T61P 14" SXGA - Is getting the FX 570M worth it?

Want to get the non-widescreen 14" SXGA T61P for the better resolution (it's got the most pixels for the 14 inch screen options. Next part is the video card- should I be getting the 570M? I want better graphics for gaming, but I know it's worse than the 15inch version in terms of memory (128 vs 256), not sure if anything els- maybe battery vs integrated graphics?

Is it just a bad investment? What do you think?

 

Well it depends how much you wan to game? also what games are you going to play? The performance wouldn't be any different, but at high res there will be a difference between the two with the 128 not as good.

 

I guess I would like to game a lot if I can. It'd be nice to play games like Bioshock and the Orange Box. For games in the future, not so worried about. If it can handle current high end games well (30+ FPS), I'd be more than happy.

Is battery life really going to be affected?

Does having a standalone card create better performance under Vista desktop?

 

The orange box will be playable with most dedicated cards (i am have a 3years olf mobility radeon 9700 and i can ) But yes the 570m will be better for games but worst for battery life. And yes it will be better for vista desktop, but really a integrated card such as the X3100 is enough for that.

But if you want to play new games, the 570m is the option.

 

Ah great, thanks

That's what I was hoping to hear. Didn't want to sacrifice money and battery life and hear that games like Bioshock and Orange Box wouldn't be too great on it. If it still couldn't run well, might as well just get integrated.

 

Well you might want a compromise and get the NVS 140m?

Less power consuming but still dedicated, will definitely play the Orange box well, where as the integrated might struggle a little

 

Is there a way to estimate performance? Say if integrated = 10 FPS, a 140M might be 14 FPS, and the 570M = 20 FPS?

Nothing exact like that, but what kind of performance could one expect just in general 3D gaming performance. It's hard to say X is better than Y by 300 points in 3DMark, but what does that really mean?

 

ummm i'd say....

integrated = 10fps
140m = 30fps
570m = 70fps (might be even better)

But don't rely on that

The 570m is one of the best cars in 15''
140m is a solid entry level card
X3100 in just integrated.... crap lol for games

 

the 570m in the 14" version is not as powerful as the 15" version. I think you would be equivalent to a 8600GS not 8600GT in which case bioshock and crysis may not run very smoothly at native res.

i believe the 15" 570m is about 1.5x as powerful.

orange box should run fine tho on the 14" version.

 

That's great, thanks.

 

The 14'' version is on par with the 8600gt DDR2 where as the 15'' is on par with GDDR3....

 

Do you think Hellgate London would be playable?

 

I am sure it will be ''playable'' just dont know at what settings.......is you look around in the Gaming section, there is a ''Can my Notebook run it'' Thread....ask in there you might/should get better answers

 

is that true? not calling you out, but i would love to know just for my own curiosity....

i was under the assumption that the 14" 570m had materially less performance in terms of clockspeed or shaders or pipelines or whatever, aside from the obvious 128mb deficit

 

Yup, the 14'' version has a 64-bit bus instead of 128-bit of the 15''......but since its GDDR3 it makes up for it I don't think there is a different in terms of the actual structure of the GPU.