Quick Question....Re Graphics Cards

First, Thanks for taking the time to read my post I appreciate it!

Okay so on to the good stuff. I am a Business Interiors major at University of Nebraska and am looking to buy a high end notebook with good video options for both My Cad and solid works and gaming. I have pretty much narrowed things down to the Gateway 860xl (GeForce 7900gs) the Sony Vaio AR 590 (GeForce 8600gt) and the Alienware 9750 (GeForce 7950 GTX X1). I was looking at the results of the graphics cards and it looks as though the 7950 was by far the best card with the 7900gs in second followed by the 8600gt. Is this correct? I know a Quatro 3500 would probably be the best choice but I will not buy a Dell as they are junk and the only other mainstream competitor I can find with a decient Quatro is HP and that is a 1500 which is considerably less impressive than the 3500.

Also, in talking with the rep from Alienware she mentioned that the 2nd card for SLI is user upgradable and can be purchased through them at any time. I would assume it's a fairly straight forward process but wanted to get some feedback. Thanks!

 

The 7900GS is slightly more powerful than the 8600GT but either would good choices for CAD and gaming. Beware of Alienware, they are rather overpriced and a 7950GTX is probably going to do just as well a job as the 7900GS or 8600GT.

 

i would take an 8600m gt over the 7900 gs. its newer tech and it will have a slight edge in upcoming games because the dev's tend to target new hardware primarily. i would count them equal.

however, it really depends on the resolution. if you have a high res screen (above 1440x900) you might be better off with the go 7900 gs. maybe.

the 7950gtx whomps them all.

 

try to find like a dell XPS M1710 on ebay or somewhere that has the 7950 GTX, it will be a hell of a lot lower cost wise than an Alienware, but between those three, i would deffinently get the 7950 GTX.

 

the hp 8510 has a quadro 570 that is comparable to the 8600 GT as well