nVidia 128 5650 or Radeon 64 7500 help please

[superboss]

Hi there

I am in need of desperate advice as I am going to buy a laptop and will be running 3d games on it.

Here is my delemma.

I know that when comparing ATI and NVIDIA, ATI always comes
up trumps and steals the show in the laptop arena, therefore
I have a simple question that I need answered before I can make my purchase.

Which system would you buy if you were me, base your decision purely for a gaming machine, please no "buy a desktop you idiot" comments thanks

System A
Dell 5100 2.66Ghz Laptop
XP Pro
512MB RAM
60 gig 4200rpm
64MB Radeon Mobility
15" SXGA

or

System B
Dell 8600 1.6Ghz
XP Pro
512MB RAM
60 Gig 4200
128 MB Gforce 5650
15.4" SXGA

I know the ATI 7500 out performs and kills its NVIDIA
counterpart, but would a 2.66ghz laptop running 64MB ATI, run faster, slower or the same as a 1.6Ghz laptop running 128 gforce 5650?

please help me

thanks<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by superboss on 11/01/03 08:21 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[addiarmadar]

That 2.6ghz laptop maybe your best choice overall but thats just my opinion..

F-DISK-Format-Reinstal DO DA!! DO DA!!

 

[pitsi]

If I wanted to buy a notebook for playing games, then I would seriously consider the following: <A HREF="http://www.powernotebooks.com/specials.php3?model_id=286" target="_new">Powernotebooks.com</A>.

Here is a few specs of the system above:
- 15" SXGA+ TFT Active Matrix w/ATI <b>Mobility Radeon <font color=red>9600 PRO</font color=red> w/128MB DDR</b>
- 2.6GHz Hyper-Threading Intel Pentium® 4 Processor w/512k L2 Cache - 800MHz System Bus Speed
- 40.0GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive at 4,200 RPM
- 512MB (2 SODIMMS) PC3200 DDR400 Memory
- Combo 8X DVD/24x10x24 CD-RW w/Softwares

I've heard excellent things about these guys, and you can also check a few customers' comments yourself at <A HREF="http://www.resellerratings.com" target="_new">Reseller Ratings</A>.

Again I would like to advice you to seriously consider this, instead of throwing your money away on something, simply because it's called "Dell".

 

[superboss]

Thanks, but I am in New Zealand and my choices are not
many, and I found that Dell offer the best value for money
and powererfull graphics cards.

So you havent answered my question

 

[pitsi]

In that case, here is what I suggest:

First, you should have mentioned that the 1.6GHz processor on System B is a Pentium M. I just visited Dell's website and saw the specs for these two models. Just for you to know, a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor performs about the same as a 2.4GHz Pentium 4-M processor (System A you got there has a 2.66GHz Pentium 4-M processor). So you can understand that their CPU is about the same when it comes to performance, but the CPU on System B also offers much longer battery life and the notebook is thinner and lighter.

Now about graphics cards. Where did you hear that the 7500 it's a better card? Although I haven't seen any reviews, the 5650 should offer you much much better performance than the 7500. So cleary, if you can pick anyone of the two, System B is your only choice!

 

[superboss]

thank goodness for that.
Thats the system I want, and sorry for the lack
of info, I never knew that the 1.6 was actually about a 2.66??? All to confusing for me.
I have been, and still am a bit paranoid about getting a NVIDIA model with all the bad benchmarks and critics slamming NVIDIA

I have always loved NVIDIA, but ofcourse I am talking about desktop cards.

Thanks for your feedback.

So far its 1 point for System A
and 1 point for System B

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

IT's not. IT's a centrino chip that doesn't have WI-FI. It uses good power management and better cache feature. IT's like the Athlon running @ 2 ghz, beats any P4 running at 2ghz. Just different architecture.

The FX5650GO will still outperform any DX8 level mobility chip from ATI (unless they've really juice the R9200mobility), and the one you are comparing to is only DX7, so there no comparison. The area that the FX-GO chips fail is when compred to their immediate competition. That dell with the FXgo versus the same setup with an R9600 (not even a pro) will lose just about every time when put side by side. However, if your ONLY two options are the ones you've listed, then the FX5650GO would be the better choice. Just keep in mind, if you can find the same thing with an R9600(or R9600Pro) then you'd be better off still.

Good luck.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[superboss]

Thanks, that makes logical sense to me too.

I suppose the next logical question would be if anyone knew if it was possible to upgrade either system with the 9600 ATI card?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

No it's likely not possible.

Some system's like the notebooks Voodoo (a Canadian/Calgayr company on the cutting edge of PCs) does have the option of upgrading between the two, and up to future units which you can do yourself. Companies like Alienware offer you the option of upgrading to new chips, but you must send the PC to them and they will do the upgrade.

The move towards dicrete graphics units is coming, it's just a bit clow. You would really have to contact the manufacturer and ask them if they offer that option (I beleive that Alienware replaces the whole board when they do their upgrades, not just the graphics segment). I don't think Dell offers that option yet, but I may be wrong.

Even now it's still the basic understanding that the graphics you buy in your laptop will remain the same throughout it's lifetime.

The best thing to do is to contact the mfr of the laptop. Even if Dell might offer it on some models, perhaps the one you want to get is one that cannot get that option.

That's probably your best course of action.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK