which graphic card is better?

NVIDIA® Quadro FX 350M 512MB Turbocache, OpenGL or
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory

 

Depends on what you're doing with it. I assume since you have to ask the question, it would be gaming, and in that case, go with the Radeon X1600. The Quadro is a workstation-class card, meant for CAD and 3D modeling, not gaming. It's very good at what it does, but it doesn't play games very well. You will most likely run into issues with strange displays (my friends' Quadro doesn't do water in HL2. Just doesn't show up from many vantage points.) in games and so on.

 

thanks pitabred. I ask this because i need to replace my powerbook becasue i need to use AutoCAD and i am i a dilemma. I am in between the dell precision m65 that has the quadro card and the macbook pro that has the radeon. and i am not sure if the AutoCAD will work well in the macbookpro. any suggestions?

 

Ahh. AutoCAD will work fine on an X1600. Is that all that you'll use the laptop for? Do you want OSX and the Mac? If you do get the Macbook Pro, you'll have to buy a copy of Windows to load on it via Bootcamp to run AutoCAD (I don't believe they have a Mac version any more).
Also, have you considered other manufacturers/machines? Is there a reason you're going with only Dell or Mac? Compal makes a very nice HEL-80 that's a 15.4" screen with an NVidia GeForce Go7600 that'll perform like the X1600, it will run Windows, and be similarly priced to the Dell yet do more by way of gaming and such.
I suppose the question is: What else do you want to do with the machine? If it's for AutoCAD, office applications and movie watching, the Dell is a great machine. If you want to do any gaming, I'd look more toward a consumer-style card such as in the Compal. Check out the "What notebook should I buy?" forum in that case. If you don't want/need OSX, or aren't completely enamored with the style, then there's little reason to go with the Macbook Pro.

 

I use my laptop for autocad and my x1600 more then fits the bill. The quadro will also more then fit the bill. Im not familiar with the quadro series but there is one thts equvilent to the 7900 series; benchmarks arond the same too.

edit: go for the x1600, the 350m only has a 64bit vram interface. The x1600 is definately more powerful. Check this out.

 

The Quadro Fx 350M is the equivalent of a 7300 Go, only 4 pixel pipelines and a 64-bit memory interface. For gaming it is definitely no match for a X1600. For professional 3D rendering, the optimized quadro drivers would probably give it the edge over the X1600. It doesn't take much to run CAD though, so either card will suffice for that.

 

so in conclusion i like a lot the design of apple macbook pro but if there is any other computer that is far way better than the apple i will buy it, like the dell or any other that you suggest. but when i say far way better i has to be alot better than the apple if not i think i will go with the macbook pro. what do you guys think?

 

the Macbook will work for you. Just remember you need a Windows license, and you'll need Bootcamp to boot into Windows to do AutoCAD, and you'll have to reboot the computer to switch between OSX and Windows.

 

thanks alot pitabred for your suggestions. here is the link for what notebook should i buy? thread if you want to look at it for a more detailed information http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=75769&highlight=civil+engineering

 

If your going to use it to run windows, why spend the extra 15-25% on getting a macbook pro. Unless you really want or need OS X your just wasting the money.