-->>128MB vs. 256MB GEFORCE 7400 Graphics Card--<<

One of the decisions I am in the process of making is attemptiong to decide on whether or not to go with an SZ140 or SZ160 which has the 256MB GeForce 7400 graphics card versus say a SZ 110 which has only 128MB of on-board integrated memory.

For those of you gurus out there that know video cards inside and out, how much difference in gaming or photoshop manipulating will the two different video cards make? Is there that much difference in the benchmark scores between the two?

I am looking for practical advice on which laptop to buy based on the graphics card internal memory of 128MB or 256MB.

Also, anyone know how to get a DVI connection from your SONY SZ without having to buy a docking station?

 

a dedicated video card is WAY better than integrated, especially in gaming!
You might not even be able to play some newer games without a dedicated.
As far as photoshop, it shouldnt affect it that much.

 

The SZ160 only has 128MB of dedicated RAM. Spec sheet: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/VGNSZ160PC_mksp.pdf

Anyway, the 7400 is not a fast enough card to properly make use of 256MB of dedicated RAM. It would be a waste of both money and battery power.

 

I agree with speckled jim

 

The cards in both notebooks are the same. The difference in Video RAM is only due to the fact of the different System RAM. With 512 System RAM your video card will have 128MB allocated to it, with 1 GB it should get 256MB allocated. Thats how it was with the Geforce 6400 on the S-Series and I am almost certain it's the same on the 7400.

It's still unclear how much dedicated RAM the 7400 in the Sony notebooks really has. Either 32/64/128. So don't base your decision on which to get on the difference in Video RAM of the graphics card..

 

I believe the consensus is that it is 128

 

My SZ120 is showing 128MB dedicated, 184MB shared (with 1GB main RAM), see attached.

 

My SZ160 shows the exact same thing, and I have 2GB RAM installed.

Javier

 

Try everest
http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=3&lang=en

Under the GPU tab, it shows my SZ110's 7400 has 64MB memory.


The SZ120P that I had before(and returned) also showed the same memory size under that tab.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1280042#post1280042

While under the Windows Video tab, it shows my laptop has 128MB video memoy. (obviously, it is the "turbo-cached" memory size)

 

Those 64-bit is the bus width, it has nothing to do with how much memory the card has, has to do with how much memory, (in this case 64 bits which is 4MB) it can transfer(read/write) each cycle.

 

It also says the memory clock is 11MHz. Not saying the 64MB is definitely wrong, but there are some strange numbers coming out of this program...

 

Ya, uhm, I think he is refering to the array before that. Under "Graphics Processor Properties" it says Memory size 64MB.

Also my everest won't display anything under the GPU tab. it just stays blank.

 

I'm beginning to wonder about if there really is a 256mb shared video card for the laptop. Almost every website I've been to that says 256mb of shared memory was a typo. All had only 128mb shared. Compusa, best buy, a couple of local dealers. They all quote from the .pda that SOny gives out, but the box and the unit says otherwise.

Do any of you have a 256mb shared video with your Sony SZ? If so, where did you get it from and how much ram (not the video as you already answered that. but normal ram) did you get?

update:
OK this was weird, I went to the store that was selling one of these models a sz120. He told me that the two modes (intel and nvidia) works like this: the unit gives the intel 256mb and nvidia only 128, thats why I see 128mb. Raise your hand if you think this sounds right. <looking> Yup no raised hands. I told him if I bought it and if hes wrong, will he take it back? Nope. because its an open box. doh.

 

I have a SZ160 laptop.

Under Windows it shows that the 7400 has 128MB of RAM.
However, under Linux, the nvidia utility show that it has 64MB of dedicated RAM.

So my guess is that this adapter only has 64MB of dedicated memory, the extra 64MB is shared. It's a PCI-express card, so shared memory wouldn't be that much slower...

JY

 

Don't worry about it. The 7400 seems to perform just fine in the SZ on everything I've tried, and it's not like there's an alternative notebook this size with more video memory or a better card.

So while the exact amount of real memory *would* be nice to know for sure, for all practical purposes it's irrelevant since the proof is in the pudding. It works.

 

Do you guys know if the 7400 on the SZ support dual monitor?

 

Yes it does, in fact both video cards support dual monitors.

 

sweet!

Just want to confirm...the only difference between SZ120 and SZ160 is basically the screen and that the interior colour is different?

 

Hey y'all. I have an SZ-140 2ghz with 1 gb of ram. I emailed sony and asked them very specifically if the 128 was on the 7400 chip or if it was shared.

They told me(for the sz140 that I ordered at least) that the 128 was dedicated(on board) and that it could pull an additional 128 from the ram to make a total of 256 mb). I don't know about the Sz 110,120, 160.

Bytheway I love the computer- it's power and light, and I love the keyboard despite what many people have said(just try it out at BestBuy if you're curious).

 

Jasper- For now, if it does what you want, dont dwell on ram size. Its an ongoing debate still. Others was told by reps that it wasnt.