The Difference Between: Dedicated & Turbocache?

Is; A dedicated graphics card or a TurboCache graphics card better for gaming.
That is the question.

I'm sort of new to the whole graphics card concept and was thinking about getting the Dell M1210 for school.

What is the difference between the two and which one would perform better. Or more importantly, if i was to compare a: Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 256MB Dedicated graphics card to a Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 256MB TurboCache graphics card, which one would reign supreme (With the games I'm playing below)?

The games I'm thinking of playing it are:

World Of Warcraft (Warhammer Online when it is released)
CounterStrike Source
First Encounter Assault Recon (F.E.A.R: Combat)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion + Expansion
Might & Magic: Dark Messiah

NOTE: The games which are labeled in GREEN are games which I can currently play at a graphics level which I like, on my Sony VAIO VGN-S460P 13.3" which has a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 [ Approx. Total Memory: 128MB and Current Display Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 Bit) (60Hz) ] and I'm getting posts about the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 not being able to play any of these games. So I think it's safe to say it should be able to play these games to my likings without a problem, unless of course the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 is better than the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 TurboCache which I very highly doubt.

 

The dedicated card is better. That card uses it's own ram. However Turbocache uses the system ram which can slow down your laptop if you don't have enough.
Tim

 

If you're already getting the settings level that you like with the go 6200, you should be fine with the go 7400.

I'd opt for dedicated over Turbocache any day. Turbocache will borrow memory from system RAM when needed and can cause slowdowns as Tim mentioned.

Read more about this in the GPU guide.

 

Bottom line is that the 7400 is going to be considerably more powerful than the 6200 so you should be content with it. You might not get all of the eye candy, but everything will be playable for sure. And, you will get the most power possible for an under 14" laptop... i think...

The 7400 in the m1210 is 64mb dedicated and 172mb shared, hence the 256mb "turbocached". It performs just about as well if the system has enough ram to support it.

 

You can go all out quality wise on World Of Warcraft and
Counter Strike: Source. So that's not a problem. 50-60FPS easy. You should get a very playable framerate with F.E.A.R. as well. The Go7400 is more powerful.

I think you only have 1 choice on the Go7400 for the M1210 anyway in terms of cards right now. Turbocached. Make sure you get 2GB of memory.

At least this is what I have heard. I will soon be trying it out for myself when I pick up some of those same games.

 

As far as I know, all versions of the Go 7400 support TurboCache and there is no Go 7400 with 256MB of dedicated video memory.

 

The Go7400 never has more than 128 MB of dedicated VRAM.

 

Ahh Warhammer Online! I Cant Wait For That Game :d