ATI FireGL V3200 vs X300

[JHaislet]

I'm currently looking at a T43 (2668-72U) & T43p (2668-G2U).
Both have the SXGA+ 14.1" screen & are nearly identical except for the graphics card (X300 & V3200) and CPU (2.0GHz vs 2.13GHz). If I go with the T43, I plan on adding another 512MB ram & upgrading the hdd to the 60GB 7200rpm Hitachi, in effect making it a T43p minus the V3200.

Breaking out the individual components, it appears the FireGL V3200 adds about $300 to the price of the laptop and the PM 2.13GHz adds an additional $250 over the PM 2.0GHz. Throwing in the extra ram & hdd just about fills the gap in price between the two models.

So, putting everything aside except the graphics card, what type of real benefits will the V3200 give over the X300? I plan on using this laptop as my primary computer and it will be as such for at least 3-4 years.

How do both the V3200 & X300 compare in reference to the Radeon 9500Pro 128MB (currently in my desktop machine)? I've heard the X300 is roughly equal to the Radeon 9600, which was basically just a die shrink for the 9500.

I guess my main concern 1-2yrs down the road is I want the option to upgrade Longhorn if I so choose.

I've run the current Longhorn beta on the Radeon 9500Pro 128MB and it performs quit well. My only reservations about the X300 is it's rather small 64MB of ram.

[mlykke]

Like i've said to some other people in here. Look at the thread "the search for the ultimate....".

I will be testing three different thinkpads for the next few days.