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    Sony FS 550 VS K45

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by dloreski, Mar 26, 2005.

  1. dloreski

    dloreski Notebook Geek

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    Hi all.
    I'm new to the forums here and not extremely knowledgable on computers, so please go easy on me. [ :)]
    I haven't had a laptop for several years, but need to purchase one now.
    My last was a Toshiba, and after looking at them, I loved the Tru Bright displays.
    After reading over some forums here, I saw that people said the Sony display was even brighter.
    So I went into a store today to try them and wow, there is a world of differnece between the two. The Sony keyboard and touchpad also seemed more comfortable and responsive for me.
    My question is, I looked at both the FS 550 and the K 45. The K 45 meets my needs, but the 550 screen was much brighter. The thing that I saw that may be whats doing it is the 550 has a 128 Meg video card and the K 45 has a 64 Meg card.
    Is this what it is or is there something else?
    - Dave

     
    dloreski, Mar 26, 2005
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  2. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    I think they are both shared video cards meaning they take some of the system memory to use for video memory. A dedicated card is bettery for gaming. Without knowing the specific model, it is hard to tell.






    I know things, things that could get me killed


    Thinkpad T41:
    * 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *
     
    ZaZ, Mar 27, 2005
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  3. bmorris

    bmorris Notebook Enthusiast

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    Screen brightness has nothing to do with the video card. The Sony XBrite displays are just very very good displays, no matter what video card is driving them.

    The FS series has shared video memory cards, which many people don't like because it steals memory that would otherwise go to applications. Shared memory cards are also not as fast to respond, so gamers don't like them. If you aren't gaming, you can "fix" the problem by loading your machine with more memory.

    The FS series also seems to have a problem with battery life - it seems that all laptops based on the new Intel "Sonoma" chipset have this problem as well. If you are doing the airplane thing with your laptop, or otherwise need long battery life, you might want to look at something with an older chipset design. The Sonoma chipsets don't really add that much speed anyway.
     
    bmorris, Mar 31, 2005
    #3