Which Graphics Card Should I Get?

Hey everybody,

This is a question for all you hardware gurus out there. I'm planning to purchase a new laptop from Dell and I've narrowed it down to 2 choices. The Studio 17 or the Studio XPS Laptops. The Studio 17 has an 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 while the Studio XPS has a 1GB ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 4670. I'm wondering which one is better or will they give me the same performance. I'm mainly going to be using this laptop for graphic art and gaming.

The laptop I have now has a GeForce Go 7900 GS SLI Enabled. I'm not a huge fan of the SLI cards and I don't think I would ever buy another laptop or PC with them. In my experience with the cards, they overheat 95% of the time and the seem to disable SLI unexpectedly.

So, again my question is which will give me better performance. Also, is the cards better or equal performance to the card I have now.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

 

Not much difference between the 2. 4670 is just an overclocked 4650

 

IF i were you , try getting a studio XPS 16.. nice RGB screen which is WUXGA and also the 4670, very nice card.. if you want SLI your'e gonna need to pay way more...

 

The performance difference between 4650 and 4670 isn't significant, 4650 is just an downclocked 4670. But they both are quite a bit more powerful than 7900gs SLI.

So base your purchase on other factors, like screen/cpu/ram/appearance etc.

 

Thanks for the responses. I've been looking forward to ordering the laptop I just didn't know which card would be better.

At Lidowxx, I actually wanted to downside to a smaller laptop because this one is unreal to be used as a laptop. It has a 17 inch monitor and is around 12-14 pounds, I'm not really sure on exact weight. It's an Alienware laptop and I'm actually quite disappointed with it. It's case has cracked after just 2 years of use and I'm hoping the Dell's laptop is constructed better then the Alienware laptops. So I'm guessing I should go to at 15 inch monitor to reduce weight and such. I still want a really nice laptop for graphic art and gaming. The regular Studio 17 is more "personalized" when it comes to external appearance and that appealed to me, but the XPS looks like it's the better choice when it comes to the monitor size and such. Thanks again!

 

Alienware is 'owned' by Dell now from what I am aware, and that has been the case for a while. I am not entirely convinced by SLI despite it being in existence for quite a while now. You'll be happy with the XPS I imagine, smaller but still with enough power for some decent gaming.

 

The form factor of the XPS 16 is not much smaller than the Studio 17. As a matter of fact, I would go as far to say that the XPS 16 is a large laptop, it's certainly a lot bigger than my 15.4 laptop.

 

I was under the impression that the XPS 16 was smaller then the Studio 17. If that's the case I'll probably end up going with the Studio since it's a bit cheaper then the XPS. I've got 3,000 to work with so I mine as well get a Studio 17 loaded for cheaper then the XPS. I'm still not all that sure, to be honest. I just need to make sure it isn't a huge laptop like the one I have now. It's not very portable, like I mentioned earlier.

 

XPS 16 is a bit more portable than a studio 17, but really the difference is not going to be huge. If you find your former 17 inch alienware too big, i doubt you will be happy with the size of either xps 16 or studio 17.

If these 2 are your only options, and size matters for you, then you should probably go with xps 16 since it's smaller after all.

But have u considered other 15.4 laptops on the market? they are going to be much more portable than both xps16 and studio 17.

 

The form factor is different, overall it's smaller than the Studio 17, but I think it's a little wider and less tall due to the 16:9 screen vs the 16:10 in the Studio.