Sol,
I agree with you about the dx9 and 10. but, if you are playing a dx9 game, then you WILL get the performance that you see in 3dm05. which will rock with the 1730.
but you are right, we don't know what a dx10 game will play like yet and we don't know what a dx10 bench is yet. But in dx9, this thing is a superbeast! admit it bro!

I totally agree with SolApathy<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_2735338", true); </SCRIPT>

I've had my M1710 for about a year and 7 months, It's played every game i've thrown at it with excellent results. For me it wouldnt be worth getting a dual 8700 machine when the 7950gtx runs perfectly fine. Not to mention the fact that the M1710 wil be a decent laptop for years to come.
And if I for some reason get the DX10 itch, I'll just upgrade my desktop to a DX10 card and keep my M1710 just the way it is.

Also still true for the i9300 with the 7800GTX :-) Well, for the most part. There's some games that won't play full settings. But definitely high quality settings at decent frame rates.

I hate to get in the middle of this pissing contest, but do you really think that our laptops will be good to go for another couple of years?

That question is too open to answer respectfully. But here's a shot:

Good for what? The "latest and greatest"? We're already seeing that a good M1710 with a 7950GTX is showing it's age on some of the latest games. But playable they remain (at a lower resolution). Any normal computer is good for up to 5 years, IHMO. Any good (high end) gaming machine is best used for only 3 at most. But this is where Moore's Law starts to wield it's ugly side. 18 Months is the true expectation by most hard core gamers and those who make the hardware to support their habit.

I personally upgrade my desktop machine every 12 months. Sometimes with small changes, sometimes the entire machine. My laptop I usually get around 4 years out of, but that's due to the cost of a high-end laptop. Because at the end of that 4th year, I'm hurting badly on the current set of games available.

YMMV of course...

I'm sorry. The setup in my signature, for gaming specifically. When am I going to have to start lowering the resolution do you think?

I would much rather tone down quality settings than resolution, I hate to run any LCD at any other than native. Besides, you have WXGA, so your choice of screen is already going to make your card last a little big longer, not being forced to 1920x1200 for sharpness.

I just spec'ed out my preferred option - not bad AU$4,500 with 2 years complete cover, extreme X7900 CPU, 2gig of ram, normal vista HP - with dual 8700 GPU's & the physics card

But what really got my attention was the.......................230w adapter!!!! - man that's power!!!! -

I'd guess and say you'd be OK for a good while

7950GTX best available right now. Ok its not SLI, but what that makes it 2nd best setup?

Check out Bioshock (I need to set 1200x800 with 7800gtx) and Crysis (when it launches) and see how they play. They are supposed to be the most demanding recent games

I imagine most of us here would do an upgrade just because eventually.

Its criminal really when you can get a fast CPU 17" laptop for 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of a similar one with a top GPU

I don't even game that often! Nice to be able to though.

I am currently playing Bioshock. I can run it at 1440x900 on full graphical settings at about 40fps.

The one game that right now brings my poor M1710 w/7950GTX to it's knees is GRAW2. The game starts at 800x600 I think, but I can not even tweak a thing out of it much higher than default settings before it starts to become unplayable. I blame it on nVidia's drivers, which really suck lately. Not that we can get the latest as slow as Dell's driver releases are. Hacked drivers haven't helped much either. I'm ranting, sorry.

well if I do that with mine I would avg 15fps

If I were you I would'nt be worried

Yeah. I guess I'm just being paranoid. Here's a random sample of GRAW2 first mission on full settings at 1440x900.

2007-10-01 20:12:29 - graw2
Frames: 5252 - Time: 132007ms - Avg: 39.785 - Min: 24 - Max: 58

Your system is basically identical to mine, scottwilkins. You shouldn't be having any problems with current games. Are you running 1900x1200 or something?

One other detail. Vista Ultra 64-bit. Add to that the bad nVidia drivers and wala! slow as hell games. (fortunately not all games though, and other stuff is lightning fast under this OS)

i like jelly beans.

m1710 will last for years only if you have accidental cover for years, this is dell remeber plastic and falls apart alot.