Sony Vaio: go7400 or go7600 gpu?

1) What is your budget?
n/a

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

a. Ultraportable; 12" screen or less
b. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen

3) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?

1 - GAMES
2 - work (office, 'net etc)

4) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?

moving around a lot (2-3 times per week)

5) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?

Oblivion, Gothic 3 (when it arrives)

6) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

Looking at Sony, also considered HP and dell

7) How many hours of battery life do you need?
n/a

8) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?
no
9) What country are you buying this in?
UK but I work in Africa

The rest of the questions are n/a



So I need a lappy capable of at least playing oblivion and other modern games, but portable. Have come up on the Vaio FE series, looks very tempting. My problem is this:

FE21b - has go7400 256mb (but turbocache) and slower bus speed (64bit)

http://vaio.sony-europe.com/view/Sh...en_GB&pageType=Overview&category=VN+FE+Series

FE21M - Has go7600 128mb dedicated (can this be increased by sharing? don't know). bus speed 128bit. BUT the HDD is only 4200rpm instead of 5400, and it is way more expensive as it has tons of junk which i don't need (bluetooth, 160gb hdd, webcam etc)

http://vaio.sony-europe.com/view/Sh...en_GB&pageType=Overview&category=VN+FE+Series

So is the go7600 significantly better, and worth the extra expense?
I want to be able to play good games for as long as possible until the gpu becomes outdated, so am willing to fork out the extra if necessary.

What difference will the bus speed make? and is 256mb turbocache better than 128mb dedicated on the newercard?

Also heat is a slight concern to me, i often work in room temperatures of 35c. The HP notebooks i looked at had a MAX temp rating of 35c, so no good for me.

Thanks in advance!

 

Get a Dell XPS notebook. Theyre really good for gaming.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/xpsnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
If you dont like it, go with the 7600 if you can. Newer is always better.

 

The 7600 is well worth the price. It has 3 times as many pixel pipelines and is probably 4 times as powerful. If you want to play games, te 7600 is a must. If however you find that you could get used to a 17inch notebook, get a Dell with the 7900GS. Many users here have one and are in love with them, especially the 7900GS. Its almost twice as powerful as 7600, though it is still a very capable card.

 

^^I totally AGREE^^

 

You could buy the Vaio FE21M with minimum specs and the Go 7600, and then replace the 4200rpm HD, with a 5400rpm, or even better, a 7200rpm HD. The G07600 is much better at gaming than the 7400.

 

The Go7600 is the better card as noted, about a third more powerful (for the 128MB version).

 

Ok thanks guys.
I still need pretty good portability so i dont think that the XPS will meet my needs.
If only I could customise the FE21b and just get them to stick a 7600 card in there. But I don't seem to be able to find a website that will let me do this (and buying from SonyStyle is way more expensive than say ebuyer or laptopsdirect)
So I guess i'll end up getting the FE21M, unless anything else catches my eye...

 

The Go 7600 is actually an eight pipeline part. Only the desktop ones are twelve pipes.

It's still a monster, though.

 

holy crap! why is it so hot where you work?!

 

it's called Africa. And i don't always get the luxury of a/c (Though i never would use my computer when it gets over about 40). Yep, it's hot.