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D610 ATI vs Intel for battery life

post #1 of 8
5/14/05 at 12:14am
Thread Starter 
I have a D610 and I'm not all that pleased with the X300 card. Its not terrible, I can play last gen games well enough, but nothing recent.
I was thinking the additional cost of this card would be worth it if I could play games as well. However since that is not very enjoyable I am thinking about returning this laptop and getting one with the Intel vid card.

My main reason for wanting this is better battery life. What Im wondering is how much additional battery life could I expect? Are we talking a 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or hours?

1.6GHz, 1400x1050, 512DDR2, Dbay battery.
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post #2 of 8
5/14/05 at 1:07am
The X300 is a pretty crappy card. It is still better than the Intel that is optional with the system. In all honesty I believe having the intel will only had minutes to your battery life not hours.
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post #3 of 8
5/15/05 at 9:44pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah I know its better for 3D but as it turns out I don't think I'll be doing any 3D on this system.

Does anyone have any stats or reviews that touch on the subject of battery life between these chips?
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post #4 of 8
5/15/05 at 11:07pm
I think I saw something on cnet about it. If it wasn't the d610 directly, then it was another laptop with the x300 or integrated video options available. In any case, I think the battery difference was close to 30 mins.

BUT. I'll be honest in saying that their battery life testing is pure crap. They claim they use battery mark or somesuch, but for nearly every laptop they have reviewed, the battery life estimates have always been off. So if they say 30 mins, I say it's a difference of 15 mins at most.
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post #5 of 8
5/16/05 at 12:01am
If you are concerned about battery life then buy a media bay battery. I get about 5 hours using the computer intensively and about 8 hours if I stop using it for short periods.
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post #6 of 8
5/16/05 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
Yes as I stated I do have the Dbay battery. I get about 4.5 hours of work time and maybe 7 of idle.

Ah well, I guess I'll stick with the ATI chip... Who knows, maybe some game maker will come out with a game thats amazingly fun and based off of the Quake3 engine...
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post #7 of 8
5/16/05 at 1:27am
I think that returning it for only a short time (~15mins) or extra life just wouldn't be worth it. Think about it, you have to return the laptop, after first convincing Dell to give you an RMA, then you need to repurchase it, maybe waiting for coupons to get the same or better price. If you add that up, is 15mins per charge worth the weeks without the PC??

Just the way I see it anyway
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post #8 of 8
5/16/05 at 2:01am
It doesn't worth that. You need your video card everyday, but your last 30 minutes of battery life, if with D-bay, I bet, only once a month
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