desktop geforce 4mx 420 64mb vs 8400m gs 128mb

hi,

I was just wondering how much of a difference the 8400m gs 128mb will have over my dated desktop geforce4 mx 420 64mb graphics card ( which too be honest is poor,). I've recently got into pc gaming over console gaming, but i cant afford a high powered gaming laptop so i thought i'd get the dell 1520.

Any thoguhts would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks

 

We're talking many-a-generation leap here, my friend! The performance improvement will be phenomenal, however, if you can push it, I'd tell you to opt for the 8600M.

 

Something tells me your new card will smoke your old one...

 

The 8400 is multiple generations of hardware newer than a GF4 MX. You can't even really compare the two since the GF4 is incapable of running anything modern. The 8400 can handle any of the newer games on the market without a problem, though you may need to lower some of the details since the card is not as fast as the more expensive 8600. Having said that, the 8400 is still a very good card.

 

Dude, I have a 64MB NVIDIA GeForce MX420 in my 6 year old HP Pavilion 763n desktop and damn I am so happy with my 8600M GT.

Seriously, even though the 8400M GS isn't that much of a card in today's standards, it WILL smoke the MX420 as Greg already said.

I would highly recommend that you get the 8600M GT if you are indeed a PC Gamer as the 8400M GS will be rendered useless in....not that much time. Since you can't upgrade the GPU, it should take priority over the other parts of a laptop.

 

I don't agree with everyone saying the 8400M GS will be a worthless card before long. I play Oblivion on the medium preset with 50FPS average outdoors, 60+ indoors. Oblivion is one of the most demanding games out right now, and the 8400M GS plays it great if you don't mind having HDR lighting off. (With it on, it's around 25-30FPS.)

 

That geforce 4 mx by name is 4 generations behind the 8400. Technically its 6 generations behind the 8400 as the geforce 4 mx line were more like geforce 2's, they had nothing in common with the other geforce 4 TI's except the name. So the 8400 will steamroll that mx card. For the record 6 generations is a lot! We're talking decade old hardware here.

 

Thanks everyone for your help, I've just one more question, allthough this has probably already been posted in numerous topics, does anyone know what settings this card will run counter strike source, half life 2, and half life 2 episode 1 at ?( currently these are the only games i play cause there the only ones my graphics card can handle)

 

High settings.

 

Thanks for your help everyone, looks like I'm getting the 1520 then.

 

I'm impressed with the 8400 with todays games, though I do predict it wont fare so well with upcoming A-list titles, I have some serious doubts as to the longevity of my desktops 8800GTS.

 

Both cards have similar feature sets and core technology. The 8600GT will not last significantly longer than a 8400M. When the 8400M is crap, the 8600GT will just be a faster version of the same crap.

 

well, if you look at it this way, ive put up with a geforce mx 420, anything better than that is gonna look amazing and fast to me, and probably still will in the near future so if the 8600 is only a little bit faster wouldn't it be betetr for me to get teh 8400 and splash the extra cash somewhere else? or is it worth the upgrade costs?

 

id go with a 8600mGT, but thats just me...

 

Yeah, ok buddy. If you tried both cards with the same games you will see a substantial difference. They are similiar yes, they are part of the 8xxx series. That does not mean they will perform equally or the same haha

When the 8400M GS stops being able to even run new games, I bet the 8600M GT will still be kickin.

 

So basically, get the 8600, thanks people for all your help.

 

Well, what I'm getting at is that RIGHT NOW both the 8400M GS and 8600M GT can run any game thrown at them. 100% guarantee with the 8600M GT, not sure about the 8400M GS. But, with the 8400M GS you will need to turn down the settings a lot in certain games. I'm sure some run well, but that's not going to carry over into more demanding games like F.E.A.R. etc. If you plan to game for the longest time possible with your notebook, then go with the 8600M GT.

 

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=126&card2=531

8400gs is like 3x better.