2GB or GeForce 8400M GS ???

hi everybody.plz help me.i'm about to
purchase the HP dv6500t and have a very tight budget.
I cannot afford both the GeForce and 2GB of memory...
what should I upgrade?the video card or the memory?
NOTE: I'm not a gamer,i just want the dv6500t to
be as fast as possible with Vista Premium...thanks

 

Upgrade the memory.

 

If you are not a gamer then the video card does not matter, get the RAM upgrade as Lithus noted. Vista uses a lot of RAM and will show significant gains from 2GB.

 

no question the ram. no one should use less than 2gb of ram on vista. its like running xp on 128 mb...

 

Upgrade the video. You can always add more memory later, but the integrated will annoy you for a lifetime...

 

thanks guys

 

He's right the RAM can be upgraded.

 

yah why would u ever say upgrade the ram when you can do that anytime? the video is either now or never....

always get the options that you can't upgrade later, and then upgrade the ones you can at another time

 

well most people buy a laptop and leave it the way it is. With him not a gamer or anything, the 8400gs isn't that much of an improvement over integrated. If he was gonna upgrade the ram soon then in would say graphics card, other wise go with the ram.

 

If he wants to run any HD video content in the future or anything with even slight 3D acceleration, the 8400GS is leaps and bounds better than the X3100...I personally have the GMA950 and it's terrible at running any H.264 content or pretty much anything requiring QuickTime or Flash Video.

 

I had an X3100 in a laptop before and it had no trouble at all running videos. There is no reason to get the 8400M-GS if you are not gaming. The X3100 isn't a bad chip at all. The Nvidia card means more heat and less battery life, which are simply not worth it in this user's case.

 

Even though you won't be gaming I'd still recommend you take the 8400M GS, then save up later and then upgrade the ram. Ram can be found relatively cheap in many places over the web. (like newegg.com)

 

GF4 and above have XvMC support for HD video. The X3100 might as well but MythTV users generally use GFs as they're proven to have excellent XvMC support.

 

if you play some game on the laptop,,you will have a easy choice
however if you don't, x3100 can bring you more battery life, and 8400 can give u smooth hd movie,,

 

go for 8400M GS

 

+1 to this. The only reason I advise you not to listen to this advice is if you won't be able to afford the RAM in a time peroid you will be satisfied with.

I ran vista on 1 gb of DDR2 RAM. It's acceptable. You will eventually want 2 gb though.

 

get the video card 1gb sticks are as cheap as 15$ now after rebates..

 

I'd agree with the ram crowd, if you're not gonna game there's little point getting an 8400M GS. 2GB for Vista is like 1GB for XP, it's really the minimum for it to run quickly.

 

If your never going to game on your laptop then dont bother with the 8400 GS. Get the 2GB Ram instead as it will run vista much better than just 1gb ram with the 8400 gs. Even the X3100 is very good for general use.

 

Save your money and don't get either. Go to this forum:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=121363

If you already have 1 stick of 1GB mem, buy 1 stick of 2GB mem for <$100 and you'll have 3GB

 

I agree with the RAM crowd - no reason to get the better video card if you aren't going to game. The X3100 will be more than enough for non-gaming tasks and DVD watching.

 

It's 2 dimm, while HP only charges $50 for the upgrade so...FAIL.