Worth upgrading?

Hello,
I've been using my dell inspiron 9300 for 2 years now, and was thinking of upgrading. MY current specs is
1.86 pentium M processor
1gb ram
Nvidia Ge Force 6800 256 mb.

Upgrading to an Asus G1S

2.2 ghz duo processor
3 gb ram
Nvidia geforce 8600 M GT DDR3 256MB

Is it a big upgrade? gaming wise? i'm not too sure of the gap between the 2 graphics cards

 

The 8600M GT is a big leap from the 6800, especially since the G1S uses DDR3 and not DDR2 VRAM.

However, minus the DDR3 part, you could probably get a Compal IFL90 (Sager 2090) with the exact same specs, and probably notably cheaper as well.

 

cool thanks... my main concerns with getting a new laptop were:
-Would i actually be getting a large graphics improvement?( gaming performance)
- i also want to play starcraft 2. (hopefully smoothly)

 

Yes that's quite a big upgrade. Two generations of cpu and graphics card is certainly worth it especially if you are wanting to play the latest games.

 

does the Asus G1S have mxm support so you can upgrade the 8600? If so then yeah go for it. If not then id advise changing to a laptop which does have it because 8600 are pretty much the low end of dx10 mobile cards. (when the 8800 arrives)

 

The only Asus notebook out with a straight MxM card right now is the Asus C90s, and it can only be upgraded to other cards that are built on MxM II platform. For a list of MxM cards and their upgradeablity, or lack thereof visit www.mxm-upgrade.com

 

I was in exact situation as you. I owned my 9300 for 2.x years. It still runs great (never had any issues with it and I can still play games on it at low res). However, my upgrade to Asus is definitely noticeable.

However, I must warn you now...if you have been spoiled by 1920x1200 WUXGA+ lcd, it will take a week to get adjusted to a little smaller one. Besides that, I love the Asus.

 

There is a gap between the two cards but the Go6800 is still good enough that you might not notice a difference depending on what you play - new stuff like Bioshock would obviously showcase any difference whereas older games like Half Life 2, Battlefield 2 etc won't really.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate the advice. Voodoo. would you share with me more about the performance of the G1S gaming wise? I'm a bit worried about starcraft, but blizz usually scales their games really well to fit diff system reqs.

 

I find there is ussually no need to upgrade unless you run into That One Game. Seriously, if there is no CURRENT game your notebook can't handle the way you want it to, why change?

 

I agree with Ice-Tea. Why upgrade now if you don't really need to. Unless there's a game that your computer can't run right now or something then you should just wait before you upgrade. Get the most out of your notebook now and when you NEED to upgrade you'll get a better notebook then you would right now (or the same for cheaper).

 

That advice is very true.

I think as long as your laptops works nicely without any problems for whatever games you are playing, don't bother changing it yet. When the games you want to play can't run smoothly, then get a new laptop.

The 8800m series will be out by end of the year (or even before), which would probably eat the 8600m series, but as previous cards will usually be found only in 17" notebooks.

 

Heh thanks all.
Actually that advice is really true. But yea there are various games ( company of heros etc) that don'trun well on my computer that i wish to play. Another issue is.that i'm an Business IT student, and lugging around a 17 incher is a real pain. One of the Main issues is there are so few bags i can find that will fit both my liking and the dell

 

Having owned cards of similar power to the 6800 I was surprised just how much the newer cards like the 8600GT surpass it. If you are looking to play the latest games like Bioshock and coming up games the extra power will not be a waste. If not the 6800 might manage ok.

 

Like everyone else, I agree with Ice-Tea. If your laptop can still handle the newer games without a hitch, I don't think it's worth upgrading. People just upgrade for the new games. The GF Go 6800 might even leave the 8600M GT in the dust when running older games.

BTW, why get the ASUS G1S when you can get a Dell Latitude instead? Well, Dells are cheap and I think the Latitude is on the same block as the Thinkpads when it comes to toughness. Then again, I think they only have the Quadro versions of the card for the Latitude because the Thinkpads don't have the standard Geforce card, but instead have the Quadro counterparts.

 

Wait until the last possible moment to upgrade, if your current laptop suits your needs for now, might as well wait until the new laptop is either cheaper or you can get it with better specs like an 8800 video card.

 

Well if you're looking for a good gaming notebook that will last you many years (for gaming) you'll be better off staying with 17" notebook in my opinion.
I do agree that bringing such a big notebook around can get annoying (the main problem is weight) but there are nice backpacks available for 17" notebooks. I have a Heys ePac17 for my 17" Sager and I really recommend it. Have a look at this topic where I talk about how much the ePac17 can hold (with pictures).