Questions about the T61P

I am giving serious consideration to buying the T61P. I have some questions about it...

1. Tell me about the FX570 256 meg nvidia card inside it. Is it better than the 9500M GS 512 meg card found inside the ASUS F8SN-B1 laptop? I know the FX570 is DDR3, and the 9500M GS is DDR2, but the 9500 has 512 meg video ram. The FX570 has 256 meg video ram.

2. Can I upgrade the video card at a later time? In case a game comes along that requires 512 megs of video memory?

3. How quickly does IBM usually deliver a lenovo laptop to their U.S. customers (I live in Phoenix)? The lenovo website says 2 to 3 weeks for delivery, as an estimate.

4. I noticed an online coupon for 10% off the T61P. Any other coupons, rebates or discounts that can help subtract from the price? Apparently the coupon expires on May 26th.

5. I want to plug the t61p into my 22 inch monitor (1650x1080 native.) I noticed the t61p doesnt have a DVI port, just the regular VGA port. Will I notice a decrease in video quality if I use the regular VGA port on the t61p?

Initially, I was leaning towards the ASUS F8SN-B1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220273

I am trying hard to find a 14 inch gaming laptop for under $1200. Obviously the T61P is a 15 inch, but its weight is acceptable to me.

I am worried about the ASUS F8sn-B1's build quality, and its keyboard (the '\' key is in a bad spot, IMO.) It also weighs the same as a typical 15 inch laptop, even though its a 14 inch.

 

2. Video cards cannot be upgraded on most laptops, including the T61. (Someone mistake me if i'm wrong)
3. I received my laptop one day before the estimated two weeks, and i live in California.
4. The 10% discount is almost always there, and despite the "deadlines" another discount pops up right after. If you know people that work for IBM or Lenovo you can get an even better discount; that's how i got mine.

Unfortunately i'm not too knowledgable yet on the other questions you have. Hopefully someone else can answer those for you.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

According to this list, the 570m outdoes the 9500 GS as far as 3D Mark06.

 

1. see benchmark, it's prety much answer your question. however, do keep in mind that Quadro is design work vga not gaming vga, if you decided to mod it using one of the available driver's in this thread, you are on your own.

2.nope, laptop in general is build like a pc, there's only hand few laptops that actually have that particular capability, and as far as i know lenovo is not one of them since they generally soldered the vga straight into the motherboard

3. it varies, sometimes they delivered it couple weeks earlier than the esp, however, there always be the case where some people experience huge delay, take for example any Canadian customers or those who decided to order the laptop between June-august

4. for discussion on coupon you are your own, aside from one thread specifically aimed for this topic, this forum prefer not to discuss this , especially the issue about epp. google is your best friend on this case

5. buy a docking station, that should resolve your issue since docking station have a DVI port

 

I run my T61p with desktop Samsung 22" dislplay. (226BW).

It works great.

There are a number of Quadro drivers out there that game great.

With the 175.16 driver tuned with RivaTuner my T61p was able to score 6000 pts on 3DMark06.


In actual Crysis gameplay settings the Auto Detect tool will lock on all medium settings. The Auto Detect tool will detect the best settings for a CPU/GPU to play Crysis.

Medium settings look very good on Crysis too.

1440x900 Medium "Auto Detect Mode" with 175.16 Quadro driver.