or the FX570 graphics card (ideally I'd like the T9300 processor and a FX570 graphics card, but since the 14.1" T61s have been dropped I'm stuck with what's available refurbished).

 

Another +1 for T61

 

I honestly think that you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference between .2 in two modern processors unless you used benchmarking.

The 570 would give an extremely large boost in performance in a 140/570 fight in comparison to a 2.0/2.2Ghz fight.

 

Will the performance be much better even with the crippled version of the 570M? The version Lenovo used in the 14.1" screen T61p has only 128MB of RAM and a 64-bit memory bus. My main concern is being able to run most games that will come out in the next few years playably (I don't need to max out graphics settings but I don't want a machine that will be totally obsolete in two years).

 

Nobody knows. It's very possible that the more demanding games that come out in two years time will need more than 128mb of vram but i'd guess that most games will be playably for two years or so

 

True, nobody can see the future. But how far behind is a 128MB FX570M compared to the best mobile graphics hardware at this point?

 

At this point the FX 570m is, on paper, identicle to the 8600m GT aside from drivers. So currently it's mid-range. High end cards such as the 8800 FX 3600 greatly outperform the mid range cards.

If you're buying a laptop for gaming i'd suggest waiting for the new range of ati/nvidia cards to come out. So far the new 9-series cards are just 8 series cards made on a smaller manufacturing process with little performance gains. At the end of the year i expect the 8600\570 to be on par with the new low-end cards.

You can expect to see a fair amount of this by the end of the summer.