Ive found the vid card once overclocked quite sufficient in running most games. Sure you cant max the more demanding titles, but the lappy can run grid all high no AA and i still think it looks great and runs smooth as butter. I've also been enjoying a re-run through vampire bloodlines, thief deadly shadows, and i'm also playing a bit of lego indy haharrr. TF2 is a pleasure as always as well (accept everyone is now obsessed with the pyro damnit! Sure it cant beat a desktop powerhouse, or even really compare in keeping up with the more demanding titles..., but in playing the odd game here and there it runs most titles quite superbly.
Yeah I agree, the performance is pretty damn solid. I play Age of Conan on mine with most settings set to high, with 2x AA, and it runs great!
I'm considering getting this laptop, and I have a few questions: Is it worth the extra $100 getting the 8600GT over the 8400GS? I just finished building a gaming desktop, so I'm not looking for something to run intensive games, just something that will work decently if I ever want to run a 3d game or app. on the go. How is the battery life on this computer? I'm going to be using it mostly for more boring apps like word processing or internet and only the occasional movie/game. Does anyone have the LED screen, and if so, is it a lot better than the standard LCD screen? I've heard good things about the LED backlighting in terms of brightness and low power consumption, but it is still an extra $125, so I need to know if the difference is worth it. Thanks in advance !
Do get the 8600M GT. The difference between the two is huge! You'll regret getting the 8400 if you ever want to run a game or two. I can't comment on the battery life as I haven't really tried running it on battery yet, but I reckon you should get the 9 cell battery if that matters to you. I can't comment on the LED screen as I have the ordinary one. But I can tell you that the 1440x900 screen looks incredible. I got the LG panel in mine which is supposed to be the best, and it looks great!
well my XPS M1530 arrives tomorrow and I got the LED LCD with it. So I can give a comment on that Other than that: Core 2 Duo T7500 2,2Ghz 4MB Cache 2 GB DDR2 FSB800 Memory nVidia GeForce 8600M GT 2MPix WebCam 160GB 7200rpm HDD Hope I'll get the LG Screen as well, only heard very good stuff about it Oh and Tuxedo Black of course
Ok got the Notebook and tested it, I'm very satisfied with it. The LED LCD has a max res. of 1440x900 and it's gorgeous. Nice brightness, very good contrast, very sharp. Love it! The performance is great for a Notebook in the 15" category. Very powerful. Definately a NB to go for guys, only can recommend it
hey guys.. am also thinking of taking th same rig..but am pretty confused about the resolution.. i.e 1440*900 or 1280*800 As of gaming, 1440*900 is not feasible.. but i dont know about movies.. i usually download x264 rips(and hate tht black band on the top and bottom of the screen while watching movies). So is 1440*900 worth taking or should i stick with 1280*800
1440x900 and 1280x800 is the same aspect ratio, ie 16:10 which is the standard for computer widescreens. TV's are 16:9, and thus you get black borders when using a 16:10 display on material made in 16:9. I would go for the 1440x900 display. You'll appreciate the higher resolution in normal day-to-day usage as you get more room on your desktop. In addition, 1440 looks better too.
Hello everyone, i'm new here and also to this overclocking thing... I've a XPS M1530 with 8600M GT card, i've downloaded the rivatuner and i'm using 175.97 driver from laptopvideo2go.com. What is the best overclock setting for my laptop which is save to use since i'm new with this stuff.... Will try later when i've get some recommendations from u guys.... Thx!!!
While I don't have a XPS 1530, I do have an older Inspiron 1720 with the following Spec: T8300 2.4GHz 3GB DDR2 250GB 5200 Drive 256MB 8600M GT with DDR2 (I think..) While I know I can't OC the processor nor do I want to, I did OC the 8600M from stock of (475/400) to (593/500) and I was able to get around 4175 in 3dMark 2006. With that, I can play everything on close to highest setting with 1280X800 which I don't mind gaming on. Question is, do you think I can crank the memory clock higher? Current setting is around 25% higher than factory setting so I don't want to kill the card. When I saw the posting here on how some of you were able to get like 600 to 700mhz on the clock speed, well it got me thinking maybe I should try getting higher on the memory clock. I guess I can try and see how it goes.
My 8600M GT does not properly clock down to 2D clocks like it should, instead it runs low power 3D clocks (297/594, 300). It clocks up to performance 3D like it normal and everything else is fine. I've tried turning off Aero to see if that's the culprit, but it makes no difference. I imagine running lower power 3D instead of 2D clocks shaves off a fair bit of time off the battery life, so it's quite annoying! Anyone else with the same problem? Edit: rolled back to a 178 driver and all is well.
hey tell me onething..suppose if i have 1440*900, can i change my resolution into anything lower than tht (like we can do in desktop)
thanks DES_MX now i am stuck with either HP DV5 1015tx or XPS M1530 the main difference is only tht in HP its 9600M GT -DDR2 where as in XPS M1530 its 8600M GT -DDR3 basically i dont see much difference between the two. I dont know about the overclocking and even if its possible in HP (as bcoz in normal specs it gets very warm while playing games) Can anybody throw some light in this point..