Which card for COD4?

hi guys, i'm aiming at buying a new laptop mainly for general purpose and also some gaming but i'm kinda completely lost when it comes to the graphics card part.. in fact, i was interested in the vostro 17" series and it ships at best with a 8600 gs 256 mb card. i have found no information about whether these 256 mb are ddr2 or ddr3 and was wondering if even if it were ddr2, whether i would be able to run cod4 "correctly". i know it will run for sure but i would be very grateful if you had any feedbacks about the screen resolution/graphical options i would be able to run it at/with for it to play let's say at at least 40 fps.
in case the 8600 gs would be really insufficient, i would go for a toshiba with a 8700 gt 256 mb ddr3 but that would mean an extra 250$!
and by the way, is there a real difference between the 8600 gs and 8600 gt with same video memory?
thanks a lot

 

can you specify the screen resolution and game settings? because 40fps is what I got with my 8800m GTX, WUXGA.

 

thanks for answering
it would be on a 17" screen @ 1440x900 max. in fact, i would like to know at which resolution and with which game settings i would be able to get at least 40 fps (without AA of course)

 

8800m+
anything less will be outdated before you you can say montevina

 

lol, really? not even a 8700 gt would be able to do the job? man, i really thought i would be able to play while i'm on the move for less than 1500$... problem is, i'm in france and god knows how lame french people are at currency conversion. something worth 1000$ in the US would be sold 1000€ here, i.e. 1500$! thought i saw a HP with a 8800 m gtx for about 1000$ but they do not ship this model here...
anyway, how well should i expect cod4 to run on a 8600 gs? 10 fps at 800x600? and what about the 8700 gt? cuz i'm kinda really stuck budgetwise, i cannot affort >1500$ and so i'm doomed to get at best the 8700 gt..

edit : in fact i dont really care about being outdated, i just wanna run cod4!

 

"Calpella."

 

The 8700M GT will actually play COD4 reasonably.

 

even with only 256 mb? @ which resolution do you think it would?

 

you seem more optimistic

 

Read this faq: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260403

You need a performance or high end video card. But Cod4 is optimized so very well, so at least an 8600M GT should be good.

That 8700M would be a perfect fit.

Do not, I repeat, do not purchase a 8600 GS if you want to play cod4 with high textures @ moderate resolutions.

 

8600m GT or better.

w/ the 8600m GT, you are looking at 1024x640 or 1280x800, and medium-high settings

 

Thanks for the advice! think i'm going for a 8700 gt then since the price tag for a 8600 gt is aroung the same as the toshiba i saw with the 8700 gt.
any further advice is welcome though, at least as long as i haven't bought the damn thing

 

I think you should be good

Just down turn the resolutions up to 1600*1200 and it will preform great.

 

1440x900's all the screen will support and i won't be using the laptop with an external screen. this resolution will be more than enough! good for me then
going for some sleep now, 4am here there's a french proverb which says "la nuit porte conseil" which means "sleeping brings in good advice" (i dunno if there's an english equivalent for this proverb ) but i think i got all the needed advice here