x1600 more future proof than 7600

I like many others am stuck between the Asus s96j and the compal hel-80. I am buying it as a gaming machine because a desktop isn't resonable. Is the x1600 more futureproof because of it extra 256hypermemory or is it useless? I've heared plenty debates wether a card like the x1600 would even be able to use that much memory with its speeds and everything, but Im dieing to purchase one of the two and i want the one that will be better for gaming.

 

I feel that ATI cards are all in general a little more future proofed...

 

That's very general, why do you say that?

 

As long as you have 256MB of dedicated video memory, you should be alright for a while. Games shouldn't be requiring more than 128MB, but you never know with games like Crysis on the horizon.

 

Well see define for a wile, I want to know if it will, in the end, benefit to have that extra hypermemory. I want to have this as long as possible.

 

2 years? It's hard to tell honestly, with DirectX 10 coming up in 1H 2007. When it will make it to laptops I don't know, given how much power it is going to require, but game developers certainly aren't going to abandon DirectX 9 - games for it will be around for a few more years for sure.
Both the Go7600 and Radeon X1600 should have about the same lifespan, given they are very similar in performance and capabilities.

 

The go7600 comes in a dedicated 512MB version which is the best as it doesnt take any extra system memory but the x1600 is only 256 dedicated and 256 shared.

I dont know what the go7600 in the Compal is but I think the x1600 is the better of the two when the have only 256 dedicated. It also depends on the games you play as Nvidia cards are optimised for OpenGL whereas ATi are for D3D. But even then, thats nitpicking.

 

Well i know everyone has said 3dmark isnt fair in scoring and they get same performance but im also factoring in that the hel-80 gets a resonably lower bench, even when its overclocked to a more original clock state.

I guess what im asking is which is better for a longer term use gaming machine.

 

Hypermemory is junk, and any card that uses it is *not* futureproof. It's a workaround to allow *realy* cheap cards to go from lousy to merely bad performance.

The same goes for NVidia's turbocache.

About the D3D vs OpenGL thing, that's not really true any longer. NVidia's cards are just as optimized for D3D as ATI's cards are, and have always been. D3D accounts for what, 95% of the PC games? Would be downright moronic for NVidia to *not* do everything they could to optimize for that. When ATI performs better in D3D, it's simply because they have a better card (when they perform better, that is. Not saying they do so now, or at any other specific time)
And ATI has really caught up on OpenGL performance as well. The only place where there's a serious performance difference in the drivers is in Linux/non-Windows performance.

Anyway, the two cards have pretty much the same featureset (Although ATI has exploited a few loopholes in the SM3.0 specs to leave out certain features that *may* or may not become widely used in the future), and more or less the same performance, so I'd expect them to last equally long.

None of them are particularly futureproof though. They're too slow to keep up with the next generations of games.

 

sigh... that really makes me wanna wait a lil longer.

 

Depends on what you want. From my experience as a developer in 3D apps and such, and using Linux, NVidia's drivers are just better in all respects. The cards may be slightly slower, but the amount of frustration I have is so much less that it's very much worth it. But that's just IMHO. They should both be about as future proof, they have very similar feature sets. I don't know the actual differences, but you should check to see what shaders they both support, how wide the memory path is (256 < 128, etc.) only count real, dedicated memory in your comparisons. I'm planning on going with an HGL-30 just because it's got an Nvidia chip with all the other toys I want. I was looking at a W3J.

And in response to Jalf... everything will always be too slow to keep up with next generation's games. There's always something better around the corner. They're good cards, they will last you a few years at least. You won't be able to run Doom 6 at full res will all the nifty effects, but no card coming out now past maybe some 7900GT's in SLI would be able to do that. If you need/want a new laptop T3Knical5urg3, and the ones you're looking at server your needs right now, just get it. No point in waiting unless you can't afford it. That's the most important thing to consider, whether your wallet can handle it.

 

Thanks Pitabred, i think im gunna hold off and use my desktop for a bit longer. It is capable, just, like i said, inconvient.

 

yeah nothing is future proof. even 7900gts in sli aren't . granted they will have a longer lifespan then my x1600, but they are by no means future proof. like stated there us always something bigger and better waiting around that corner. so if all you do is wait for top tech bleeding edge 'future proof' stuff you'll be waiting forever. what people need to do is find what suits their needs now with room to spare, instead of hunting for the all impossible 'future proof ' hardware.

my current lappy isn't going to be as nice in 3 years, but I know if will cover me for a while.

 

I would personally say forget about the graphics performance of these two machines, the difference is so negligeable that your never going to notice any big difference. Instead base your decision on things like price, weight, battery life, durability, screen quality and the other specs of the laptops not on which graphics card they use.

 

You're going to be waiting for a while, I'll tell you that right now. Graphics refreshes in the near future will be minor at best.

If you're really planning on waiting, you're going to be waiting at least a good six months, and then the hardware you buy then won't necessarily be futureproofed in terms of performance for much longer after, because games will be coming out that push THAT hardware too hard.

For what it's worth, the difference in performance between the 7600 and X1600 is negligible to the point of being easily ignored. And I have a 7600 that performs remarkably well, running Far Cry at 1280x800 maxed out with 2xAA and 8xAF, as well as playing Doom 3 and Quake 4 at Ultra Quality at 1280x800 and High at 1440x900. And both cards have full support for all modern features, including HDR.

If you wait now, you're going to keep waiting.

 

Ive decided to wait because my desktop rig gets only slightly less scores then those two machines im looking at right now so i figure i have a little lag time and hope a better card comes out that blows my 6600gt away in a 15.4 laptop.

 

heh i came from a geforce3 on the desktop to a x1600 mobile..HUGE difference

 

I would say the 7600 because of its 512 mb of dedicated ram. Both are about the same though.

 

I bought the Compal HEL80 and I have to say I am suprised at how well the 7600 works given it's lower clock speed the spec. But one thing the lured me to the compal over the Asus, and this could end up being a pretty useless feature in the future, but the Compal's gfx card is on a daughterboard that is Compal wanted to could release a replacement upgrade card for later. Of course that is a gamble I know and it seems it isn't MXM from what I was told so it wouldn't be a standard platform either. But at least there is a chance it can be upgraded in the future.

 

Unless a new card comes out literally tomorrow, I wouldn't wait. Waiting for the latest and greatest in this hobby will send you crazy - you'll be waiting forever Just get the best you can now and if something better comes out the next day cry

 

No matter WHEN you buy, or WHAT you buy, at a point in time it will be outdated. If you willing to wait, wait until the next generation of processors (the core duo 2) and the next generation of GPUs, but once there out, I would suggest buying or you will be waiting forever.

 

The next generation of laptop processors won't be coming out for a while. The X1600 and 7600 are both relatively new and have only been out for a few months. If you want to wait for the next generation, you are going to be waiting for a long time.

 

You'll never get a futureproof card. The longer you wait, the beefier a card do you need to make it the least futureproof.

However, both X1600 and 7600 should do *ok'ish*. They both support SM3.0, which is probably the main feautre I'd judge "future-proofness" by. Sooner or later, games are going to require that to even run, whereas actual performance isn't a hard requirement. A slow card just gives you lousy framerates, but it can still run games. A card that doesn't support fancy shaders will be unable to run upcoming games.

If you want something future-proof, I'd suggest waiting until later this year, when the next-gen cards come out. They're supposed to support SM4.0, which will come in handy with DX10 and games running on Vista.

But other than that, just buy the best card you can afford. You can't do much better than that.