GPU question

[amkdeath]

Im not an ATI fan, so I dont know about the cards compared to NVIDIA (big NVIDIA fan here)

how would a:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600

compare to a

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

in a laptop?

thanks,

amk

 

[philguy]

from what I know, you'd be able to watch HD video (any of the three codecs) with the Radeon without any trouble, whereas the Nvidia cards put much more load on the CPU.

Still, I only know this about the desktop versions, but I don't think the moblie are that different.

 

[amkdeath]

hmm interesting...

 

[JECS]

the way ive always looked at it, and you can even go by price,

nvidia = cheaper = +fps = low quality
ati = more expensive = slightly lower fps = higher quality

i had a radeon 9600 and i was pretty happy with it except that is was slow even way back in 04/05 when i had it
i upgraded to an nvidia card.. xfx 6800gt.. sure i get better fps with it but the quality is terrible, and with several games i get problems with textures. also some games were made to run on ati cards which use techniques that nvidia cards arent/werent able to do. even games that were meant to be played on nvidia cards had graphics problems.
long story short they, they may have improved a lot since then, but all i want now is another ati card... my friends 9800pro runs oblivion better than my 6800gt and his also looks better.. i wouldnt go with a 2600 though, but i dont know too much about laptop cards..

 

[Skram0]

Some comparison tables:

nVidia: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132
ATI: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131

"When you compare chips, you have to be very careful. Judging from the table, a Radeon 9800 may seem slower than a Radeon 9600 Pro, since its clock is inferior, and a Radeon X700 Pro seems faster than a Radeon X800 since it uses a higher clock rate."

"Therefore, it is not correct to compare graphic chips only through their clocks. For the processing performance you will have to compare the clocks and the number of pixels per clock. As of the memory, the right way to compare its performance among different chips is through their memory transfer rate, which is calculated using the formula (clock x bits per clock)/ 8."