RahoulVA

I don't plan on doing PC gaming on college with whatever laptop I get. The one I got for $1099 last year happened to come with an 8600M GT, and all I used it for was a few games(that I won't play) and Google Earth, and I don't plan on majoring in technology or anything.

etselec

I think you just answered your own question.

tomatoking

Nvidia admitted 3 days ago that it's GPUs are defective( most likely the 8600 gt and the 8400 gs)

NVIDIA says "significant quantities" of laptop GPUs are defective, stock tumbles - Engadget



i would wait a bit longer until they will disclose which GPUs are defective.

This is a great time for ATI to get back in the game.

awesome sauce

He could always go with ati though. 3000 series isnt bad for budget cards.

beowulflee

You said you don't need one so why are you asking? Plus, I ran Google Earth fine with integrated graphics.

RahoulVA

I just get the feeling that if I went with a weak card, I might be limited if I ever needed to use an application that wants a good card. Dell XPSs are good, but they definitely overprice them. I might find a Toshiba or Asus for a lot cheaper, but I have till next year to buy a new laptop for college, I can only imagine how much technology will advance by then.

arnoc

Any ASUS beats any Dell XPS any day.

RahoulVA

I bought this Acer 5920G exactly a year ago(2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, Core 2 Duo 1.5 Ghz, 8600M GT, HDMI, HD-DVD(worthless now) for $1099. Sadly though Acer products seem to break a lot, too bad I found that out too late. It's a good laptop, but it still has a ton of problems sometimes, so I need a more stable one for college.

What do Asus and Toshiba have coming out next year? The Toshiba Qosmios were very nice, but Asus always has powerful gaming laptops, though I don't need a gaming laptop that badly, but it wouldn't hurt. As a side note, has anyone here downloaded Service Pack 1 for Vista? I did and my wireless connection messed up and I had to activate System Restore and now I don't know what to do.

toxic_waste

...doubt that'll ever happen. you won't ever need a good one unless you do 3-D animation or gaming, which it sounds like you don't. and even if you were in animation, you probably wouldn't have the necessary software on your computer anyway.

if you still decide to get a higher-end card, though, be aware that all it's going to do is create heat and suck up power.