video card (/laptop) opinion

[wolfway]

hello,

i'm getting a laptop from my parents. i either want to buy one from toshiba or acer because i heard they were excellent brands. i dropped my eye on this acer one: http://www.tones.be/shop_product.php?idx=105548

link is dutch, but you can see the specifications on the bottom

i assume 'ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD X2400 XT 256MB/1024MB HM' is the videocard. is this a good one? i assume that a 2.5 Ghz processor, 4 gb memory are good enough, so the only thing i need to know is the videocard. i wanna play games in the future (gta IV, diablo 3 when they come out, but also shooters like call of duty, ...) so i need to have a good card. is this the case?

thanks
maarten

*EDIT* i am now also considering 15,4", and finally these three acers i am checking out:

http://www.tones.be/shop_product.php?idx=105261
http://www.tones.be/shop_product.php?idx=105548
http://www.tones.be/shop_product.php?idx=105285

which one would you guys take? Is the video card for the 16" better than the others? And is it very noticable that the processor is 0.1 ghz slower?

cheers!!

[sjmike]

I like the 2nd link the best. http://www.tones.be/shop_product.php?idx=105548

One thing to note that the 1st two laptops have a FSB: 800MHz/6MB L2 cache, where as the last one has less L2 cache. That large cache will help with processor intensive applications and games.

[sjmike]

MacBook Pros are really nice, I have the pleasure of working on them all the time @ work. They definitely turn heads in my IT dept. dominated by Windows machines. Unfortunately, they're typically priced very high compared to what you could get a PC laptop for with similar specs.

[slayerdiabolus]

Plus i hear Vista is just a nightmare.

Its amazing that pretty much everyone who says that hasn't used Vista for longer than 2 hours

I rather enjoy Vista, its a bit powerhungry but if you can get over that its a great OS!

[slayerdiabolus]

WAY OFF TOPIC......

I know, sorry

Back to the discussion at hand....

[wolfway]

the problem is the video card... in the end i am thinking of going for 15,4" after some people said that 17" is too big for a laptop (even though i will miss the 17" size), and they might be right?

to ask my question again, is a ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD X2400 XT 256MB/512 MB HM video card good? The 17" has a ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD X2400 XT 256MB/1024MB HM so might be a tad better? (and is cheaper somehow).

i know nearly nothing about computers, specially video cards etc, so choosing a laptop ends up a bitch for me!!

[wolfway]

i've checked out other toshiba's, and looks like they made a new one. i compared both:

http://www.topproduct.nl/hardware/noteb ... ellite.htm

(dutch site, but you will understand the most important parts i'm sure)

i searched online discussions on the video cards, found exactly what i wanted http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthr ... 457&page=2 and it seems both cards are almost equal to eachother? then i would assume the toshiba Satellite A300-1IA is better than the acer Aspire 6920G-834G32BN. only the resolution & screen size is less, but that's less important i think then

[sorrowman]

For a laptop chip is fairly nice really....but in the end it depends what you/your parents want to do with the laptop to determine if it is good enough. Checking e-mail, surfing the web and using office doesn't require a monstrous machine, whereas playing games, or video/audio editing requires considerably more power.

In terms of performace the last videocard (and system that comes with it) has the same performance. The Radeon HD3650 is pretty much a revision of the 2400XT. The chip is toasted on a smaller process which helps to save power) overall it performs the same. It's also cheaper to produce, so that might explain the lower price.

At present I would avoid a laptop with Nvidia Geforce chip. Recently a shit-load of problems with GeForce chips have come to the surface 'cause of some production issue. The chip can't cope with heating up and cooling of too fast...and most likely ends up dying on ya. It is said that a whole range of NVidia cards is possibly affected by this issue.

[Pete-Rock]

If it really has to be a Toshiba or an Acer I would definitely NOT take the Acer. I had a monitor from them and had lots of trouble with it - which wasnt the main problem, it all got worse when I contacted their customers support. Horrible. My friend had a notebook (laptop) from acer and made the same expericence. He had trouble with it too and had to send it back to Acer and it took 10 (!!!!) weeks until he got it back, including many unfriendly and incompetent phone calls. So if you are interested in getting fast help IF there's trouble with your new laptop (which we all wont hope to happen) then you shouldnt take an Acer.