8600m(256mb) Vs. 8700m(512mb) Worth the Price?

[meat_helmet]

I simply asked whether the difference in Graphics performance would be worth $150, I did not ask whether he thought I should get a laptop, or not I did not ask for any recomendation, I only want to know if the difference in graphics performance is worth $150 between an 8600m and a 8700m.

Also I have a perfectly good PC that score 15k on 3dmark.

No it isnt.

Bear in mind, if you get a better graphics card it will chew through the battery. Although they do fit reasonable gaming cards into laptops, they are really for desktop replacement PCs, not really laptops - more just 'movable' computers.

And one more thing mate, your not going to get a good response from people here by getting them off side - it doesnt make people want to help.

 

[Ventriac]

He could be in the same position as I am. He may not be "buying" the computer for gaming, but if he's at school or somewhere other than his houe, IE me when i'm at work. If i had a laptop capable of gaming than it's just a convenience that helps the time go by. The 8800 is a good card, i'd recommend that, the 9800 as dhguit said is the best gpu out there, but you won't find it in a cheap computer I wouldn't imagine.

No it's not worth the 150$, HOWEVER; the 8600 has been having failure issues.. Thus it very well could be worth the 150$ for the 8700 to prevent that from happening... I just wouldn't buy either one.

 

[Hussein19891]

He could be in the same position as I am. He may not be "buying" the computer for gaming, but if he's at school or somewhere other than his houe, IE me when i'm at work. If i had a laptop capable of gaming than it's just a convenience that helps the time go by. The 8800 is a good card, i'd recommend that, the 9800 as dhguit said is the best gpu out there, but you won't find it in a cheap computer I wouldn't imagine.

No it's not worth the 150$, HOWEVER; the 8600 has been having failure issues.. Thus it very well could be worth the 150$ for the 8700 to prevent that from happening... I just wouldn't buy either one.

It depends what kind of gaming though. Because Call Of Duty is not that demanding. He could probably get away with gaming on a 8700m if he put settings on medium and kept the resolution at 1024x768. In either case its not worth the money. But if his going to spend it, I guess its none of our buisness.

 

[dhgunit]

It is all just a bunch of BS. Anyone who comes on here and says "I need a gaming laptop because I am going to college", is going to receive a negative response from me.

I am in my 4th year of college. You want some observations, here is what becomes of those laptops.

1. 95% of the students in my on campus apartments had laptops, myself included. 90% of those laptops spent all their days sitting in the dorm room of the student pretending to be a really expensive.....yet weak desktop. Especially for gaming.

2. On the RARE occasion students brought a laptop to class, it was to get on facebook and myspace.....or chat on AIM.

3. When I went to college 4 years ago, I had my gaming PC that I brought with me (Athlon 64 3200+, 6800GT)....and my Dell laptop that I got free with scholarship. Ole lappie spent its days under my bed collecting dust because it was worthless.

So PLEASE....waste your money. Don't listen to those with experience on the matter. You ask if the 8700M is worth the money. Neither are worth the money, because they come with a bloated, slow, stagnant, expensive laptop.

 

[alexsabree]

Laptops are useful, especially when at school. Just because you didn't use them when you were at college doesn't mean that another guy won't.

Don't buy an expensive laptop if you only plan to use it for school stuff.

Step 1- Buy a cheap laptop ($500)

Step 2- Install Linux.

Linux is perfect for laptops, because the only major downside to Linux is that you can't play video games (because they were designed for windows). Plus you will have that WOW factor of showing all your friends (mac friends too) that you have sweet 3D effects and their $3000 laptop doesn't.

The best way to show off is to have something different.

Oh and to answer your question, the 8700m is a lot better then the 8600m, but it all matters on what kinda deal you can find on a laptop.

 

[Nagasama]

Of course we argue over which is better.

So, he goes in his room....grabs his MacBook and goes and sits on the couch and says, "You can't do that with a desktop".

So I go get my 3 year-old Dell (1.6 Ghz Pentium-M, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD) that I got with my scholarship and sit on the couch and say, "Yes, I can".

He says, "But you can't play games on that like I can with my MacBook".

I said, "Neither can you, but most importantly I don't want to play COD4 while sitting on the couch with my balls getting burned by the 75*C underside of your $2000 furnace".

I win.

CLASSIC.

 

[Hussein19891]

If his going to waste his money let him I guess. Also keep in mind that the most kick *** "gaming" laptop which would be priced at $3,000+ would still get its *** kicked any day of the week by a simple cheap 700~800 desktop set up. While it MIGHT be on par with a 500$ set up. The reason I say MIGHT is because maybe the BEST "gaming" laptop would be on par with a 500$ desktop. Other then that the rest would cost like six times as much and still get slapped around by a cheap 500$ set up.

Getting a laptop for gaming is like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

 

[zmatt]

I would get neither the nvidia mobile cards are defective. Nvidia has fixed the issue but wont start shipping them until all of the defective ones are sold. I would only get mobile ATI graphics right now. Otherwise you are putting yourself at risk for a failing gpu.

 

[Total Immortal]

It is all just a bunch of BS. Anyone who comes on here and says "I need a gaming laptop because I am going to college", is going to receive a negative response from me.

I am in my 4th year of college. You want some observations, here is what becomes of those laptops.

1. 95% of the students in my on campus apartments had laptops, myself included. 90% of those laptops spent all their days sitting in the dorm room of the student pretending to be a really expensive.....yet weak desktop. Especially for gaming.

2. On the RARE occasion students brought a laptop to class, it was to get on facebook and myspace.....or chat on AIM.

3. When I went to college 4 years ago, I had my gaming PC that I brought with me (Athlon 64 3200+, 6800GT)....and my Dell laptop that I got free with scholarship. Ole lappie spent its days under my bed collecting dust because it was worthless.

So PLEASE....waste your money. Don't listen to those with experience on the matter. You ask if the 8700M is worth the money. Neither are worth the money, because they come with a bloated, slow, stagnant, expensive laptop.

Just popping in to say QUOTED FOR TRUTH, especially #2. Unless your university is located under neath a rock in the back of a cave, chances are good that you will have computer labs in most major buildings including your main library. I never brought my laptop to class, and while I did bring it to the main library on the rare occasion that I would go there, I really didn't *need* it. Laptops are just more trendy, especially for the rich fanbois at rich schools like USC (southern cal, not carolina) who ALL brings their laptops to class for mutual facebook orgys and sh*t.

Cause I love analogies lets go with another one: using a laptop for gaming is like driving with the parking brake on. Sure you CAN do it but why the f*ck would you?

 

[Poizen22]

Cause I love analogies lets go with another one: using a laptop for gaming is like driving with the parking brake on. Sure you CAN do it but why the f*ck would you?

you win in the best anology department, if your going to get a laptop for school spend 350 get one of these, NCIX.com - Buy Acer Aspire One Intel Atom 512MB 120GB 8.9IN LED 1024X600 Webcam 3CELL Linux Mini Notebook Blue - LU.S050A.006 In Canada. itl acomplish all your laptop needs for inclass, and its as big as a textbook (a small one at that), then spend the other 1000$ on upgrades for your desktop