Which Graphics Card should I go with?

For a computer I'm looking at (Vostro 1500)

128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
or
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT

and what's the difference...?

The 2nd one is $100 more, so is it really worth it, or is the first one fine for something like, World of Warcraft, Photoshop, and a couple other games and graphics/photo programs?
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Info - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2985612#post2985612

 

it really depends on what games you plan on playing

 

for the needs u have posted (wow photoshop etc).... 8400m gs is more than enough........ however if u wanna play advanced games like crysis or cod3 etc with full eye candy u may choose the second option

 

seeing as new cards are coming out in 2 weeks and their laptop eqivilants a little later i would wait because prices will go down

 

If you plan on playing any new GPU-intensive games, I strongly recommend getting the 8600M GT. You won't regret it.

 

You do not need discrete graphic for photoshop but super fast CPU will benefit you, so why don't you get a Penryn model instead.

Unless you will be gaming or encoding video , you better get the NV 8400GS or even the Intel X3100, which stays cool and quiet.

But I think for your Warcraft stuff , you need the 8600GT.

 

@lappyforphotoshop
>____> They don't have those cards for options, but I can have someone install those later, right?

@oktoberfest
Stuff like sims 1&2, Roller Coaster Tycoon series, maybe a couple other games like that (Yes I know, not very impressive games, but they amuse me and pass the time when I can't get into anything too big).... >___> Mostly I'll be playing WOW though inbetween classes/homework and work....

@kuncheesh
For crysis or cod3.... >__> Not really into shooters and cod3 doesn't seem like it'd be something I'd like
......

 

Nah, no point.

Stick with the GF8400M GS in that case.

Like he said get fast CPU, and big memory and fast HDD that's the most important thing. Only if you did a bit of 3D or things like After Effects would you want any kind of graphics power.

Personally I'd say stick with a GF8400 over a GMA X3100, mainly because if they ever do unlock the GPGPU part of graphics cards to help with PhotoChop , then it would be the stream processing AMD and nVidia cards that would benefit. So it's good to have that added benefit, but I wouldn't bother getting a more powerful card on that hope alone though.

Some NLE programs are starting to adopt some GPGPU and plain OGL acceleration assist, but, for now nothing from Adobe.

 

If you're gonna stick with the GF8400, get a lighter notebook. The main reason people get the Vostro 1500 and the Inspiron 1520 is for the 8600M GT card.

 

get the 8400 it will run WOW great, even my GMA 945 runs WOW with playable FPS

 

Help!!! I can't install the NVIDIA GeForce 7150M in my laptop (Compaq Presario V3644AU) and I also can't play Maple Story