Suggestions for MMORPG card?

Hi all. First let me say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond to my two very different previous posts (one on desktops, one on what kind of laptop to get). I'm going through a bit of an iterative search here but I think I'm closing in on a computer purchase. Final (hopefully) question for the collective knowledge of the boards, and this one involves guesswork. The only real gaming that I care about having a good enough video card for are MMORPGs. I sometimes play some Oblivion-esque games, but I don't really mind turning down the settings there.

I realize that there is a huge variance in the demands of MMORPGs today, from WoW to Vanguard. I'm hoping to get a new laptop that will be able to comfortably run new MMORPGs for the next 2-2.5 years. What is the minimum type card I should be looking for? I haven't settled for good on 15.4 vs. 17 but I'm probably leaning towards the 15.4 as 3 years of this Dell I9300 has taken its toll on my back.

Will an 8600M cut it, or am I resigned to heading up to the 17" class?

Thanks again for all the help folks


Danny

 

8600m GT should play any MMORPG out there on the market today. Older they are, the higher settings you will get.

 

well, I have the Dell Inspiron 1520 w/ the 256MB 8600m GT, and I've played EQ, EQ2, and WoW on this thing. EQ obviously i can play at max settings, even in a raid. no problems there. EQ2, i can play that game on max settings solo/grouping, and i play on balanced/high quality in raids. WoW..... well, that ones easy and shouldn't even need explaining, but i can do even raids on max settings.

I've never played LoTR:O or Vanguard...... mainly cause LoTR doesn't appeal to me and while Vanguard was supposed to be to EQ1 what EQ2 failed to be, it failed miserably. I hear tho that Vanguard isn't extremely well optimized, but it's getting slowly better. Things like volumetric clouds and such make the game tougher to run. I'd assume medium settings on that game.....