128mb or 256 Graphics card required?

Was looking at buying a Dell Inspiron but have found out it doesn't have HDMI nor DVI.I'm thinking more of a XPS system i'm looking on Dell outlet UK for this.

I need a laptop to surf/watching films stream to my plasma and playing football manager 2008 and doing some office work ( which is more CPU power than graphics) Also for my wife to use to surf the web.

I really can't see me playing games on it and if i did it would only be CSS and COD 4 . I don't play alot on my main system in the office and we do have a games console for this.

So do i really need a a 256mb graphics card as most the xps i've seen only have 128MB NVIDIA GEFORCE in them?

Would this be ok for my use and display Hd content alright to my plasma?


Say in a years time could i upgrade it to a 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT ?


Thank you for your time and help.

 

To display in HD I would suggest finding one with a DVI or HDMI port just for ease of use, but I am almost positive that you can get VGA -> DVI/HDMI, and the laptops almost certainly have an Svid port. Any of those older XPS's should handle the office/internet, the issue would be the COD4, but that should be fine as well. Just turn down the graphics a bit, you know the drill. I have the 8600 and does great. I mainly play CS, NFS: Carbon, and then I edit video on Adobe Premiere. It is pretty good, while the 8800 is best, its not cost effective at my (or your) level. I have played graphics intensive games on an integrated 128mb card and they were decent. And Nvid 128 shouldn't be to bad, although you wont get the same kind of performance as compared to a 8k series. The new video cards do integrate ram into their shared allotment, so with 3gb of ram, they snag about 768mb, which pretty much does not affect any thing other than your knowledge of what it is doing.

 

Thanks for the reply the INSPIRON XPS M1530 have HDMI built in port as far as i know.

 

BTW it's just XPS 1530. Inspiron refers to a different line of notebooks than XPS does.

And yes, the XPS 1530 does have an HDMI port.

 

I have yet to utilize my HDMI as I dont have one of them spiffy HDTV's, but I cannot wait for the day when I go out and get a nice gold plated cable and plug it in for a viewing of lord of the rings or some other eye-candy movie

 

The gold-plated cables are a waste of money

 

The general rule for cables is that if it is analog, better cable -> better picture; if it is digital, better cable -> flatter wallet.

Greg

 

just an idea for you guys, but I recently bought two 15' gold plated hdmi to hdmi cables off of ebay, they're generic of course, but I paid $5 a piece for them plus $6 shipping and handling. I have my DVR box hooked up to my HDTV via an expensive cable I purchased a while back, I unhooked it and tried out the cheap cable and to be honest I couldn't tell a difference in quality. But thats just me.

 

I wouldn't think there would be a difference.

 

That's because HDMI is a digital signal, it's either you get a picture or you don't. There is no in between. In other words, a $10 cable will have the same picture quality as a $120 Monster cable. Monster has a marketing campaign built on lies for their HDMI cables.

 

Gar, my dreams have been shattered I guess Best Buy has more than the usual 150% markup, because the cheapest one I could find in store was $50. Well, I guess the cable is out of the way, now for a $10 HDTV 50"

 

So i assume i'd be ok to use 128mb card for what i'd need it for then.

Also does the XPS M1530 allow 1080I? or does it only allow 720p?


Thanks for the info so far people.

 

Yeah, it's sad how some companies are raping people on HDMI cables. I get all of mine from www.monoprice.com, and they are GREAT cables for the price. The build quality rivals Monster, and the picture quality is obviously the same. I think I got them for $10 or $12 each, but I think they even have cheaper options on there.

 

We all should start a class action about Best Buy...they are absolutely horrible on their pricing..and dont get started with their Geek Squad.

On topic, it looks as if 1080p is no problem with HDMI on the 1530. According to this thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=218656 )-TY to JACK-. I think if you were going Svid or maybe VGA/DVI it would be 720, but I am in no way a A/V guru with connections. Take a look here, it looks as if the HDMI is standard on the 1530:
http://www.dell.com/content/product...b_m1530?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=bundlestab Then click "Tech Specs" then go to "Ports"