Yeah, I know itll bottleneck, but I don't plan on any extensive gaming here.

Although I've heard people saying that the GMA can handle WoW at low settings, so should it not be able to run WC3 at at least decent settings?

Hey, I'm going to be ordering a Macbook pretty soon for school, and just wondering what dedicated card the included GMA950 would be comparable to. Now, I know the 950 is craptastic as far as gaming goes, but I have a desktop where I'll be doing that. The only gaming I'll be doing on my laptop would be the occational Starcraft, WarCraft3, and possibly a bit of NWN1.

The other specs of the Macbook would be:

2.16C2D
1.5GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
120GB HDD @ 540RPM

So in this situation, would the graphics capabilities be comparable to, say, a FX5200? More? Less? Just looking for a general idea here. Thanks.

yAAAAY another chance to link to my review

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?board_id=314159272&topic_id=25698466

Random__Guy

Awesome, thanks.

I'll really consider this card. From your review, it'll run everything monstrously wonderful compared to what I'm used to lol

The 8600GT is not bad I used to have one. I maxed everygame cept supcom but I dont think a 8800GTS can really max it with 1000's of units on screen. Trust me the X1600XT is not that great. The 8600GT is a huge upgrade.LouieV13

Yeha. Im really kinda regretting that X1600XT purchase...

Though if the 8600GT can just about max everything out today, then It'll more than fit my needs for what I'm looking for. Up to now, I've been happily running Oblivion at 1024x768 at med/low...

Can i run that game and/or WoW on this till i get my graphics card? Thanks for the help :D

HERETomoto1989

linked for sake of ease!

Well, I could also get a Sapphire X1950Pro as recommended, for about $180; $30 more than the 8600GT.

But lets say I was going to get Vista soon. I don't want to be buying another video card within the next year or so because I'll going into University in the fall and I'll be broke for the next bit. So with the future-proofing, and considering that I'm in no way a hardcore gamer, and the highest resolution I run is 1280x1024, would you still recommend the X1950Pro over the 8600GT?

how much does a 7900GS go for in canada? if its around the same price as the 8600GT, get the 7900GS instead. it will do good in obivlion cause of the shader stuff it as. as for ur other games Rainbow six vegas, it will not do so goodSiKh22

The cheapest 7900GS I could see at that store was about $210. And with a price difference of $60, I think I'd rather get the 8600GT if it's gonna be a better all-around preformer.

Well, looking at some local OC stores, it seems that the 8600GT's are about $100 less than I originally thought they were. I can get a XFX 8600GT from a local place for about $150 CAD ($140USD at the current exchange rate).

But, I'm currently using a X1600XT, that I bought less than a year ago when my other GPU bit the dust. I'm not a huge PC gamer, but like to play the occational bit of Oblivion, R6:V, HL2, as well as some older stuff like SC and WC3. And Im thinking of trying out Company of Heroes and getting Bioshock upon release. Also looking forward to Dragon Age. So would the newer GPU be worth the price? Mind, I dont have Vista, and dont plan on upgrading for a while, so the DX10 functionality means nothing to me atm.