Laptop Graphics Card Opinion

[InsocResistance]

Hey guys, I'm looking at a few models of laptops to buy sometime this month. So, I'm looking at the video cards (since its near impossible to replace them); specifically, I want something that will be able to run DooM III when it comes out (moderately well, I'm on a budget).

Anyways, if anyone knows, how cruddy is a ATI MOBILITY RADEON card versus a nVidia GeForce4 420 ? They both have 32mb graphics memory, but the ATI is specifically listed as DDR.

[itsr0y]

I dunno. I have a Sager 8880 (http://www.sagernotebook.com) with an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 64mb and I think it stinks. I don't know if it's the laptop that's crappy, or the ATI brand, but I really don't like it. To be honest, I don't have any good examples of it not being good, but I feel as though the ATI drivers aren't the best and I wish I had an nvidia. On my previous two desktops, I had nVidias and they were great.

The only example I can actually think of is that there are no Win2k (I know this is a linux forum, so this may or may not apply) drivers for the card other than what my computer manufacturer gives me. So if I have a problem with those drivers, I'm stuck. The ones I can get from the ATI website don't work with Mobility cards. Here's my exact problem:
My default drivers were causing Hitman2 to crash (this has since gotten fixed by a patch, but it was an issue before.) I tried new drivers from ATI after screwing around for an hour and forcing the drivers even though they're not designed for my card, and also some hacked drivers (Omega) and they worked pretty fast, but they caused AutoCAD not to work. In the end, I went back to the drivers that came with the computer (which will never get updated). If I had an nVidia card, this wouldn't have happened (the Hitman2 crashing, the lack of new drivers, AutoCAD not working, other errors).

Maybe just my experience, but I know that I'm never getting an ATI card again.

As far as the speed is concerned, there's not a whole heck of a lot of difference between 2.0 ghz and 2.4 ghz. I doubt you'd be able to notice it. Between the two gfx cards, though, I think the nVidia would be faster, but I have absolutely no proof.

Good luck in buying your computer and sorry if this post is completely unfounded in any fact.