XPS M1530's 8600M GT 256mb Vs CZ-7's 8600 GO 512mb

I was browsing through the review of Dell's XPS M1530's review on this site.




The 3DMark06 scores its gpu are 4,310 3DMarks.




I am now guessing that the scores of Batalion 101 CZ-7's Mobility 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 8600GT PCI-Express 3D Video would double the 3dMarks score?




Could someone also explain to me the difference between the
Mobility 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 8600GT PCI-Express 3D Video and the
Mobility 512MB NVIDIA 8600GT PCI-Express 3D Video? (without GO in the description)




Here's the link to the inventory of the laptops I mentioned above.

 

Technically, the GO is incorrect. Nvidia stopped using that designator on the 8 series, and insteand uses the M after the model number. (As in 8600 M-GT).

And no, the notebook you linked has an inferior version of the 8600M-GT, it scores about 3500 at 1280x800 resolution or 3000 at 1280x1024 resolution, whereas the M1530 scores about 4300 and 3800 respectively.

Amount of video memory doesn't really mean much, you can't determine the power of a video card by the size of it's memory. The difference between the two versions of the 8600M-GT are based on the speed of the memory, one runs at 700mHz and one runs at 400mHz.

 

No. 512 vs 256 matter only when processing under higher resolutions, but for the 8600M GT, it does not really benefit because of the 128bit interface. Check the clock speeds.

GO means Mobility.

 

how can you tell if its an inferior version?

 

Because I'm pretty sure that laptop is a rebranded Compal IFL90 which only features the inferior (DDR2) version, and besides, to the best of my knowledge all of the 512mb versions are DDR2.

 

would the higher memory have any advantage in this scenario?

 

Is there a cheaper solution to get a brand new laptop for the same or better specs that Dell offers in terms of graphics?

 

Dell is cheapest Spend the extra $200 for the graphics card and processor. Ram and HD can be configured later.

 

Essentially, the larger memory size would never have an advantage over the smaller, faster memory.

The only other laptops having comparable graphics are the Asus C90s, the Asus G1s, the Apple Macbook Pro, the Thinkpad T61p, and the HP Compaq 8510w.

 

I just checked the T61p and it comes only with NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL)

was this the gpu you meant?

 

Yup, that's the professional version of the 8600M-GT GDDR3. It performs the same in games, and it has support for professional OpenGL applications.

 

the only turn off about this model is that it wont come with a webcam

 

I get confused when I get into computer lingo so please help me out.

I was looking on www.ibuypower.com and a Battalion 101 CZ-7 Ultra and it comes with a "Mobility 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 8600GT PCI-Express 3D Video" card. I was also lookng at the Dell Vostro 1500 which I think you can get a "256MB NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT".

Which is the best choice and why? I read the posts above but it all still a bit cloudy. I like the Dell but my thought would be the 512MB would be a better card.

 

It's about the same. And keep in mind that you can overclock (don't do this if you're not comfortable though) your DDR2 card to the speeds of a GDDR3 card.

 

So, there is a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 8600GT out there? They are about the same in specs. I will be doing a bunch of gaming so I want to get the best bang for a reasonable buck.