Laptop Video Cards: Im At Your Mercy!

S

Seros

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 11, 2003
Messages
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Hey everyone,

So, i go back to college tomorrow. turns out last night my brother cracks his LCD screen on his Dell Inspirion 9300. Of course.

My dad is in a crunch to get him a new computer before i leave. So i have less than 24 hours to get him a new gaming laptop.

He usually plays World of Warcraft, CounterStrike Source, and Half Life 2. This previous laptop he had for 2 1/2 years with a GeForce 6800Go in it.. Centrino 2.0 ghz 1gb RAM and a 17inch screen

Ive been out of the market and stopped following video cards a long time ago. I know the latest processors, RAM and all that.. that ive kept up with.. but i really need everyones help in choosing a good video card.

How is the 8400M GS? compared to the 8800M? Is there any card anyone personally has used that they would recommend? I would assume either one of these would be an upgrade from what he had.. and if WoW and CS:S played fine on his 6800m that the 8400M GS would be fine, right? Im open for any suggestions please. And i need suggestions in the next four hours :/.

Thanks guys

EDIT: One of the computers im looking at is this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...=product&tab=2&id=1196470766824#productdetail
it has to be from best buy.. so, once again, im limited
 
I have an 8400M GS....DO NOT GET THIS CARD FOR A GAMING LAPTOP!

sorry to shout but really, this card does have some drawbacks for gaming.

Compared to an 8800M it is not even night and day!!! It's eternal darkness and day.

I would say don't get the 8400! Get AT LEAST the 8600M GT.

This is a much better laptop for gaming but the HDD stinks :p
 
thanks for your feedback

i hate being one of those people who need information quick and are very picky haha.. but i need to spend under ~1200.
any one else have any advice?
 
you didn't post how much you wanted to spend on the laptop, but I probably would go with one of the toshiba 17" models personally. One is around 1850 with 2 gigs of ram and an 8600 graphics card. You are quite limited since it has to be from best buy though.
 
this one is the best I can do from Best Buy given my <5 minutes of searching (yes I'm very lazy).

It is a little more pricey than you were looking for but DOES have an 8800 card.
 
I just got a Lenovo T61p.

It's 15.4" 1680*1050 with up to a 2.6ghz c2d. Mine is a 2.4 with 2GB of ram. The real selling point is a 256mb Quadro card. On a laptop, especially one of this size/weight, this is a thing of beauty. I took it to a LAN party recently and it kept up with the competing desktop systems running UT3, Crysis, HL2-based games, and COD4. Not that it can run these things on the highest settings or anything like that, but for a truly portable laptop for 2K or less, this thing is awesome.
 
I would say if you are looking beyond BB, the Dell Vostro and Lenovo T-series are both highly recommended
 
Ever think about ordering a new screen for that laptop? You can find them on ebay and installing a lcd on a laptop is not that difficult of a task, especially on a dell (who's recent laptops are relatively easy to work with). It would also be much cheaper.
 
trick_m0nkey said:
Ever think about ordering a new screen for that laptop? You can find them on ebay and installing a lcd on a laptop is not that difficult of a task, especially on a dell (who's recent laptops are relatively easy to work with). It would also be much cheaper.
Click to expand...

Indeed a great idea. Super easy to install and really cheap.

Many recent Dell owners who were unhappy with their LCD screen (graininess) have called up Dell, asked for a specific panel and had it overnighted to them. Install is as easy as 1-2-3 :p
 
well the reason i just dont replace the screen.. well.. theres more problems to it than just the screen..

1) the laptop no longer accepts batteries.. i have three batteries for it (i own three 9300's) and none of them work in this laptop anymore. only works on AC power.
2) the touch pad no longer works.
3) the caps lock key is gone (not a big deal)
4) AND the cracked screen.

I've decided that theres just too much going on with it that its easier for me to upgrade to a new computer. I'll be salvaging some RAM and the HDD from the old one.
 
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