GFX card for laptop?

[rure]

So time has come for me to buy a laptop. Been looking around on a few different specs, however all of the new laptops seems to have kind of weak GFX cards. Since I am the worlds biggest nerd I need to be able to play games (read WoW and when time is right Warhammer online) on this laptop. I've however been gone for a few months so I've lost track of all the new standards these days. I've read a up a little bit about laptop gfx and it seems that I shouldnt go below Geforce 7600 or equivalent ATI card.

So here is my two questions:

Is the Geforce 7k series really useless below the 7600 cards?

What is the ATI equivalent of, for example, a 7600 card?

Thanks in advance,

Rure / Adam

 

[Kryten]

It's not so much a case of "x series being crap" - there are laptops with 6800 based video cards inside that will kick the shit out of anything but the most expensive Alienware (oh god) laptops.

For instance, just like in a desktop - the 6800 is still a better card for your money than a 7300 - far, far, far better. In fact it's probably better even than a 7600.

Although I can't strictly condone gaming on laptops, graphics cards are the second hottest part of any system and in a laptop, it's usually a couple of inches from the processor, and both are only cooled according to the space inside. The point is, a gaming laptop with a high end video card, with a high end processor, is going to last rather less long than you'd probably like. I'd expect it to last around as long as it's warranty period, personally.

But pessimism aside, you're safer sticking with ATI hardware for reliability in laptops and the nVidia Geforce Go hardware for performance.
Similarly performing up against the NV 7600, you're looking at the ATI X1600 Mobility, or similar.

Even then, performance will still be far behind their desktop counterparts due to the overheads, heat etc that the designers have to factor in to ensure some safety.

I know this probably wasn't a lot of help, but I don't like seeing people spend what will be a lot of money on something that's only going to last until their warranty expires, their testicles are rendered useless by the "gamma rays" or more likely the heat, or exploding batteries

 

[Razemouze]

I bought my first laptop this spring. Im glad i did, and i will never buy a desktop pc again. It has a c2d processor, 2 gigs of 667Mhz ram and an ati
X1600-gfxcard. If you are a hardcore gamer, i wouldnt buy a laptop. They simply dont performe as well as desktop pc's.

I play daoc on mine, some cs and watch movies etc. Works like a charm, though the Labyrinth client lags abit. Nothing major tho...

I would recommend you to wait a couple of months. Imho the laptop-market has been the same for a while now, with the same stuff etc.

If you really want a laptop now i would recommend a laptop with atleast a 2.13 gHz processor, a NV 7950GTX and a minimum of 2 gigabytes of ram. Maybe even a 7200rpm disk for a little extra preformance!

/Raze