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    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 or Geforce 8600M GT?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Sleepy_Sentry, Jul 25, 2008.

  1. Sleepy_Sentry

    Sleepy_Sentry Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am in the market for a new notebook and am stuck between two nearly identical models with different video cards:
    1. Dell Studio 15 with 256 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
    2. Dell XPS M1530 with 256 MB Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT.

    Which video card is better for gaming?
     
    Sleepy_Sentry, Jul 25, 2008
    #1
  2. MexicanSnake

    MexicanSnake I'm back!

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    The 8600gt is about 2x times better than the HD3450 for gaming.
     
    MexicanSnake, Jul 25, 2008
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  3. CeeNote

    CeeNote Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yeah if gaming is important to you, get the 1530, the 3450 will suffice for casual gaming.
     
    CeeNote, Jul 25, 2008
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  4. brianwc

    brianwc Newbie

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    I am trying to make the exact same decision and am leaning towards the Studio with ATI because of the numerous hardware failures reported on the NVIDIA mobile GPUs. See: http://gizmodo.com/5023963/inquirer...-card-with-g84-or-g86-chipset-is-ready-to-die and http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

    where it sounds like Dell's current solution is to keep on selling faulty hardware with a BIOS/driver fix that runs the fan more aggressively. No thanks.
     
    brianwc, Jul 28, 2008
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  5. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    How about not looking at DeLL's? What is your budget?
     
    powerpack, Jul 28, 2008
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  6. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Just for the record, I remember seeing the 8600M GT with a 3DMark 05 score of 6175 and the HD 3450 with 4000.... :p
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  7. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Resolution/CPU/OS?
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  8. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Standard 1028x768/ ZM-86/ Vista x64 Ultimate - HD 3450

    Standard 1028x768/ T8300/ Vista x64 HPm/ 512MB GDDR2 ForceWare 156.65/ PB EasyNote SB89-P-014 - 8600M GT
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  9. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Just realized something really important. That's 3dmark 05. The 3450's scores will drop drastically in 06 and the 8600M GT should drop at least a thousand points.
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  10. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Yeah i did mention that above.... :D

    Well, 3DMark06 | HD3450 - same config ^ - 2000 (1280x1024)
    8600M GT - same config (CS8510) - 3696 (1280x1024)

    8600M GT 256MB DDR3 - T9300 - 3072 MB - Nvidia ForceWare 156.76 - 4434 (1280x800) :p
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  11. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Yea, was wondering about the inflated scores and decided to look at original post again, thus noticing the 05. Still, that's a lot higher than I expected for the 3450 in 06. I would have expected mid 1000s.
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  12. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    I dont think its that bad....3DMark 06 shows 984 points for my OCed GMA 950.. :D
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  13. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Well, that would depend on the CPU/OS/resolution too.

    The thing is, the 8400M GS usually scores around the 1400-1600 range and I expected the 3450 to score similarly. As I understand it, this may be due to the fact that ATI cards tend to perform better at 3dmark06.
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  14. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Well, I checked up the 8400M GS (256MB) and it scores 1616 in 3DMark 06 with a TL-60 and 2GB ram at 1280x800 (in a dv6720ew)

    and the GMA 950 scores a 243 (when not OCed).. :D
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  15. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    That sounds about right for the 950. Which is why I'm now curious about your config's CPU/Resolution and OS :p
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  16. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Celeron M 1.6GHz, 1280x800 and Vista Ultimate 32 Bit.... :biggrin:
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  17. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Wait resolution was that OC'd 950 running at again? 600 x 480? :p Or did you run it at 1280 x 800? I'll just point out that I'm quite impressed if it was 1280 x 800.
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  18. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    I actually OCed the FSB to 200MHz, so there was quite a jump in the RAM and GPU frequency alongwith the Celeron at 2.4GHz.. :D
     
    Andy, Jul 28, 2008
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  19. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    lol, that might explain it.
     
    dtwn, Jul 28, 2008
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  20. yz_991

    yz_991 Notebook Guru

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    without doubt the 8600m gt
     
    yz_991, Jul 29, 2008
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  21. forier

    forier Newbie

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    What you shod look for when you look for gamer video card to estimate the power of it is the second number for example Geforce 8600M the second number is 6 that means it's good video card power! If it was Geforce 8800M the second number here is 8 which mens it Great power and of course there is Geforce 8400M which is for office and surfing mostly.
    The first number is which series it video card is Geforce Go 7600 is older then Geforce 8600M there by the number 7 and 8. To have more modern card is also good because of clarity of the picture presented on screen and support for new operating system like Vista!
     
    forier, Aug 11, 2008
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  22. forier

    forier Newbie

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    I forgot to mention that the same rule is valid for ATI Mobility Radeon!!
     
    forier, Aug 11, 2008
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  23. chen

    chen Notebook Deity

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    HD 3450 = Mid-range graphic card
    8600M GT = Performance graphic card
    (credit to Chaz)
    They are different class of graphic card

    If gaming performance (you want to play new games with higher resolution) is the factor definitely the 8600M GT, but if your battery life is the factor (you can play new games with lower resolution) definitely the HD3450.
     
    chen, Aug 11, 2008
    #23