go7600 128MB vs go7400 256MB

I have the choice between these two cards in a laptop but am wondering if the go7600 with only 128MB is really worth the extra £168. Ive seen the go7600 come with 512MB dedicated GDDR3!! This stripped down makes it look puny.

I want to play games on my laptop but am no hardcore gamer. I would play games like HL2 and Quake 4 (dont really mind medium/low quality). I would rather future proof my laptop for vista, i dont know if the 64MB dediacted go7400 would suffice or the go7600 is more worth it?

Also, heat is a big issue to me. I know its unavoidable during gaming and i can live with it then but when my laptop is idle i dont want it to be a portable heater. The go7600 will obvisouly generate more heat but will it generate more heat ALL the time? The nVidia Powermzer would surely lower its core/memory clock settings? Do you think the go7600 will generate more heat than the 7400 when idle?

Thanks for the help.

 

The HP dv5000 comes with a go7400. I suggest you read the review on the 5000t to decide for yourself. Link.

He said,in his review:
Plays Quake4 newest patch 1.1 w/ duo core enabled on Q4, at 60FPS at 1280x800 in low graphic settings with ease. Even at medium its pretty stable and close to 53fps.

 

128mb video memory is sufficient for games. Anandtech has a very good comparison between the difference of 128mb vs 256mb. The difference is only noticed in high resolutions. If your laptop is xga, wxga then 128 vs 256 or even 512mb you won't notice any difference.

The 7600 is far superior to the 7400, its about twice as fast. Its not just about now... Future games will be more demanding on the gpu and the 7600 will last a lot longer.

What laptop are you talking about because some have better cooling solutions than others.

 

If you can afford it the 7600 would definitly be a lot more powerful. I would say 1.5-2x the power of the 7400.

 

Thanks for the posts everyone.

I realise the go7600 is better but im also worried about heat. The laptops im thinking about are the Sony Vaio FE21B (256MB go7400) vs the FE21M (128MB go7600). As i dont play games that often and the ones i do play are fairly old (apart from Quake 4) i thought i could go with the 7400.

I get a lot of heat from my current laptop and it really bothers me. How good is the Nvidia Powermizer and heat dissipation on the sony FE series?

 

Very good actually, my laptop on gets slightly warm when playing graphic intensive games, I have the 7400 64mb FE your refering to and it plays most games on medium settings with very good Frame rates. I have never felt this laptop get close to hot, its very well made.