x1600 128mb + 2gb of ram vs 256mb x1600 and 1.5gb ram

Which of these two would perform better since both are 512mb hypermemory?

 

omg lol i meant to say x1600 128mb + 2gb of ram vs 256mb x1600 and 1.5gb ram sorry /

 

I went ahead and fixed the title.

If I understand this, you're looking at two cards here:
1) X1600 w/ 128MB dedicated and 394MB shared.
2) X1600 w/ 256MB dedicated and 256MB shared.

Well, to be honest: I'm not fond of hypermemory. It doesn't perform as well as VRAM. It just doesn't. The X1600 is good enough to effectively use about 256MB of dedicated RAM, so option #1 I would think would cripple the card a little bit.

Regardless, 1.5GB-2.0GB of system RAM would most likely suffice...and you can easily upgrade it later. You cannot upgrade the GPU so get the most powerful one you can. In order to "upgrade" a GPU, you need a new notebook. Upgrading RAM?...buy new sticks and "insert here."

 

I probably should also mention you might want to check out the GPU Guide for additional information.

 

Not worried bout upgrading etc just wana no for info which wud perform better

 

I think in this case the 256MB card would still be the clear winner.

 

According to GPU Review the X1600's with Hyper Memory have GDDR2 which is slower than the none HM which use GDDR3.

 

I agree with the others. A Mobility X1600 with 128 MB will suffer quite a drop in performance when compared to the 256 MB card, because it has alot less graphics RAM and no amount of system RAM is going to be able to increase the performance. RAM can easily be upgraded anyway, and 1 GB modules aren't very expensive.

 

A stick of 1 GB DDR2 667 Mhz RAM has dropped in price to around $80-90 on Newegg.com. You'll have to spend $1000+ to purchase a new laptop with a better video card. Compare those two options and you see that buying the better video card now is the better investment.

 

As others have said, the 256MB MR X1600 would be the faster choice. There's also the concern that some MR X1600 with 128MB of VRAM might be crippled by things like a 64-bit memory bus rather than the standard 128-bit. It depends on the manufacturer though so you'll need to do more research. For example, my MacBook Pro has a 128MB MR X1600, but it is fully functional with a 128-bit memory bus.

The benchmark scores for my 128MB MR X1600 are as follows:

3DMark05 (default 1024x768): 3928
3DMark06 ("official" 1440x900): 1585
3DMark06 ("common" 1280x800): 1878

I should mention that 3DMark06 should be using a resolution of 1280x1024, which is equivalent to 1440x900, but many notebooks don't have that high a resolution so I've included the common 1280x800 notebook resolution for comparison. In terms of my scores, they are a bit lower than 256MB MR X1600, especially in 3DMark06 which actually benefits 256MB of VRAM, but some of the difference is just from my GPU not having the highest stock clocks at 423MHz core/450MHz memory.

You should also consider what the max resolution of your notebook will be. For most games, 128MB of VRAM can handle resolutions up to 1280x800, but 256MB is definitely needed for resolutions like 1280x1024 and 1440x900 and higher. It's probably easier to just go with the 256MB X1600 since you can't go wrong and although it might be easier to just tell us what notebooks you are considering since other specs and prices might be a bigger determining factor in this case.

 

Hola! I have the 256mb X1600 and 1.5gb ram Please check this thread out

And whilst ram is easily upgradeable, atm I am actually OK. Saying that, my opinion may change as soon as I play Oblivion...