X3100 vs. 8400M GS (battery vs. CAD)

I am going to be buying an HP dv2700t and need to choose between the integrated X3100 and the dedicated 8400 GS. I will mostly use the computer for web browsing and Office applications. I do not plan to use it for gaming, but I would like to do some light CAD work (solidworks, Pro/E). I have read many conflicting opinions on this forum and others as to the performance gains vs. loss of battery life in going with the 8400 GS. I plan to buy the 12-cell battery, so I should have adequate life, but I don't want to sacrifice more battery or add heat if it is not going to boost my performance significantly. Being a supposed gaming card, will the modest performance increases be even more modest in CAD applications? Are there advantages with the 8400 GS in running Vista or for future proofing? I keep going back on forth on this, so any help you could give would be great.

 

i would go with the 8400 GS if ur gonna run CAD

 

I think that honestly unless battery life is your most primary concern with this notebook that you shouldn't go with the x3100... The 8400 still has decent battery life, and the added performance will be nice down the road...

Just my $0.02.

 

Isn't CAD more based on the CPU than graphics card?

I'd go with the X3100. I had it for a short while and it was good for what I did at the time - movies, internet, dual monitor work ,etc. It couldn't game, but it was okay running vista with the visual stuff on. There is also new drivers coming out for it (i believe) that help with it.

I got the 8400m GS on my inspiron 1420 and I regret it now. I didn't need it, but I thought the laptop would feel inferior with the intg. card.

 

I believe CAD is more CPU based, but not sure. My younger brother is a Structural Engineer, and uses CAD. I know he has an XPS desktop with a Quadro card, but they also do 3D Modeling, so I couldn't tell for sure.

 

I have an HP dv6500t with the "high capacity" 6 cell battery. C2D 2GHz (Santa Rosa chipset, Merom CPU) and a GeForce 8400M GS. On the lowest screen setting I can get about 3 hours and 15 minutes of browsing and chatting.

Even if you don't plan on gaming, the GeForce is better for things like video playback. It has many more hardware features than the X3100. You can also get yourself an external blu-ray drive and either play movies on the notebook screen or hook it up via HDMI to an HDTV.

The upgrade is (usually) $100, but you get far more bang for your buck by going with that dedicated GPU than the integrated one.

nVidia's driver support is MUCH better than Intel's too. Thats reason alone to go with nVidia.

 

Actually, you mean Nvidia's "lack" of support. They don't actually support the mobile chips. Laptopvideo2go.com takes desktop drivers, and modifies the .inf to work with mobile GPU's. So, it should be rephrased as "Nvidia's community driver support is much better than Intel's."

 

the 8400gs is like 3 times more powerful than the x3100...

 

It's pointless if he doesn't actually make use of the 3x power.

Pros of the 8400M GS:
-You get the sexy nVidia sticker
-Better aero performance
-HD video will play with no problems
-Longer lifetime for your notebook (your integrated card will probably be insufficient for most things in a few years time)

Cons:
-Use of battery (but according to alot of reviews, the 8400M GS is a relatively power-conserving card)
-Costs more
-Looked down upon

 

Looked down upon? Only by stuck up snobs. How can you look down upon a correctly marketed card.

If the 8400GS was marketed as a "Uberz Gaming Power-House", then we would look down on the manufacture. It is a mid/low end card. I don't look down upon it, but I am honest about it.

The X3100 is looked down upon, as most buy it, and argue that it can in fact run games.

 

Um... actually I am quite content with Nvidia's mobile GPU support... they have driver releases enough for my computer to run well and what more is there to ask for???

IMHO if you are looking for a company that doesn't support their GPUs in general (Desktop and Notebook) I would be looking over at ATI...

 

CAD with solid modeling is actually very graphics intensive. The problem is, I don't know if the 8400m gs would give me a significant performance increase over the X3100. CAD cards focus much more on rendering than on frame rates. To run correctly I would have to upgrade to the expensive Quadro FX series which I am not willing to do as CAD is not going to be the primary use of this laptop.

What I gather is the 8400 would lose me around 15-30 minutes of battery life (assuming a base of ~3 hours?), would not give off an unpleasant amount of heat, and if nothing else will at least extend the usable life of the computer? If this is correct, I will probably go ahead with the 8400.

 

I would also venture to guess that if/when it comes time to resell it, it will be easier, and probably fetch a few more $$, than an X3100-based unit.


T

 

I didn't get any nvidia stickers , only vista, centrino stickers.