guru question : which computer will run games faster ?

Hi --- just bought a new 1210 dell (needed the small form factor) --- wondering how it compares (game-wise) to my 17"

HERE ARE THE SPECS:
Computer a: xps1210 256 mb 7400 , 2.0 ghz Core 2 du0, with 2 gb Ram

Computer b: dell Inspiron 9300, 256 mb 6800, 1.86 Pentium M, with 1 gb ram

I think the 6800 is a little better card but does the lousy Cpu processor slow it down enough that the 7400 will actually outperform it?

Thanks for this great forum.

 

Nope, the 6800 will outrun the 7400 in all scenarios. Computer A may have dual core but the vast majority of games do not have dual core support anyway, and you'd have to have a very fast processor for it to make a real impact in modern gaming (though older titles like Quake 3, other DX7 titles will appreicate the faster processor)

 

Ouch -- I was hoping the processor and the extra Ram would help ---- In addition, how much better will b be then a (I know you can't exactly quantify but just wondering a range to expect)...

THANKS

 

The Go6800 has double the performance of the Go7400, it is much, much more powerful. Then again, the M1210 only has a 1280x800 screen, so it should be able to handle most games (sans FEAR and Oblivion) at that res.

 

Let's just say that your 9300 is good for mid-high gaming and your 1210 is good for light-mild gaming.

 

Gaming these days is very much Graphics card bound. Of course you need a decent CPU and amount of memory to go along with it, but a 1.86ghz Pentium M and 1GB memory is still pretty good really.
Hard to put a percentage on performance, if you look at raw figures then the 7400 has a pixel processing output of 1800MPixels/sec, and the 6800 has 3600Mpixels/sec. Thats not to say that you'll get 100% better performance all the time, thats theoretical performance obviously, but it'll be a lot better. Lets say 50%-80%.

 

Well I guess the 9300 will still have some "legs" for a couple more years .... How come the 6800 card wasn't that popular (it seems a lot more obscure than the others)

 

The 6800 used up a lot of power. Hence, your battery life was cut severly. The cheaper geforce 7 cards used less power and extended the battery life.

 

Silly question, but why don't you just try it and see how your games run?

It was hugely popular on desktop. For notebooks, it didn't do badly either, but mostly in the high-end market. The 7000 series seems to scale a lot better to low-power notebooks.

 

Good idea but just ordered it and it won't be here until sept 30th (approx). I was just contemplating getting rid of the other notebook and was wondering how much performance I would be losing...