Worth upgrading from 9700 to 9800 mobility?

Yes it is worth upgrading, problem is dell isn't selling the 9800 anymore, and other then ebay (which could cost you up to 500 or more) i don't know of any other options, maybe dell spare parts, but I doubt it.

9700 vs 9800 perf

Well, some would say you can nearly double your performance... The fact of the matter is, on paper it would seem that way, but you always have overhead on any video card (some greater than others, due to management of registers in the GPU and memory management of the onboard memory). That said, here's the low down.

9700 on paper is half the machine of the 9800.

9700 - 4/2 pixel/vertex engine pipe lines (Dx9 effects)
9700 - 128 bit memory to GPU interface (wider is always better)
9700 - 64/128 MB Configurations (you mentioned having the 128 MB)
9700 - My 3dmark 05 score ~1300 (Pre cat 5.7 drivers, then ~1700 after) **

9800 - 8/4 pixel/vertex engine pipelines (Dx9 effects)
9800 - 256 bit memory to GPU interface (wider path is always better)
9800 - 256 MB Configuration (bigger graphics memory helps future generation game developers.
9800 - My 3dmark 05 score was ~2900 out of the box **

** Numbers can be deceiving but it was clearly noticeable watching the test loop run.

Don't ask about the the clock speed's being different, how the 9700 is higher than the 9800... That'll take another long paragraph to explain, and afterwoods you'll see that they are meaningless, as apples can't be compared to oranges.

Here's my real world take on weather or not you should do the upgrade: Do you plan on using this laptop for at least another year, maybe longer to do things like play new games when they come out? Do you enjoy turning things up like graphic detail level without the big cost of FPS?

I upgraded my system last summer. Big difference. CSS and HL2 were the games I was into, which I can say they looked nice on my 9700. Post 9800 install, I launched those same games and was blown away at the FPS I was getting (same detail settings I used on the 9700). I then decided to stick with the same resolution but turn on things like AA (2x) and AF (4x) and noticed the game still played well without the high cost of FPS.

Today I am probably one of a few on the (Pentium 4 Notebook) forum who play Oblivion on my Pentium 4 based laptop (being careful not to get into a rant about how the XPS2's and up can easily, i know they can without problems). I have high praises with this system as I have an IBM laptop at work (which has a mobility x600 which is ~ what a 9700 was) and the game isn't tolerable on my work laptop. Home, I get a constant 45-60 fps at greater resolution and spend countless hours running into and out of the gates of Oblivion. I feel as though being able to play that game (if you haven't seen/heard of it, go take a look at a review or two... amazing) made my $320 investment last summer well worth it as i am able to enjoy it on pretty much any game out there right now (yeah, Quake 4 also played well).

I guess the bottom line for you is, do you want to spend the money?

He should buy one for himself and me

There's an older thread with people who have bought from there. They got theirs pretty quick and that happened only about a month ago so the site looks legit.

BTW I got Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and I play it just fine at 800x600. The only problem I have is that it's destroying my social life (or what I had to begin with).

Social Life - Impacted

Agreed. Once a week we play DND (old school) and so far the DM and I have skipped out twice due to circumstances beyond our control (see Oblivion).

Not with the 9700 card it wont. On a 5500 Geforce it runs like Myst haha

i bought the card a while ago and it's been running fine. the site is legit. i don't know if i'll try modding the card since all games i play (hl2, splintercell ct, ds2 ) run nice in 1280x widescreen compared to my old 9700/64 with wich ran acceptable only at 800x600. i upgraded the card because i can't justify the power gain/price ratio of a newer system. i'd rather spend the money on a high preformance desktop to really enjoy the increase in performance over the i9100/mr9800 combo. that may change in few months and probably a few more but until then i'll be a happy camper with few pipes to spare.

I tried ordering from that site last night and my ordered was cancelled because they are out of stock on it

IMHO it is not worth upgrading to the MR 9800. Your video performance will more than double BUT there is a better way to go.

Instead of spending the $300 to $500 (I have not seen an MR9800 for less then $400 in a LONG time) I bought an i9300 with a 6800 Go. The price of the MR 9800 is INSANE for the performance improvement improvement received. I sold my i9100 (with MR9700) for just a shot less then I paid for the i9300. The extra few buck bought me an extra 1.6" of screen, 40 GB of HD space and 3.5 times video performance.

some of us are attached to these old birds

There's truth to this approach, but it takes some work to sell your old system. If you price your 9100 to sell, you can probably get six or seven hundred for it. That, along with the $300 you were going to spend on a new card will get you an outlet 9300 that will outperform the 9100 maxed out, AND leave you the option of cramming in a 7800GTX or better in the future.

Is there a demand for the 9800 Chip? I'm thinking of selling my 9100 with a 9800 (that I bought after market).

dude it's so worth it for you to upgrade, the capabilities of the 9800 are increadible

Would anybody be interested in a Modded Week 35 12 pipe MR9800?

yes of course! what kind of dumb question is that?!