is a 8400m gs good enough for me?

I need a laptop for college, so I want it to be portable (preferably 13.3 inch) so 8400m gs is basically my only option. I want to play older games (pre-2006) on high/max settings and play cs:s, tf2, and call of duty 4 online with smooth framerates (i don't mind lowering the resolution and going down to med settings to get a good framerate.) I might also try crysis, mass effect, and oblivion on low/med settings. In the future, I'm interested in mainly spore and starcraft 2. So is the 8400m gs the right card for me?

thanks

 

crysis on 8400 GS ? no way

 

you won't even have smooth framerates in COD4 with the lowest of lowest settings.

 

Consider a mimimum of 8600M GT for your needs..

 

Uh actually, I'm averaging 30 fps at 1024x768 medium settings on my Vostro 1400. Personally, I think a 8400GS, or if you wait a 9300, should be sufficient for casual gaming.

Of course it won't play Crysis. I might also consider the possibility that you won't game as much in college due to school work and new interests.

On another note, I'm pretty sure the new ATI HD 3200 IGP can give the 8400GS a serious run for its money.

 

Isn't that a 8400M GT in the Vostro ?

 

Have you played COD4 on an 8400m GS??? If not, then you should not make random judgements and post them on NBR. My 64bit 8400m GS gets 40-60 FPS on 1024x768 with most settings med/low.
I play CS:S at 1280x800 with everything on low and get >40fps almost 100% of the time, though TF2 I have to tone down to 1024x768.


And no Prasad, the vostro1400 had an 8400m GS, not sure if its the 8400m GT now.

 

Vostros have 8400M GS and 8600M GT DDR2 no?

Anyway, yeah Nirvana your wrong. 8400M GS can run COD4 fine .. just not at "eye candy" settings.

Btw, you can run Crysis low/med 800x600 with an OC'd 8400M GS.

With an almost unimagenable OC that i probably wont keep ( 705/855)

I can play Crysis 1024x768 med/high ----30+fps

or even 800x600 high.---> 25'ish fps


on an 8400M GT DDR3


To answer your question, 8400M GS is not the way to go becuase it is extremely outdated especailly for your needs for future gaming. Go for 8400M GT or higher

 

The new Hp Pavilions will have 9600M GT's and 1680x1050 res screens. I might sell my current pavilion to make room/$$ for a new one

 

there is a call of duty 4 single player demo. You can try it on the 8400 to get an idea how it will run.

 

Lulz...Mass Effect..Crysis..and Oblivion on 8400 GS? You're gonna need some really .. really heavy OC'ing and be prepared for an ugly view. D:

I'd suggest you to listen other members and get a better GPU if you really want to play 2007/2008 games.
My own 8600M GT will play Mass Effect everything high exept shadows on med and no AA and such with 1280x800 res and it's very playable, same story with Crysis. Oblivion runs all maxed out (exept AA's) with 40'ish frames.

So my suggestion is a (too) a lappy with nVidia 8600M GT or simiar.

 

Oblivion, Call of Duty 4, CS:S, TF2 - these games will all run at a decent level on the 8400GS, achieving a respectable balance between visuals and fluidity.

Crysis, Mass Effect, etc - these sort of games will also work, but at seriously reduced levels of quality - completely at the expense of visual quality.

I would heartily recommend an 8400GS if you are, indeed, only playing the first few mentioned games....but if you even think that there's a chance you'll want to be playing newer titles it's worth your while looking for a higher class of card.

 

If an 8400M GS is your only option, dont be discouraged. With a little bit of tweaking you can get Crysis running well on 800x600 with playable framerates.

If i set all settings to lowest possible i get like..45~50fps avg.

 

As miscolobo says i'll run crysis fine at 800x600 low with shaders and physics on medium. Oblivion will have to be low if you want view distant land on.

Miscolobo: What are your exact settings for crysis?? I can barely run 800x600 all medium oc'd(depends on driver) I guess shadows low?

 

Heh Willy, i dont think youll manage my settings unless you do my mass overclocking (which i dont think you want to risk).

well at

800x600 (EVERYTHING low) = 40-50 fps avg
1024x768 (shadows, shaders low, everything med, high) = 35~ fps
1280x800 (shadows, shaders low, everything med, high) = 20~fps
1280x800 (everything medium)= 15~20'ish fps...not too good
800x600 (shadows, shaders medium, everything else high)= 30~fps avg


Those are some settings i played around with...for your own interest.

Drivers used is 177.35

 

Ok cool My T7250 probably holds me back a little too How are the 177.xx?

 

People should not pass on blind judgments about things they have no clue about.

I have 128MB 8400M GS on my XPS m1330. COD4 runs fine at 1280 X 800 res, which is the highest the screen can support. Of course, everything else has to be turned off. If you tune down the res. a bit, you can have some of the effects on, AAx2, with smooth gameplay both multiplayer and single player.

Again, this is done on all original settings/drivers that the system came with.

Also, World at War runs fine on it as well (can't achieve a smooth max res though, because effects like glow and stuff are already on and there is no option to turn them off in WAW)

I am in the same shoes as you. My main concern is portability and light gaming because I already have a desktop that I can shove high-end GPUs in. I expect that my m1330 will be able to run SC2 and Diablo3 perfectly, since my laptop is an overkill for games like WC3 (which, based on all the gameplay footages of SC2, will most likely be the graphics engine that SC2 will be based on).

The only real setback that may hinder your gameplay experience in a 13.3'' laptop, is the small size of the screen itself, for no amount details/effects/resolutions can drive away the eye sore of looking at such tiny screen to play a game that is meant to be played on a 50'' inch TV (talking about COD4 here)

But then again, 13.3'' notebooks are much lighter and easier to carry....The battery life is also better than 15'' laptops because the screen is smaller. so I guess that's the trade off here.

 

And a dead thread awakens