8600M GT or ATI HD 2600?

Shadows1990 · 9 May 2008 at 23:00

I'm looking for a new laptop, and wondering which graphics solution to go for.
I've used both NVidia cards and ATI cards in the past, and were happy with both. But now I'm not sure which to go for on the new laptop.

I'll mainly be playing games like UT3, UT2004, Half Life 2 Series, TrackMania series, FarCry + Crysis.
I've noticed that the benchmarks for both cards are fairly close, but just wondering if anyone here has a notebook with either of the cards, and would like to share their views on them?

Thanks

fish99 · 10 May 2008 at 14:56

Can't help you with the comparison, but my Vostro 1500 has the 8600M GT 256 mb (the DDR2 version running 475/800) and it struggles with UT3 TBH. You get around 45 fps most of the time but it can drop to 20s in a big fight, and 20 fps is no good really in a UT game. That's with the 2 graphics sliders around half (1280*800 res). I tried dropping them a notch lower and the visual quality dropped too much, plus the framerate didn't improve massively. Haven't tried Crysis on it but I guess it would struggle. The other games you mention should be ok though.

I'd say if you can get a 8600M GT with the DDR3 vram (should be about 30% quicker) like in the XPS 1530, then it would probably be good enough for UT3.

fish99 · 10 May 2008 at 14:57

double post, hit reply instead of edit

Shadows1990 · 12 May 2008 at 21:01

ok, thanks for the reply and the info. I had heard people saying that the 8600M GT can really perform on a game like UT3, with max details and a high resolution. However, seeing your feedback has made me think twice about those people's comments.

Anybody here tried it out?
Aanybody got a Mobility Radeon HD 2600 they want to talk about?

fish99 · 12 May 2008 at 22:47

Those people probably have the 8600M GT with the DDR3 memory.

GingaNinja · 13 May 2008 at 00:38

This site here provides useful info about mobile graphics cards.

Ginga

Shadows1990 · 13 May 2008 at 19:12

I'm aware of that site, GingaNinja. It's helped me a fair few times

Can anyone give a Vista Experience Score Comparison for both the cards (same Edition of Vista + same Service Pack)?

Alexrose1uk · 16 May 2008 at 23:28

The HD2600 mobile is the faster chip, the DDR3 8600M is still reasonable though

Aod · 17 May 2008 at 14:15

bear in mind that neither of these graphics chips will run Crysis with much eye-candy, resolution or framerate.