laptop video card options

[agresbach]

I am looking to purchase an HP Pavillion laptop (either dv2000 or dv6000 series).
Main function is for wireless browsing and some gaming (mostly just Madden).
These are the different video card options i have outside of the integrated Intel ones that i dont want. Can someone help me out as to which might actually be decent? I would like dedicated memory if i can but i know it can be tricky how they word it if its ACTUALLY dedicated or "hyper" memory or whatever.

128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200
256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7400
256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200

thanks for the help

[AnotherMuggle]

You may find some of the information on this site useful:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

[agresbach]

great thank you. i think the main part i am confused on is i understand these cards are not dedicated memory but rather "hyper cache" memory . will i notice much difference because of that?

[AnotherMuggle]

I think with the cards you are talking about they have some dedicated memory and share the rest from the system memory. It depends what games you are running as to whether the performance will be effected.

Generally if you are planning to play games then you should get a desktop, or spend big money on a top of the range laptop.

[agresbach]

thats understandable. basically Madden is the only game i plan playing on it

[Alaron]

Hyper memory is a downside for heavy gaming, but I wouldn't worry about it in your case. The Video Requirements for Maddem 2007 are:

VIDEO: DirectX 9.0c compatible Video card with 64 MB or more memory and one of these chipsets is required: ATI Radeon 8500 or greater; NVIDIA GeForce3 or greater

So any of those cards will be adequate.

We have an article on HyperMemory if you're interested: http://www.pcmech.com/show/internal/965/

[agresbach]

Originally Posted by Alaron Hyper memory is a downside for heavy gaming, but I wouldn't worry about it in your case. The Video Requirements for Maddem 2007 are: VIDEO: DirectX 9.0c compatible Video card with 64 MB or more memory and one of these chipsets is required: ATI Radeon 8500 or greater; NVIDIA GeForce3 or greater So any of those cards will be adequate. We have an article on HyperMemory if you're interested: http://www.pcmech.com/show/internal/965/

thanks for the info. ya for any more intense gaming i'd probably stick with my desktop. one thing i was curious about is Madden is hopefully in the near future going to go to a next gen version to match xbox360 and ps3 versions taking advantage of vistas new capabilities with directx 10. do you knwo if i get a card like these, do they typically release an updated driver to support new directx version (10 in this case)? so then i'd have at least a CHANCE these cards will be able to at least run future versions

[pam123]

DX 10 will be limited to Vista only, but Vista will have backwards compatibility with DX 9.
So you can run a DX 9 card with Vista but (note this well) you cannot run DX 10 with that card and you cannot install DX 10 on an XP machine.
Since laptop graphics don't upgrade well, despite talk to the contrary, what you buy now is what you're going to be keeping.

[agresbach]

Originally Posted by pam123 DX 10 will be limited to Vista only, but Vista will have backwards compatibility with DX 9. So you can run a DX 9 card with Vista but (note this well) you cannot run DX 10 with that card and you cannot install DX 10 on an XP machine. Since laptop graphics don't upgrade well, despite talk to the contrary, what you buy now is what you're going to be keeping.

so if my laptop if vista cabable in its specs and i upgrade to that, i wont be able to upgrade my video card to directx10 at all?

[glc]

Correct. You will be able to *install* DX10, but you will still only have a DX9 graphics adapter.

[Panama Red]

Moved to Mobile Tech

[agresbach]

Originally Posted by glc Correct. You will be able to *install* DX10, but you will still only have a DX9 graphics adapter.

would i be able to take advantage of any of the dx10 benefits then?

[pam123]

Originally Posted by agresbach would i be able to take advantage of any of the dx10 benefits then?

No.
If the developer coded in a DX 9 path you can run the game, that's it.

[Mr.Ferrari]

And to add, there really wont be anything all that special about DX10 until atleast a year, and cards for budget/laptop applications will take even longer..