UPDATED - The Mobile Graphics Card Info Page - Most GPU Qs answered

I don't know much about the game, but if it's extremely graphics intensive, it might do so.

 

Dream scene is a feature of Vista ultimate that allows you to set a video as your background. It is a processor-intensive activity so no your video card will not overheat.

 

Afaik, DreamScene allows you to play high-definition video content as a wallpaper yes but its key point is to take advantage of the hardware acceleration capabilities of the newer video cards, in other words it should make use of the GPU for display instead of the CPU, when only the decoding is left for the CPU.

 

How does the DDR2 and GDDR3 versions of the 8600GT compare? I see many 512MB version of the 8600GT offered, but as DDR2 memory.

 

Ohh. This has been happening for a few months. Think any long term damage could result from the overheating? And if I lower my gaming settings (in Warcraft 3) there should be no overheating right?

 

You are actually totally right. I downloaded speedfan so I could see my temperatures and they are currently:

HD0: 47C
Temp1: 93C
Temp2: 54C
Core 0: 85C
Core 1: 85C

And I am not playing any games, all I have open is Mozilla Firefox and Zone Alarm Pro which is scanning for viruses and spyware. When I first opened up Speedfan though, I had 2 virus scanners on (unknowingly) and the temperatures were:

You are actually totally right. I downloaded speedfan so I could see my temperatures and they are currently:

HD0: 44C
Temp1: 98C
Temp2: 54C
Core 0: 94C
Core 1: 92C

Also it states "Found ACPI temperature 98.0C" What is the ACPI?

Yeah, this is really bad. Had no idea my comp was over heating. I will be opening up my computer to install ram within a few days (once it comes) I will clean out dust from my system then. As for now, I will definitely check out the cooling guide!

Any more tips or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

 

pretty intense stuff over here guys, good work. I was looking to get a laptop within the $1500-1700 canadian and came across this laptop.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10089655&catid=20354. I saw that it had a new graphics card, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD2600. It seems to me that this card is more tailored towards watching movies than gaming. I would like to know if this computer would be able to run medieval 2 total war at max settings and would like to know if the processor speed would affect the game because it is a bit low for that price. I have a 1.66GHz comp. right now and would like to know if that computer would be a good buy. As well, if you guys have any other suggestions for laptops within that price range that would be great.

thanks,

 

Will additional thermal paste help in cooling down the GPU? My GPU's always around 60C and I always feel the intense heat when touching the top-right area of the keyboard.

 

That computer appears to be a good value. The HD2600 should perform a little better than the nVidia 8600mGS in this guide, and should be able to play medieval 2 on max settings without difficulties. As for the processor, it's not the fastest on the market but it shouldn't negatively impact gaming very much, as it should be fast enough to keep up with the graphics card in all modern games.

 

Wow, thats a great info post! Answered a lot of my questions. Thanks!

 

thanks odin

 

I was looking at HP's notebooks and was wondering where there graphics card would be rated 511MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS. Im either going to get an HP dv9500t or Dell Inspiron 1720/1721 and just curious what you guys thought would be better. Thanks

 

The 8600M GS only beaten by the 8600M GT in games (aside from the 7600GT), although the 8600M GT is approx 50% better, if not more.

 

Where does 8700 stand?

 

After 8600M GT and before Go 7900GTX/Go 7950GTX (assuming single-card Nvidia solutions currently on the market, the Go 7950GTX is at the top).

 

I don't know if you saw this before. Also, the best card on a 12.1" should now be the 8400m-G, I believe.

Chaz, have you considered adding that the best in class graphics for a 10.6" is the Go7300?
Also, though it's not major, the asterisk doesn't really need to be on the 13.3" now.

 

Today I added the 8700M-GT as a performance card. It's not a high-end card because it has a 128-bit memory bus where a true high-end card has a 256-bit bus.

 

I assume you wouldn't be able to find an 8700M GT on a 15.4" notebook?

 

I don't think so . . . the Toshiba X205 I tested had a 180W power adapter. I've never seen a 15.4" with one that big.

 

supper quality stuff . . needed that big time . . . thanks Chaz

 

chaz . . . i need you openion . . (quite badly) . . . . im just into UT (wanna be able to play UT3 with everything maxed out) and im planning to either go for the sager 5790 santa rosa ( 2.4 GHz with Go 7950GTX and 3 gig . . . . . (not vista) ) or (on the other hand) go for the Asus G1S or the
sager 2090 (also santa rosa)( 2.4 GHz with 8600M GT and 4 gig . . . . ( 64 bit vista) . . can you suggest . .as just a playing experience . . which one would be better . . . dx9 on Go 7950GTX or dx10 on the 8600 MGT . . . ? ?
. . . . . . also is santa rosa having some issues with performance/drivers

 

The Go7950GTX is a significantly more powerful card than the 8600M-GT, and right now DX10 codepaths appear to be fairly poorly optimized. So the DX9 experience with the 7950GTX will greatly surpass both the DX10 and the DX9 experience on the 8600M-GT. This is unlikely to change in the future, unless there are some major breakthroughs with DX10 programming.

 

thanks . . odin . . . thanks a lot . . . . also is . . santa rosa good or bad . . right now . . . ? ? ? also theres this Robson thing . . . im really confused . . . what is all this stuff . . ? ? ?

 

Check the hyperlink - Santa Rosa.

Try www.en.wikipedia.org for more info. They usually cover all of these topics. They will certainly cover them better than I would in a forum post.

 

The Santa Rosa chipset is more powerful than the older Napa chipset due to a higher Front Side Bus speed. It also has some nice power efficiency features, standard support for Wireless "N", and support for Intel Turbo Memory ("Robson"). It also has a very good chance of being able to support 45nm Penryn processors when they come out. I'd highly recommend it over the older Napa chipset.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robson_flash_memory
Robson is up in the air right now. Several hardware sites have reviewed it and found little to no improvement, and multiple major PC vendors have openly denounced it as having no benefit to the end consumer. However this could change with better support for it in Windows Vista, and better drivers. It won't hurt, so if you want the latest and greatest technology, you could get it, but it would probably be better just to get a decent hard drive (160GB 5400RPM or better) and upgrade to a hybrid drive when they become available.

 

the other thing . . . that im worried about is the OS and ram combo . . . what kind of a difference will it really make . . . (have heard that UT3 has better textures on 64 bit VIsta) does it mean that 4 gig vista 64 is a better choice for my situation . . ? ? ( just for UT3) . . . ? ? ?

 

thanks again odin and Chaz . . . . you guys rock . . .

 

If you're getting the 7950GTX, I'd go with Windows XP and 2 or 3 gigs of RAM. If you get the 8600M-GT I'd go with Windows Vista 32-bit and 3 gigs of RAM. I doubt 64-bit operating systems will be a good choice for gaming or general use for a while yet, as the driver support just isn't there.

 

thanks odin . . . . i guess ill stick with the sager 5790.
Also which reseller do you think i should buy from . . . ? ? ?
xoticpc.com or from powernotebooks.com or maybe from sager itself ?

 

I like XoticPC.com, but all three of those resellers are excellent.

 

i apprecite it odin . . many thanks . . .

 

I just ordered a 5790 for cheaper than any of those sites from discountlaptops.com

 

Chaz, there's no link^. Just so you know. Thanks for a great thread.

 

Thanks for letting me know about that - I removed that section since I forget what that link was.

 

No Problem.

 

woah . . we have the sager 5790 with geforce 8700 GT . . . . now . .

 

Today I updated the chart with a section called "THE BIG CHART". Please see the front page for details. The reason I put it in because some of the cards are starting to overlap - as in, even though the 8700M-GT is a Performance card it is still faster than the Go7800/X1800. It's basically put in to avoid confusion.

I hope to add in the ATI HD 2000 cards, maybe in September when there are more benchmarks.

 

^Thanks. That's definitely helpful. Good thinking.

 

Chaz, why did you decide to put the 8600M-GS above the Go7600GT? As far as I can tell, it hasn't shown any indication of performing better in games or benchmarks.

 

The 8600GS might be more powerful/efficient at playing next gen dx9/dx10 games.

Anyways, I think the 8600GS is quite on par with the 7600GT.

 

chaz a general question . . . . . . does a 80 series card suffer a performance hit when running a dx9 game . . ? ? ? Also in . . . . say 6 months time . . do you think that graphics performance of dx10 games running 8700GT would be on par with go 7950GTX (running dx9 of course)

 

No it should not suffer a performance hit.

No, because the 7950GTX would just beat it with pure horsepower in dx9.

 

thanks patriot . . . . is there some kind of chart where we can directly compare mobile GPUs . . ? ? ?

 

Not really a chart but this should help.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

 

the BIG CHART . . yeah . . saw that today . . . thanks anyways . .

 

hi guys, great post btw very HELP full,,,
but i have one question,,,
i am getting a notebook and the 2 graphics cards i have to choose between are
go7600 and the x1600...
the 7600 has slower memory clock and only 8 pixel shader...2ghz core 2 duo
the x1600 has 12 pixel shader and a higher memory clock,1.8ghz core duo(not core 2)
but in the charts the 7600 is better,
is this an error....

i don't really care about the cpu because that is not the limiting factor when it comes to games... anything over 1.6ghz is fine...

i play to play game like hl2 and css and bf2 and insurgency..

 

There is very little difference between the cards, either will be fine. I'd recommend the ATI card because it will have better performance in the games you want to play but in the end you can't go wrong with either.

I hope you are getting this machine for cheap because the Go7600/X1600 are last-gen technology. For new notebook recommendations please complete the FAQ in the What Should I Buy forum.

 

Hi! I just recently ordered a Lenovo Thinkpad T61p laptop. It comes with an Nvidia Quadro 570M 256mb gpu. Rumor has it that this mobile gpu is equivalent to an 8600m GT. Is this true on some levels? Will I be able to achieve at least decent performance with eye candy on next gen games such as Crysis, Bioshock, etc. ?? I want to know the performance level of this card compared to others. Mostly, I will be using the laptop for work with occasional play and occasional CAD or 3D imaging.

SPECS:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate US English
15.4 WUXGA TFT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB)
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
Keyboard US English
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim
PC Card Slot & Express Card Slot
4 in 1 Media Card Reader
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
ThinkPad Wireless USB Adapter
9 cell Li-Ion Battery

I have heard that with the right drivers, the 570M can perform like an 8600m GT on games.

 

I've responded to your other post. In general, please don't double post, as it clutters the forums.

 

guys . . i have another question . . . but more towards the OS side . . .
l . . ok . . which version of vista is best for gaming . . . home . . . ? ? premium . . . . ? ? or ultimate . . . ? ? I am guessing it to be home . . . . ( no aero) . . .