Which video card to get?

[rocketman]

I'm all ready tonight to order my T42 tonight. I'm just thinking, the model I want to order has the ATI 9600 64mb video card, I'm wondering if Longhorn will require a faster video card than that for it's 3D GUI and if I should go for a model with the ATI 128mb video card. I don't play games, I'll be using this Thinkpad on the road and attached to an external monitor when I'm home.
Any thoughts on if this will be an issue when Longhorn is released?

[dash7540]

I don't think Longhorn would require such a high-end graphics card like the Radeon 9600. It will probably run just fine with even something like a GeForce2/3. Since you don't play games, I think the Radeon 9600 is quite overkill - the 7500 should be fine. Plus, Longhorn won't be coming out in a while - according to recent rumors, it will be out during Q4 2006 or Q1 2007.

[dd]

Hi

In some previous posts it has been said:

MS Longhorn 64-bit Windows is supposed to *require* DirectX 9 as minimum, which means ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600 minimum.

The Radeon 9600 is 2.5 times as fast as the 9000, plus it has DirectX 9 support. Even if you don't game alot, over the next few years the slowness of the 9000 will be noticable to you (more so than the difference in video RAM). There are "reliable" rumors that the next version of Windows will require DirectX 9 support. Now this is probably a couple of years off, but if you plan on keeping your Thinkpad this long, this may be a consideration

Regards