i'm about to buy a gaming laptop, and i will obviously come out cheaper with the nvidia 8600m gt. some guy on another thread dogs this card out, claiming it cannot even run Dx10 well. is this true? will future downloadable drivers for this card not make it worth putting on a laptop now at it's current price? i was considering getting xp, 7900 or 7950 in the notebook, but on the surface vista with the 8600 seems like a good idea. someone who knows more help me out.
are there any dx10 games that you really want? is gaming the most important thing that you are buying the laptop for, and do you have another machine that you game on? i'd probably go for the 7900/7950 with xp, i'm not too impressed with vista.
Everyone who dogs the 8600 series doesn't own one. I do and it's a fine card for gaming. It may not pump out 170fps, but I don't like screen tearing so I use vsync and I won't see above 60fps due to my monitors refresh rate of 60Hz. Besides, you won't be using high resolution on a laptop. All of the current DX10 benches are crap. Poor implementation of DX10 features on DX9 based benches. Even the 8800's don't do that well. These are the first gen DX10 cards right now. Does the Ti4600 do as well at DX9 as the 7950GT? Of course not. We cannot expect the first DX10 cards to dominate right now.
i'm using it for gaming, and i will be playing age of conan (supposedly a Dx10 game, uses all the vista features, ect.), among other games. i understand that the 7950 will blow it away at this time, but i'm wondering if the 8600 will have a future in next generation gaming. when you say that they will not dominate right now, do you also have hope of a Dx10 future where the 8600 will be preferable to and 7 series card? this will be my gaming machine, due to the fact that i will be constantly moving it around.
Read some hardware reviews of the 8600gt, you'll find that people are dogging it for good reason regarding modern gaming. It'll never play anything dx10 smoothly, anyone that thinks otherwise is barking mad or have bought one and are just trying to convince themselves they didn't buy a lemon. Dx9 versions of games will still be with us for years yet so don't be fooled with these mid and low range dx10 cards. The 7-series cards you mention will do you proud in a laptop and will last you longer in the long run.
ok, i'll read the reviews. i have to say i'm a little down about the mostly negative reaction to the card. never will run Dx10 well?? is that a very educated guess? i'm not doubting your knowledge, in fact i thank you for trying to help, but if this is true then the card is just a low grade booby prize that nvidia created to force gamers to buy an 8800 or better when they become available, which i suppose is a very viable theory. yeah i'm trying to rationalize getting the card... but can you blame me? if i get a 7 series, would xp be the better OS? i'm only semi knowledgeable on these things, if you can tell.
Vista only requires DirectX9.0C to run the aero interface. As for gaming, if you want to run the latest games at good frames, you should either have so much cash that money is no object, or you shouldn't be buying a laptop, because you'll get a VERY short gaming lifespan out of even the most powerful gaming laptop. They're just flat out not a good choice for gaming. And if DirectX10 means that much to you, then you should just wait until the second generation DirectX10 parts come out, because first gen parts are always below par until developers get to grips with the new features. On top of alllllllllllllllllllllllllll of that, the 8800 series came out first, the 8600 came later, but WAS the first 8 series GPU to be made into a mobile version. Edit: Oh, and btw, if you think a gaming laptop is portable, you're mistaken. Those 17" widescreen laptops with the uber graphics cards and big hard drives are HEAVY. You'll get really sick of lugging it around anywhere after a couple weeks and it'll just sit at home. Plus you'll need to invest in a notebook cooler to handle the uber heat they generate, because they're rarely, if ever cooled properly. The manufacturers just assume anyone buying a huge heavy powerful expensive lappy, will just buy a notebook cooler with it too. Edit2: I know I'm kind of pissing on your chips here and really not answering your question as such, but tbh thats becasue I'm very anti-gaming laptops, to me they're a waste of money that could be much better spent on a tower. IMO, a lower powered laptop is more useful than an all singing all dancing one, because thats all you really need to run the applications laptops are suited for, which is portable word processing and spreadsheets, or web surfing etc. Makes those apps possible,but without breaking your bank or your back.
Nearly all modern games are still running off DX9. By the time DX10 games become mainstream, the 8600M will no doubt struggle. If you are looking for a gaming laptop, the 7950GTX is still on top for DX9 games. The 8600M and 8700M aren't far behind from the 7950GTX but unless you have anything that genuinely needs DX10, you won't benefit from opting for any 8 series mobile cards at the moment. There are still some driver issues with the 7950GTX under Vista. Although it is much more stable now, I'd personally stick to XP for gaming (even though I use Vista at present). The only thing I worry about is support (and I keep repeating this in the forums ), XP support is due to end on Jan. 2008, which means no more security updates and so forth. With so much that has happened to XP, I don't feel too comfortable using it with no further support.
I think I'm missing something here. The OP says he wants to play age of conan, a DX10 game. Now, how will he do that with XP and a 7xxx series card? Since there will be no DX10 for XP and the 7xxx series card does not support DX10. His only option right now is to get Vista and an 8xxx series card. Is the 8600 a great DX10 solution? Probably not, but it will work at lower resolutions. It was never meant to be a high end gaming card. For someone on a budget, it can be decent for a desktop solution, as down the road they can add another one for SLI (if their board supports it). 8600GTS' in SLI perform pretty much on par with an 8800GTS 640 (from all the reviews I have seen). But like I said, and others have stated, these are the first gen DX10 cards and are not going to be great performers in DX10. The next couple of generation video cards will be much better and will use less power and be cooler running. It's just simple progress as always. If someone wants to play the best DX9 games available, you wouldn't recommend a 5700 Ultra would you? Of course not.
Woah now. I know the OP kinda of closed the thread in a way, but I admit I did accuse the 8600 of being a bad card a while ago, so i guess I need to redeem myself. Ever heard of running in DX9 mode? I bet that a decent 7 series will outperform the 8600 in DX9 mode. I also bet that the 8600 can't run DX10 mode (at a decent FPS) at a higher res than 1024x768. If you're forced to run most DX10 games at 1024x768, visually, you'll probably better off running in DX9 mode at a higher res (laptop native resolutions are pretty damned high these days) with the AA/AF turned on. And currently, people are struggling to see massive differences between DX9 and DX10 games anyway. Which all adds up to defeat the whole point of running in DX10 mode at the moment. By the time DX10 games really look much better than DX9 games, the 2nd gen DX10 cards will be out. Which defeats the point of buying the lower end 8 series now. You also keep making references to the fact that the 8 series are first gen DX10 parts. Very true, but explain why that makes the 8600 a better buy than a better performing DX9 7 series at the current time? Wouldn't it be better to avoid the lame lower end 8 series and buy a 7 series at the current time (which perform better than the lower end 8 series for the same money) and wait for the 2nd gen DX10 cards? Oh, and one more thing: you can't upgrade to SLI if you have a laptop
