Latitude E6400 - which gpu

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M or X4500HD... i bearly find information on any of them and i therefore simply dont know which one to choose.

I'm pretty shure this has been talked about quite a few times but i din't find anything about this topic in the last 4 pages.

However i don't intend to use my notebook for gaming but it would be a nice feature to have the possibilty to to so .
I would be happy if i can play Hl2 smoothly with lowest specs and a high resolution. The FPS should be about 80-120.

It would be great if any of the two graphic cards would provide enough power to do so.


therefore i ask you
is one of the 2 powerful enough to fit my requierments?
which one is faster (in games not in CAD (a result in a benchmark is always good to compare ) )
which one needs more energy

 

These two GPUs are currently at #80 and #92 in notebookcheck's table.

Th X4500 has performance similar to the 8400M G while it appears that the NVS160M will be similar to the 9200M GS.

If you want a more powerful GPU then look at the Precision M4400.

John

 

Dear Forum Members,

I am thinking in buying the Dell Latitude e6400 with the following configuration:

Display: 14.1" WXGA+ (1440X900) with LED backlit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz,1066MHz, 3MB)
Memory: 4096MB (2x2048) 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
Graphic Card: Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD or NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB ??

Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth 2.1
Wireless Lan: Intel WiFi Link 5100

HD: 250GB (7200 rpm) Free-Fall-Sensor
DVD-Drive: 8x DVD+/-RW

Battery: 6-cell 54W/HR LI-ION
OS: Windows Vista Business

But I do not know which graphic card fits best my needs: integrated Intel or dedicated Nvidia?

The laptop should replace my current desktop completely, since I am going to sell it. Further it should perform well with CS4 and regular office application (Office, Surfing, E-Mail). I am not going to play any games with it.

Furthermore the graphic card should support a good external monitor 22” 1600x1050 (Dell 2209WA). For me, it is important to have good color accuracy on the screen for photo editing, but I do not know if this depends on the graphic card and if the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD is good enough for it.

Thank you for your replies

 

I highly recommend Nvidia card over Intel intergrated (intel's card is ok for normal use, everyday use, but you mentioned that you will be doing CS4, so Nvidia is a must)

 

The Intel GPU can easily handle the resolution and, I think, is at least as good as the dedicated GPUs for handling 2D graphics. The driver includes controls for colour correction should you find it necessary to tweak what the monitor is showing.

I would recommend the Intel GPU since it also runs cooler and causes less fan activity. There are some reports of excessive fan noise when using the E6400 + nVidia GPU + dock (not that you mention a dock).

John

 

i would pick the dell 1510 wlan (broadcom chip) over the intel chip since the intel can be the reason for some latency errors wthh vista systems.

 

Thank you guys for your recommendations, I decided in going with the integrated GPU since I mostly will do 2D stuff and no gaming.

 

Although I don't have any experience with the integrated Intel GPU, I have nothing but good things to say about the dedicated NVIDIA card.

In my current setup, my laptop is docked and connected to a 24" monitor (1920x1200). Main uses are surfing the web, email, viewing HD video, and very light gaming. It handles Counterstrike at 1440x900 resolution very smoothly with max details. The battery life on my 9 cell is typically 5.25 hours and the fan rarely kicks in unless I am gaming or have multiple multimedia apps open.

After installing Windows 7 and the new video drivers from laptop2go, the performance and battery life got even better. I am also using the displayport to HDMI adapter to connect to a 42" LCD and can view 1080P videos without a hitch. Again, I can't compare it to the integrated GPU but I definitely recommend the NVS 160.