Some open questions about the dv9000

I had a few questions that came to mind recently regarding the dv9000 now that I've ordered it. Maybe people can chime in with some thoughts!

1.) I noticed while checking out the system again at Fry's that the texture of the touchpad is slightly more plastic-esque than some of the other laptops. I've heard people say they like this but I've just come to realize that it's a bit more resistant to my fingers.

I'm wondering if this is just because I'm not used to using touchpads and the fingers I'm using are 'wrong'. Do you use your middle finger primarily or the pointing finger to move around the mouse? When I used my middle finger the movement actually felt smoother strangely enough. Beats me.

2.) We have some LCD screens at work and the only thing I hate about LCD technology, at least with the dell monitors we're using, is that games that run outside of the native res look less sharp. The native resolution seems to be the only 'clean' picture that comes through while the others are just 'fuzzy' feeling. This is something I still love about CRT's.

I ask this because I doubt most games would be run on this system in the native res, so I'm wondering if that's just a sacrifice i'll need to adjust to due to the limitations of the technology.

Similarly, do games played at lower resolutions stretch or are they forced into a black bar mode?

3.) Finally, I could not locate a good comparison on the net. Just out of curiosity - how does a 7600 go (256 meg one) compare to a desktop 9800 pro? I'm wondering what kind of improvements i'm going to see in games just from my basic desktop or if it will be comparable to the current performance I'm getting.

Not expecting a beast of a gaming machine but it'd be great to get some pretty nice improvements to what I'm used to at home (2x? 3x?).

Thanks!

 

You use the finger/s that suit you most really. i use my index finger most of the time and thumb to click the buttons but every1 has their own way of using the touchpad.

The games are stretched (though I think there is a way to not stretch them if u like it that way), and i havent noticed any fuzzy feeling in my LCD screen when playing games.

Its hard to compare the two because of the huge generation gap between them. You may not notice much if any change in performance really, but if so I would say its 1.5 to 2x depending on the resolution you will use. what games do you play? and what resolution/settings/fps. that might help in comparing the two.

 

Thanks for the response!

That's a bummer about the videocard performance but I guess I shouldn't expect anything too crazy.

 

perhaps what u cud do is check the 3d mark ratings of both cards, that can give a rough indication of performance

 

I actually ended up trying to do that but I couldn't find a good site that had just a brought range of 3d mark scores for both. But I will do some more digging. Thanks!

 

well u have ur 9800 right? run 3dmark03/05/06 then check here in the reviews for the dv9000t and its scores. the cpu and ram will make some difference in score but not that much of a difference

 

I did a quick look up for you. Considering that the GPU is the limiting factor mostly when running 3DMark, results should be relatively comparable because of the large difference.

9800 Pro: ~2000. Link: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1780526,00.asp

7600 Go: ~3500 Link: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3422&review=HP+Pavilion+dv9000t

So expect some performance improvement. However, note that if you increase the resolution, you'll need to decrease some settings. I don't know which resolution you picked, but the 1680x1050 will make the 7600Go work harder for its pretty graphics!

 

I managed to do a comparison similar to what you posted dagamer before seeing your links. Thanks though. Looks like I should notice some improvement like you're describing.

I figured that most games will not run natively which was why I was concerned how they'd look at a lower res if stretched out on the monitor. At work when we can't run games in the native res, we end up using lower resolutions but the dell monitors are pretty cruddy in that regard, since lower res's end up looking fuzzed out. I've been told this was a limitation of the LCD tech in general and it happens on all monitors which is why I was most curious with the laptop.

 

didnt notice it happening on mine really so its probably the type of monitor/quality of the monitor