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9100 Radeon 64/128 MB comparison

post #1 of 7
4/25/04 at 10:54am
Thread Starter 
I'm currently shopping around for a new gaming notebook (not a desktop replacement per se, but I definitely want to be able to take it to my friends house and do some LAN gaming or game from the back porch and work on my nerdishly pale skin).

Anyway, I'm pretty much sold on the 9100 but am torn on a few things that some of you all may be able to help with.

First, I'm looking for 3dmarks on the 64 MB and 128 MB flavors of the Radeon but most importantly, I'm looking for real world difference between the two. How many fps does the 64 MB version lose to the 128 MB version in current, popular games? I don't plan on keeping it longer than 18 months or so, so ultra long term viability is not my primary concern and I only want the plain ol' WXGA screen (my eyes aren't quite as good as they used to be-- thanks, pr0n), so 1600x1200 performance is not important to me at all.

I'm also wondering what kind of performance difference there is between the 2.8 PIV and the 3.0 PIV. If the boost is negligible, I'll save myself 50$ there as well.

Basically, I want decent performance in the here and now and don't want to rack up a 2000$ bill on this guy.

TIA
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post #2 of 7
4/25/04 at 11:30am
the cpu is fine at 2.8ghz I personally feel your wasting money down that road save it for something better like a year down the line. You however dont want to skimp on the video ram since 64-128 is a bottle neck. Now a days a lot of games use lots of textures and the difference in ram size can be the difference between a smooth game and a slow one. ove rall you would notice a much bigger difference from going 128mb video card with a 2.8ghz cpu than you would a 64mb video card and 3.4ghz cpu. Good luck on your purchasing choice
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post #3 of 7
4/25/04 at 6:09pm
Think I saw a 3dmark2003 benchmark with 2.8+64mb that gave 3100-3150
and my 2.8+128mb gives 3250-3300 or so.

But a "modern" game will run alot smoother with 128mb
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post #4 of 7
4/25/04 at 6:56pm
I have the 64MB card, and it runs just fine for every game I have thrown at it. UT2004 runs amazing on normal detail for all options and at maximum resolution, runs smooth with no slowdown yet.

If I had to do it over, I would have gotten the 128 card. In the next few months, I will upgrade the card myself to the 128 or to whatever comes out for the XPS, but the 64 is sufficient for folks like myself: students who need a powerful notebook but aren't necessarily the most hardcore gamers. Now that I have a computer that runs games well, I feel like I want to upgrade, but by no means is the 64 meg card substandard.
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post #5 of 7
4/26/04 at 1:44am
I agree with Dell-Machina!

I'd highly recommend the 2.8Ghz/128mb combo over the 3.0Ghz/64mb combo.

You'll notice a bigger gaming performance boost with the 200Mhz slower CPU/double the VRAM than if you go for more CPU/less VRAM.

Also, if it's not cost prohibitive to you, I'd highly recommend spending the extra scratch for the 7200rpm (60G) HDD to any gamer.

just my 2mb
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post #6 of 7
4/26/04 at 11:14am
Yep - my 2.8 9100 with the 64mb card gets 3DMark03 scores between 3124 and 3134.

The Mac powerbook G4 just started shipping with ATi Radeon 9700's. The standard on them is 64mb, but for only $45 you can upgrade to 128mb. I wish it would have been that little of a difference on the Dell!

Jason
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post #7 of 7
4/26/04 at 2:16pm
I prefer the 3.0ghz 128meg Ati combo.
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