   New Mobile Graphics Chips
  Hey guys,I've been waiting 4 years to buy a new laptop. My current one is mostly fine, except that I yearn for a Core 2 Duo (awful marketing marketing there) and a new 3D accelerator (stuck with a Geforce MX core). The Core 2's are coming out soon, so I'm probably going to buy one right away unless I find out that the new mobile gfx are coming out anytime soon. However, I hear that nVidia and ATI are both holding back their new stuff until after Vista ships. So we may never see a new nVidia or ATI card ever again!The mobile 7900 GTX is my choice at the moment - is anything going to top that in the near future?I stay pretty abreast of tech news on the web, so I'm mainly asking if anyone working in graphics or serious gamedev (thus having advance notice of hardware trends) can spill some insider info.   
  NVidia will probably start shipping the 7950. In the desktop PC, it's two GPUs and a gig of RAM on a single card. On a laptop, probably much slower. [wink]The machine I just bought is coming with an X1600; that should be enough to satisfy me for the time being, I hope.   ;  I've got a core duo laptop (1.8ghz) with an x1600 in it and I can run Oblivion/Whatever else at the upper range of medium settings without any trouble.  Given that, I think the 7900GTX would certainly do you fine since its more powerful.A slightly related question - I had heard that when the next line of core duo's comes out that they are pin for pin compatible with the old ones and you could conceivably just drop a new one in?  Anybody know if thats true?   ;Quote:Original post by DovymanA slightly related question - I had heard that when the next line of core duo's comes out that they are pin for pin compatible with the old ones and you could conceivably just drop a new one in?  Anybody know if thats true?Yes, they are. Some asshole already dropped a Core 2 Duo in an Intel Mac Mini.   ;Quote:Original post by RavuyaQuote:Original post by DovymanA slightly related question - I had heard that when the next line of core duo's comes out that they are pin for pin compatible with the old ones and you could conceivably just drop a new one in?  Anybody know if thats true?Yes, they are. Some asshole already dropped a Core 2 Duo in an Intel Mac Mini.I'm not sure if you're being a facetious or serious. But. Why is he an asshole?;Quote:Original post by Alpha_ProgDesI'm not sure if you're being a facetious or serious. But. Why is he an asshole?Because he has a Merom and I don't. Duh.   ;  I've been thinking about it some more and it seems to me like a Core 2 Duo should have 4 cores. Am I alone on this?   ;  Yea. The core 2 duo should be only 2 cores. The 'Core 2' only refers to 2nd generation core processor (with 64-bit)Plus, consider the mac mini is somewhat different because it comes with a socketed CPU. Laptops (Macbook, Macbook Pro included) tend to have soldered CPUs so good luck upgrading even if its pin compatible. Also on some computers you may need a bios/firmware update (apparently not with the mini)   