What do i lose if i dont have the "NV Quadro 140m" on T61?

Hello.
I am visiting singapore and Bangkok this summer and getting T61 over there,
the T61 i am getting the T61 in Singapore but, does not have the Nvidia graphis or the camera,

So i wanted to know is there any advantage of having Nvidia over onboard.
- Change in performance in Screen viewing?
- Does watching DVD gets better?
I will not be playing the current games but playing HL2,Quake3,etc

Also

T61 in Malayasia and Bangkok are offering T61 with Nvidia and camera ,but i dont know any computer markets in Bangkok also someone told me lot of fakes laptops are sold over there.

Thanks in advance

 

I live in Bangkok and there are only two shops that I know that sell Thinkpads.

No fakes in Bangkok, just very low-end stuff. Hard to find anything that don't appeal to the mass market.

 

Come on HL2 is a current game! HL2 is slow on it just to let you know. Depends how high you set the settings. I wouldn't take integrated even for fairly recent games like HL2. But like any game, if you play it at low enough resolution with minimum options you'll get good framerates on almost any machine. It depends what you can tolerate in terms of graphics.

 

You'd probably lose a bit of FPS, but not much. The NVS are not gaming cards. Their main function is providing a stable, no-crash display, required in a business environment. Another way of putting this is that you wouldn't be able to run games very well on the NVS 140.

 

Even thought its not marketed as a "gaming" card, the NVS will play games MUCH better than the integrated version. However, if you dont' play the newer games (which you said you don't), then you should be fine with the intel integrated graphics.

Also, with NVS, you lose about an hour of battery life.

 

Hello FRic!

Thanks for sending your reply, If you have the Phone numbers and address of the shops that sell Thinkpad T61.

I would be greatful to you.

Thanks

 

I'm not sure if the nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M offered for the T61 has a memory size of 128 MB or 256 MB?
In the Nvidia website is stated that could be both: http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_nvs_notebook_techspecs.html

I have noticed that all retailers offering this notebook state 128 MB for the GPU but a sales rep. told me it has 256 MB. However, I understand that Lenovo sales reps have been giving some conflicting info lately!

My concern is addressed more to the quality I can expect to manage 3D objects display in CAD drawings. I work mostly disigning mechanical pieces but I also do some civil drawings in 3D from time to time.

I really appreciate your help guys.

 

I'd like to add that I have also checked other threads and they all seem to point to 128 MB rather than 256 MB for the NVS 140M...

 

It's got 128mb onboard but it has Nvidia "turbocache" which allows it to use another 128mb of system ram for a total of 256mb. Which is completely useless.

 

it's 128
it has turbocache though, so it can use RAM to total 256mb

 

You don't lose just a few FPS on games, you lose A LOT. For instance playing on the same settings in HL2 I would guess the integrated would get maybe 15 fps and the dedicated maybe 40 fps.

 

You guess.

We need hard facts!

 

the x3100, with the beta drivers and windows xp, seem to get 3dmark scores comparable to that of the x600, quite a big jump from previous integrated graphics cards

 

Well I've ran Garry's Mod 10 which is based on the Source engine on the T61 with the NVS 140M and I get nearly 60 fps (58-59) @ 1440x900 with max settings and no AA/AF. Mind you this is running around a empty gm_construct map and with no action going on. Spawning 25 zombies and 25 metrocops with guns and having them duke it out leads to a drastic drop to 10fps (doesn't go lower than that for some reason). In any case, I think if you play on medium settings and on servers with about 8-12 people max, it won't be much of a problem. I can't say the same for the X3100 though.

 

This is really a bummer. I expect it at least Lenovo provide GPU with 256 mb dedicated VRAM?

 

get a dell xps or some other gaming machine then

 

It is a business laptop, not a gaming machine. As said if you really want to game get an XPS or something meant for gaming, not a business style laptop.

 

I understand it is a business machine but will it be ok for heavy 3D rendering in CAD design?

 

For heavy 3D rendering you might want to consider T60p, it proved working very well.

 

I call bull. It would be cool if that were true. Where's your evidence?