So whats bad about 8600m gs?

I'm new to pc gaming since all gaming for me was done on console, I konw there are better graphics cards, but is the 8600m gs reall bad like people say. Some say it is and others say its great. So which one is it!? I just want to play games on a laptop. Maybe the most demanding games I want to play on a laptop is oblvion or gears of war. Maybe mass effect when it comes out on pc. So can 8600m gs handle a game like gears? Some say it holds awsome and others say its crap. Also its the highest option for the hp dv9700t which comes with a 2.4ghz intel core 2 duo, 3gigs of ram. and no i don't want another laptop, found great price at hp! So if some one tell me if it can handle gears and if not can 8400m gs handle obivion so i can downgrade and save a couple $ or spend it on something else.Thank you

 

It doesn't suck but it isn't that good either.
You can play GoW with it, sure. Oblivion runs also maxed out at 1280x800, but it's weak compared to > 8600M GT / 8800 or 9500M GS. (Most common gamer-gpus)

 

its good...how is it bad lol.... i have an 8400M GT and im really happy with it .

 

Well it all depends....if you OC, then you can actually get the GS on par with the DDR2 GT, but like Travis_D have said, the card is not going to last. You can play GoW, Oblivion no problem, but since Mass Effect is coming out later this year, and seems to be remodified especially for the PC, the reqs are likely to bump up and you might not be able to play it with enjoyable resolution/visuals... the GS can probably play Mass Effect with some tweakings, but you might be playing your chances here....

 

Well accually, the 8600M GS can supass the 8600M GT DDR2 with OC'ing. My 8400M GT's OC is pretty much equivalent to the 8600M GS DDR3 @ stock

 

i have 8400gs oc to equal 8400gt up to 8600gs stock...
no complain so far.. buy it cheap, push it great..

 

I honestly doubt you have reached the 8400M GT's potential let alone that of the 8600M GS??!!!! Thats crazy talk.

If u have..you must have gotten around this score in 3Dmark06:

1280x800 res: 2500~2700 marks if you got to the 8400M GT DDR3
1280x800 res: 3200~3700 marks if you got to the 8600M GS DDR3

If you really have...impressive...but what are your temperatures

 

what price do you have on the hp machine?

i recommend a dell vostro with an 8600m gt.

you can probably find a great price on that machine.

 

And this comes from what, where?

If it is being tuned for the PC it will probably have resonable requirements instead of a straight port where nothing is optimised for the PC.

Mass Effect doesn't have anything spectacular visually or in the gameplay that would make it require super high requirements.

But to answer the OP, it is one step below the higher end mid-level card 8600m GT. It should suffice for the most part for 1280x800 for 2008 games and probably a little further for the most part. If Crysis can run on it (granted with options lowered), it should suffice for most any game coming for the next year.

If nothing else, using my laptop had me revisiting older games that I bought and never played much, or buying older games that I intended to but never did. Just because you can't run newest games at max detail doesn't mean you can't run it, or can't find current or older games that are just as fun.

 

thank you so much for giving me a strait anwser! Its glad to know it can play oblivion and even gears! For mass effect I don't care if it runs at high low is good enough for me I just heard so many good things about its features! Now if you could find a laptop with a stronger card and is less then 1500 then great! tell me! But it has to include microsoft home/office! do my homework on the road and play oblivion even if it is the lowest settings to save energy and play longer! Well with the high 8 cell and oblivion on very low how much time do i get?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206261

The CPU is a lot weaker than the HP but for the price, it's not bad.

 

thanks for the link, great laptop and cheaper then hp. But i really don't like the cpu. Only 1.66ghz? Can't you customize it like on hp? But you can replace it right? I rather buy a new cpu with the money save from not buyimg hp's dv9700t. But how will it play gears? I think gears needs 2.2ghz duo core. So is it better to get a laptop with a better graphics card then cpu? The design I like better hp because it looks gloosy but how much does it weight? I hope less then 8. Somebody answer. plus only 2 hours of batter?! what if your just writing?