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NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS-- what can I expect?

post #1 of 20
7/19/07 at 9:04pm
Thread Starter 
How crappy is the NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS really? I am using a 7800gtx in my inspron 9300. Just ordered a 1330--- is the 8400 superior to the 7800gtx?

on a related note, is there anyway to upgrade the NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS to a different video card? Is any other nvidia card compatible?
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post #2 of 20
7/19/07 at 10:37pm
The 8400 is going to be beyond inferior to the 7800gtx; in fact it will be worse than the 6800go that probably came with your 9300 originally. It will only be capable of low-res gaming at medium-low settings.
For now, the 8400 is the best card that can be put in the m1330
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post #3 of 20
7/19/07 at 11:32pm
Thread Starter 
and this is REALLY going to run vista/aero?
I feel a "downgrade" to xp is in order...
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post #4 of 20
7/19/07 at 11:51pm
oh it will run aero fine, but keep in mind being able to run aero doesn't require *that* much graphics power; all it needs is a fully dx9 capable gpu, while the 8400 is dx10 capable therefore it can handle aero fine. Games on the other hand are a different story. Now if you want to play all older games then it will be fine but don't expect to play bf2/fear/stalker/etc at high settings
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post #5 of 20
7/19/07 at 11:56pm
Thread Starter 
i rarely play games on my lappy... I lerave that for my desktop (my sig is horribly outdated.. I have a dual dual-core xeon setup).

I'll try it out. I can always return it.
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post #6 of 20
7/20/07 at 12:01am
well if you only plan to play the very occasional game then the 8400 will be fine I'm sure
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post #7 of 20
7/20/07 at 12:17am
Thread Starter 
i bought the 9300 thinking id be playing games.. and upgraded the HELL out of it.
I only have one game on it.. star wars galaxies (hardly a graphics-intensive app).. and I HARDLY EVER play it.
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post #8 of 20
7/20/07 at 12:22am
I hear you; I thought I would play games on my laptop all the time so I bought an e1705 w/7900gs, then I downgraded to the 9300 w/7800gtx... then down to the 6800 ultra... now down to the go 6800 lol
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post #9 of 20
7/20/07 at 12:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by atwood7fan View Post
well if you only plan to play the very occasional game then the 8400 will be fine I'm sure

Exactly.

If you really want a gaming notebook, you need something else (and a larger screen).
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post #10 of 20
7/20/07 at 12:27am
Thread Starter 
yeah. I hear you. Lugging around a 17" laptop EVERY DAY.. AND that frek'n brick. I was tossing around the idea of downgrading to the 6800go again... but I kinda like the 9300 as is. We'll see... four pounds is hard to argue with.

The only thing that is really bothering me is the hard drive-- I went with the soild state drive. I have a really small 160gig usb drive, but the idea of a 2x faster, half the weight, and 1/4 the power consupmtion in a hd really intrigued me. but 32 gigs.. Ugh.. I could sneeze and fill that up...
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post #11 of 20
7/20/07 at 12:36am
yeah especially with vista taking up so much of it to begin with.
I just bought a used 700m 12" laptop to carry around with me; I've had enough of this 17"er
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post #12 of 20
7/20/07 at 1:30am
Thread Starter 
let me know how that works out.
going from 17"-> 13" is going to be a MAJOR adjustment
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post #13 of 20
7/20/07 at 11:36am
Thread Starter 
what do you think the odds are that a beter video card will work in the 1330 ?
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post #14 of 20
7/20/07 at 11:42am
about 0; not enough space in there to fit a more powerful (and hotter) video card; the m1210 never got a better videocard than the 7400 so that should be your baseline
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post #15 of 20
7/20/07 at 3:02pm
Thread Starter 
ugh.
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post #16 of 20
7/24/07 at 12:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jglass02 View Post
and this is REALLY going to run vista/aero? I feel a "downgrade" to xp is in order...
have had my 1420 (T7100/8400GS/2GB RAM/160GB 5400) for about a week now and it runs Vista Premium very well. Aero runs smooth, DVD playback is great. what i got is all the power I need, the most intense program I have run yet has probaly been the 3d chess that comes with vista i mainly websurf and use productivity softwarer (adobe/MS office 2007/digital imiage pro/ etc.) and so far so good.... battery life is pretty expectional as well, getting about 3.5 hours with a 6 cell just websurfing and using office.... got the basic intergrated sound as well and im impressed.
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post #17 of 20
7/24/07 at 4:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by atwood7fan View Post
about 0; not enough space in there to fit a more powerful (and hotter) video card; the m1210 never got a better videocard than the 7400 so that should be your baseline

ive read in some reviews that the 8500GT uses about the same power and gets barely hotter than the 8400GS (8500GT is same as 8400GS with 128bit memory or same as 8600GT with only GDDR2)... in that case, i bet An underclocked 8500GT would probably use less power/heat than a 8400GS and still perform better thanks to double the mem bandwidth
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post #18 of 20
7/30/07 at 1:50pm
Does anyone know how the card performs specifically with CS:Source?? Im really lookin to get this laptop and thats essentially the only game I play...and alot of it!!
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post #19 of 20
7/30/07 at 8:01pm
I have one on order. I play CS OFTEN! When I get it, I'll install it and see how it goes. If you get a chance, stop by our server. Syngaming. I think were ranked like 25th in the nation. I play under -Syn-Ritter, lemme know if you drop in!

EIT: this is our IP. 72.5.86.152:27015
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post #20 of 20
7/31/07 at 12:19pm
Got my 1400 yesterday. WoW runs great @ 1440x900. Settings aren't at minimum, but maybe slightly below medium. Nice and smooth, even in crowded areas (Stormwind Trade District).

Aero also looks solid, although I really can't tell the difference between DX10 and DX9 in windows. Maybe I don't have it loaded, I dunno. But no biggie either way.

Haven't tried any other games yet, but will try Command & Conquer 3 tonight possibly to see how that goes. Only other game I will probably install is Tiger Woods '07.
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