Need help choosing laptop - Video card

[pez]

Hey guys... looking into a new laptop solution, and I have narrowed down to to systems:

Alienware m9750 - http://www.alienware.com/product_det...de=SKU-DEFAULT

Dell M1730 - http://www.dell.com/content/products...dlestab&~ck=mn


The final decision comes down to video cards
m9750: NVIDIA®SLI™Dual GeForce Go® 7950 GTX with 1 GB GDDR3 Memory (total)
m1730: NVIDIA®SLI™Dual GeForce® 8700M GT with 512MB GDDR3 Memory (total)

Notes:

Dell said they have a system that will allow me to upgrade the video cards when they come out with the 1gb versions.

Supposedly the 7950 GTX does not support DX 10

Supposedly the 7950 GTX outperforms 8700 GT

Supposedly the processor that Dell uses (the new AGEIA PhysX physics processing unit) helps increase gaming performance

I could really use some help here, as right now I am teetering on both sides... Both this new dell (dubbed the beast) has been brought forth by dell to compete in the gaming laptop market. Both the dell and the alienware have features that I like and dislike.

Thoughts?

[SkinInsite]

I would take whatever Dell says about upgrades with a grain of salt.

[Enter Apotheosis]

What happened to Sager? Outgrow them or is it just too outrageously expensive?

[PokerPacker]

first off, the 7950 indeed does not support dx10, you need an 8000 series nVidia card for that. as far as video memory is concerned, i don't think it should be too big of a deal since you are running on a laptop (and the video memory's biggest advantage is increased resolution). but since dell will let you upgrade, that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

so if you just want to go with high-performance, maybe you want the geforce 7950, but then again, how long until games require dx10? i'm pretty sure that the 7950 has more than enough power to run any modern games, so if the performance drop isn't too significant, maybe going for future compatibility is the smarter move.

oh, and is it sad that the video card has more video memory than the computer i'm typing this reply on?

[pez]

What happened to Sager? Outgrow them or is it just too outrageously expensive?

Sager used to be the leader of the field, but as of late, have kind of dropped in that aspect, especially in form factor. Now a couple of the regulars (Alienware/Dell) are starting to step up in the hard core laptop market, and I gotta tell you, the warranty's are much better than Sager's...

One thing about a laptop, is not if it will break, but when..

[pez]

first off, the 7950 indeed does not support dx10, you need an 8000 series nVidia card for that. as far as video memory is concerned, i don't think it should be too big of a deal since you are running on a laptop (and the video memory's biggest advantage is increased resolution). but since dell will let you upgrade, that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

so if you just want to go with high-performance, maybe you want the geforce 7950, but then again, how long until games require dx10? i'm pretty sure that the 7950 has more than enough power to run any modern games, so if the performance drop isn't too significant, maybe going for future compatibility is the smarter move.

oh, and is it sad that the video card has more video memory than the computer i'm typing this reply on?

Yeah... see this is why right now it is a tossup...

[PokerPacker]

did a quick google search and came up with this, if its any help:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137521