1420 = Ddr3 Video Memory?

on the 1420 inspiron tech specs page it reads:
NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR3 dedicated graphic memory


is this true, does the 1420 model have ddr3?

 

Nope. DDR2.

 

thats what I was thinking since it has the same series number as the card on the inspiron 1520 but was noted as ddr3

 

You might want to check your sources again....

Riva Tuner reports the following for my 1420:
64-bit G86 (A2,16sp) with 128MB DDR3

There is also additional information in the Performance / Benchmarking section of the following:

Dell Inspiron 1420 User Review

-LQ

 

riva is not very accurate in these cases

 

Riva is not accurate but in the overlcoking thread it has been noted that the 8400 gs in the 1400/1420 can reach higher clocks than the 8400 gs in the 1500/1520.

This can only be down to the 1400/1420 using the ddr3 version compared to the 1500/1520 version.

 

I can see it having DDR3 because on the 1520 a 256MB Nvidia card is required for blu ray while on the 1420, only the 8400 GS is required for blu ray

 

Does it really make that big a difference?

 

Riva Tuner is not accurate for mobile GPUs. It reports DDR3 for my 8600GT, but based on clock speeds, it's clearly DDR2. There has been lots and lots of discussion about this in the forum. I believe there is an extensive thread about this. The search box will guide you further.

 

1520 is definitely DDR2

M1330 is definitely DDR3.

I heard 1420 is DDR3 as well?

 

Yes the 1420's 8400 GS does have GDDR3 while the 8600 GT on 1520 has GDDR2.... The Riva Tuner tool is not accurate and so the results cant be truested....

Anyway the the 8400 GS's memory is clocked to a lowe value in the GDDR2 range only.... So it doesnt make much of a difference other than GDDR3 consuming less power.... Remember GPU clock and memory clock speeds are that matter and since GDDR2 and GDDR3 has some higher limit on the operating memory clocks - people get confused here....

So having GDDR3 alone wont mean it is faster than GDDR2 - having a higher memory clock really matters here....

 

Believe what you want.....

Based on the Dell specification and yet another diagnostic utility, the 1420 does appear to have DDR3 memory.

NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 8400M GS with 128MB DDR3 dedicated graphic memory

So far I haven't seen any any evidence that the memory is DDR2 other than the continued reference to detuned clock speeds.

As far as its impact on performance, that is yet another discussion.

PC Wizard 2008
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

Manufacturer : Nvidia Corp (Dell Computer Corp)
Model : NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Bus Type : PCI-Express
Total Memory : 256 MB
Texture Memory : 493 MB
Processor : GeForce 8400M GS
Converter : Integrated RAMDAC
Refresh Rate (min/max) : 60/60 Hz
Codename : G86
Revision : A2
Bus : 128-bit
Memory Type : GDDR3
GPU Frequency : 169 MHz
Shader Clock : 594 MHz
Memory Frequency GPU : 100 MHz

BTW, it always help to reference specific sources/links to back up your assertions.

-LQ