Desktop user considering switch to laptop

[Pandamonium]

So whenever AT benches a GPU, it generally only benches relative to stuff in the current price class. The same can be said for a mobile GPU.

What I've never seen is a mobile GPU vs desktop GPU. I realize that it won't be a true apples to apples comparison, but careful selection in components should be able to give readers a good sense of how fast a mobile chip is relative to its discreet counterpart.

I'm currently running a 6600GT. It's fast enough for most of my needs, but I've found myself GPU bound on a few occasions. The one thing holding me back from going all laptop instead of laptop+desktop is the video card. I have no way of judging this though.

Does anyone know where I can find this out? In one of my forum searches, I found that a GeForce 7700Go might be similar to a 6600GT's performance while a 7400Go isn't anywhere near a 6600GT. If possible, I'd like numbers to back that up.

 

[IceRedwing]

Well in terms of benchmarks, you can access the orb and compare the GeForce Desktops with the GeForce Go's

For instance a 7800GTX-256mb versus a Moblie 7800GTX-256mb are fairly alike in similar systems.

I checked a Athlon 64 clocked 2.4GHz+ (desktop)
with a Intel Pentium M 760 (2.13GHz) (Mobile)

and the score on the laptop was 3951 and the desktop was 4594

The 7900 go series are also a bit closer to it's desktop equivalent. The best (from my observations) value for the GeForce Go's were the 7900GS. While at stock, they are slower than the 7800GTX Go, if you flash the bios with a modified Go 7900GTX bios, it performs close to the Go 7900GTX and blows by the Go 7800GTX in performance. You can also get laptops in SLI, though they are very heavy and run fairly hot.

The 7900 Go Series don't run quite as hot as the 6X00 Go or 7800 Go series. But the mobile versions definitely run hot compared to the desktop versions. My GeForce Go 7800GTX reaches 90C, while my old 6800 Ultra Go ran about 95C.

If you get a laptop cooler it will only drop it about 3-5C, and if you force the fans high all the time, it should drop it another 3-5C... but it is surprisingly loud.

Also, in terms of price versus performance, you pay substantially more $ for the mobile versions as well. For the amount that you would spend for the top of the line Mobile laptop, you can buy one amazing desktop that would blow away your laptop (and that includes the monitor).

But for the most part, I honestly game more on my laptop than my desktop because the laptop runs quite a lot of games in high quality as long as you keep the resolutions around 1280x1024 and it consumes a lot less power than my desktop.

But for more CPU or Video intensive games like Supreme Commander, the desktop is the only way to go.

THis is a good place to go Notebookcheck.net to look at the specs of the mobile GPU's