Sony FE Series Dedicated Video RAM?

Hi everyone,

I just have a few questions I'd like to ask regarding the Sony VAIO FE Series which I'm unsure of and any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm from the UK and looking to purchase the new Sony VAIO FE41S preinstalled with Vista, part of Sony's Spring 2007 line: Link here.

I think the specs of this laptop should be enough to run Vista with features such as Aero Glass and Flip 3D smoothly. The only thing I'm unsure of is the Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600. On this site, it states:

Caution: Some of the 128 MB equipped models offer only a 64 bit memory interface, which leads to drastic losses of performance.

Also, after reading this thread created by cgardnerma, it would appear that the laptop I'm thinking of purchasing may also have 64MB dedicated video RAM instead of 128MB as stated by this retailer here.

What I'd like to ask is:

1. If it is only 64MB, would this be sufficient enough for certain features of Vista i.e. Aero, Flip 3D including photo editing and watching movies?

2. Is 64/128MB dedicated NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 better than 256MB Intel GMA 950 Shared Graphics?

3. Apart from the graphic card memory, are the rest of the specs of this laptop suitable for running Vista smoothly?

This laptop is quite expensive for me and I would like for it to last a few years so I'd really appreciate any help or advice with this before I go ahead and purchase it.

Thanks.

 

While 64 MB does affect performance quite a bit, it will have no effect on the ability of the notebook to run Vista. A 64-bit/128 MB/64 MB Go 7600 will still seriously outperform a GMA 950. The GMA 950 is an integrated graphics processor, and it is mainly used in cheaper notebooks, that don't require large amounts of graphics power, and those that require more runtime on battery power. The rest of the notebook seems fine for Vista, so long as you opt for at least 1 GB or RAM.

You may want to consider filling out an FAQ, so that we can suggest some other notebooks that may suit your requirements.

 

Thank you very much for the reply Zero, I'll fill out the FAQ as recommended.

Cheers

 

Vaio FE series have Go7600 with 128Mb VRAM and 128 bit memory bus, don't worry, i've done a bit of overclocking, and it can work pretty much like a 256Mb VRAM 128 bit version

 

CrappyGPU, Please make sure you research a answer before posting, While some models of the FE series come with the 7600, Originally it was only offered with the 7400, And many models to date still come with the 7400. I beleive it is 64mb dedicated despite many retailers stating 128mb. I run windows Vista with ease on my 7400, as well as light gaming like AOE, B&W2 and a few other non FPS games.

 

Hey thanks for the replies above guys.

I called Sony this morning and asked about the 7600 and they said it was 128mb dedicated. Also, I found on this site:

NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 notebook graphics processing unit with Total Available Graphics Memory of 399 MB and dedicated Video Memory of 128 MB

Does this mean that the total available graphics memory includes 128mb dedicated and the rest is shared?

 

Yup.

IIRC, FE had an upgrade from 7400 --> 7600 since the FE3xx.

 

Great, thanks for clearing that up DTX and thanks to everyone that helped me out here. I think I'm going to go for this laptop.

Cheers everyone