What CPU becomes a bottleneck for the 8400 gs? And can it play TF2?

Having said that the 8400gs isn't a powerful GPU at all, I presume a 1.6ghz from dell's m1330 would be sufficient for it not to perform a lot worse than it would with the 2.0?

I mean, if you got a 3dmark06 score of *lets say* 1000 with 1.6ghz and an 8400gs, would you get a significant increase with the 2.0ghz (say 1400) or would it just be marginally higher, like 1050? (Theoretically speaking)

Now I know the 8400gs can play cs:s, but can it play team fortress 2? Or the unreal 3 engine (gears of war, cod4 etc) or would i have to go for the m1530?

 

Pretty much any C2D won't be a bottleneck for any GPU. I'd go for the M1530 still though(even if the 8400 did play them) for better performance.

 

I'd go as far as to say a P4 or Athlon XP would be more than enough to feed data to an 8400 GS. In other words: you can't buy a laptop with a slow enough CPU to be a bottleneck for an 8400 GS, so don't worry about it.

 

Ah sounds good, as I don't need more than 1.6ghz processing power on the m1330. I am however extreeemely town between the m1330 and the m1530.

The m1530 is alot more expensive considering i can get a m1330 refurbed from dell, and it's bigger, which means less portable and more weight.

Is 15" really THAT much bigger than a 13"? Well, using pure logic, I suppose so, lol

 

Your 3dmark06 score would in fact increase, possibly somewhat significantly. However, you have to understand that your 3dmark score is a summation of separate gpu tests and cpu tests. The increased score in the cpu tests would increase your 3dmark06 score disproportionately to your increase in real life games.

You are good for Source 2007 games. TF2, Portal, HL2e2

Unreal Engine 3 will run reasonably well also, but don't expect it to be spectacular.

You can get gears of war and UT3 looking better on an 8600m gt than you can on a console. I would really consider going that route if you have an interest in gaming. The truth is that the size of a thin 15" laptop is very portable.

 

i would still consider a 15" notebook portable, it might be about a pound heavier which really isn't much

 

Definately, thanks for the heads up, I do understand what you mean, and I didn't quite factor in the CPU tests, but what I was hoping was more of the in game tests, which is good news for me considering the CPU won't affect it much. I won't be using the cpu part of the laptop for much apart from HD decoding, which I presume 1.6 c2d is enough for? If not I might have to bulge up for a 2.0

Yeah I suppose, but It's the sheer size of it. But I guess you guys are right. However, the 8600m GT that comes with the M1530 is a GDDR3 right?

Or are there any other good options for such a portable cheap 15 or even 14" laptop?

I'd love to have the 13" just cause I have a beast of a desktop computer for gaming, but when I go home for holidays It would be nice to do some FPS recreation. I think I might go for the 15" if it's only a pound heavier, which would make it, what, about 2.5kg?