[FIGHT] AMD Radeon HD 6870M vs GeForce GTX 580M

Im on the market for an Alienware M17X and not sure which one I should buy regarding video card. (im sure im not the first to ask and sorry if its already disscuss but can't seem to find my answer.)

The video card fight between an AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M vs GeForce® GTX 580M. In the past, I learn to hate ATI and love NVIDIA for many reason. To all of you who own an M17X.. what would you choose if you had the choice between those 2 ?

Between the 4 options on the DELL website, the only M17X that come with a GTX 580M is the one at 2300$. The standard M17X at 1500$, the 1700$ and the 2000$ come with a Radeon HD. The addon option for an NVIDIA on laptop that dont have it is +600$ which is enough money to make me wonder if its a good idea to stick with NVIDIA.

Please help me and my brain .. its been in my mind for a couples of days and not sure what to do.

thank you for your time

 

The 6870m is no match for the 580m. It goes:
6870m/560m (similar) < 6970m < 6990m < 580m.

No comparison at all, the 580m is almost twice as fast as the 6870m. If you can find a 6990m though, then performance should be similar.

 

6870m vs gtx 580m?

FAIL!

Here's a comparo between the mobile Bosses,

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...mparison-GeForce-GTX-580M-and-Radeon-HD-6990M

 

First of all, thank you for your answer.

Really good to know.. i have been out of the game for a long time.. current video card is 9800GTX+ in a regular PC..

Here is the option without talking of the M18X:
M17X 1500$ Radeon 6870M 1GB
M17X 1700$ Radeon 6870M 1GB
M17X 2000$ Radeon 6990M 2GB
M17X 2300$ GeForce GTX 580M 2GB

So the question would become: Do i pay +300$ to stick with my first love.. ?

 

What would FAIL exactly ?

EDIT: oh i failed to see your URL.. lol

 

I think the guy is just saying what I did in a different matter. It is crazy to compare the lowest R3 GPU with the highest one

Anyways depends on whether you think $300 justifies Physx, CUDA and better overclockability. Bear in mind that the 580m does have certain throttling issues however there are 2 solutions to this already and the newer drivers also help.

 

ATI has always been 2nd best, and this is my 1st time owning an AMD/ATI card. Loving it so far.

Still miss the Nvidia feeling from time to time.

 

Just finished reading the url who compare both.. nice read.. and saw the difference (Physx) in arkham city.. holy hell!! I dont know what CUDA is by i dont plan to overclock anything..

I was looking at the dell.CA site tho.. being from Montréal. Looks like they offer different deal on Alienware regarding pricing!

Im leaning toward GeForce so far.. Was just hoping to save a few $.

I read yesterday there was an issue with some GeForce.. overheating... hope its fixed in the 500 series.

 

Unless you NEED CUDA (and you admit you dont even know what that is) or you NEED physx, or you need 3d (which isn't really feasible in a laptop), the 6990m is the way to go

if you are from montreal...talk to the guys from reflexnotebook.ca...i bought my laptop from them and they gave me a big discount 514-505-4344

 

And Doc, the nvidia cards aren't without their issues. For example, there are pages and pages of threads that talk about nvidia throttling issues. If you get the 580m, there is a very high probability that it will affect you

 

It's a pity AMD's driver support is becoming more and more like Creative's with each revision.
That's something to consider as well.

 

^ like he sez..i too am an nvidia fanboi....but unfortunately the implementation of optimus / a screwed up machine made me change that and (begrudgingly) had to move to ATI

in favor of ATI
great bang for buck
hardware functionality

cons
shoddy drivers

 

Since i wrote this question yesterday, I am more than ever unsure about which video card i should go.. i have the opportunity to switch from not having ordered yet but can't pull the trigger until i make a decision based on what i read here..

When you say Shoddy drivers... you guys mean
longer time for them to be release .. ?
a lot of baddly-working-drivers release .. ?

 

gtx 580m is STILL +375 dollars, and I think 75 dollars is not too much of a jump to go 580m from 6990m.

I think even in the performance/price ratio 580m owns 6870m, check notebookcheck.com, otherwise 6990m and 580m is close competitors I guess (performance difference is about %3 percent)

 

I can't change the topic otherwise i would have done it.. didn't knew at the time.. but the real fight is now only between

M17X 2000$ AMD Radeon 6990M 2GB
M17X 2300$ GeForce GTX 580M 2GB

I am now fully aware that a 580m would owns a 6870m.. would you pay 300$ more just to stick with GeForce.. or keep the cash and stay with the 6990M ?

 

isn't it just +75 bucks?

 

i'll go back and check.. note that i have to shop on dell.CA being from Canada.. if that make any difference with the price with the USA site..

 

just checked, yes it still is +75 dollars, this is a very nice price and the only one of its kind on the web (elsewhere the difference is still somewhat 300), I think if you can order with US prices from a representative (I think you can, ask to pros) go with gtx 580m, you will like it trust me

 

My choice on DELL.CA are
M17X 1500$ AMD Radeon 6870M 1GB (+600$ to switch = 2100$)
M17X 1700$ AMD Radeon 6870M 1GB (+600$ to switch = 2300$)
M17X 2000$ AMD Radeon 6990M 2GB (no option to switch to any GTX)
M17X 2300$ GeForce GTX 580M 2GB (already come with it)

The only M17X that already come with a 580M is the 2300$ one.. the cheaper one became pretty much the same price as the one with the GTX already in it... with a few extra goodies..

 

All other components equal, I would take the 6990M option. I have an older CPU, and my 6990M runs Skyrim at 45-60fps on Ultra. The 580M It is a $300+ because of the 'fanboys'.

Count how many threads you find complaining about ATI drivers, and then count how many threads you find complaining about Nvidia drivers. You'll probably find a 50/50 ratio.

 

wow.. big dif in the pricing.. and 20% off on video card upgrade.. geez! thank you for the info

 

Doc, did you talk to the guys at reflexnotebook.ca? They are an alienware reseller (one of only 2-3 in Canada) and they'll give you 10% off the whole system right off the top. its negotiable because they have a 20% margin on the alienware.

NEVER order directly from Dell on an alienware...alwayss go through a reseller and save cash

I got my laptop with 6990m and 1080p lcd for $1850 shipped

 

^^This. very good advice. I ordered from Dell but went through the phone and haggled. Never order from the website. You may even get the 580m for a price better than the 6990m.

 

I went to their website, founded strange that you build a pc with dell then send them your order and magically save 10%... your information explain why..

I didn't called them yet since i first need to jedi mind trick my wife with that kind of purchase.. and want to be ready when my force power will be strong enough. After the video card situation, i'll just need 2 or 3 more answers and i'll be ready ..

I was wondering if you buy any M17X as of today, will it be automatically an R3.. beside people talking about their R3.. i never see anything on the web site that specifically say R3 beside the M17X.

 

I ordered unfortunately from Dell and got jacked by a couple hundred I wish I was reading this forum before my order... this advice must be followed to the point, forum is swarming with people saying they got 16gb 1600mhz ram for free from the rep

 

Yes definitely that's true, tons of people complaining about nvidia drivers too. I want to test this CUDA computing with MATLAB that's why I went with gtx 580m (and got a very nice discount on it), otherwise 6990m is a slam dunk definitely...

 

ya...but at least on your next laptop, you'll know what to do

 

And you can haggle after the sale too. When mine arrived and the HD space was the the 10% differential standard and the performance was not up to the price standard I made them refund another $100 or threatened to return and reminded them shipping alone was 85 bucks plus the loss they'd take having to list it as a refurb. Definitely haggle if you call before I purchased using my buddie's aafes account I talked to teo sales reps and the prices where spread by $400 dollars. I also learned not to tell them you have coupon codes until the end of the haggling process or they factor that into their bottom price. It's fun, it's like "surprise! we're not done yet!"

 

Call back and threaten to cancel without an updated deal. It's your money man, you had to work for every single dollar you made, make those bastrds work harder to get them out of your hands!

 

I did! I got another 125 discount because of the reduced price on gtx 580m, but I guess as of now I like the laptop, and as slick dude says, I will wait for the next one (2 years, I am thinking of keeping and upgrading the GPU on this one )

 

well don't forget you pay a premium for cuda/physx. it's a shame if you get it and never take advantage of it.

i can't agree with the ratio.
opengl games are crippled on ati cards. always has been as far as i can remember. take a look at Rage for example...
as a result of this opengl issue, linux support also suffers, albiet it's gotten a lot better since AMD took over in this department. it's good to see the driver improvements.

yes i too sometimes miss the nvidia card, mainly for cuda gpu encoding using badaboom and general ease of use for linux 3d modes.

 

M17xr3 with GTX580 is being sold for 1599$ new from dell now
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Hell of a deal

 

wow Alienware is really trying to get rid of the 580ms. lol

 

How come.. when i try to build one exactly like your url.. its never the same, or got the wrong videocard.. where or how did you find this specific one ?

i click on M17x R3 Intel Core i7 Laptop, Killer Graphics one at 1599 with the add over it "20% off Graphics Upgrades", customize, then BAM... same price but 8gb ram and come with an 1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M.

 

Doc, that link doesn't apply to you...its not valid for Canada.

the 580m's are on a firesale right now...but my only advice to anyone looking at getting it, is that only get the 580m if you are somewhat computer savy. You will 100% have to upgrade the vbios, repaste the GPU and do other tweaks to keep the throttling in down

 

LOL...2 yrs? Oh come on! With the next gen just around the corner? You'll be salivating at the ATI 7900's with revolutionary XDR2 Rambus...twice the bandwidth but 30% less power usage. i don't think my 6990m will last through the summer

 

do you think 7900m will be around this summer? I keep on reading it will be later, I guess 7700m will be around this summer and maybe Q3 for 7900m, XDR2 instead of GDDR5 is really nice but, don't know, will be reaaaaally expensive also I think I will wait for GTX 680m (implies Q4 )

oh btw 2 years for keeping the laptop, not the parts

 

hmmmm...its all up in smoke right now lol...I have contacts that work for ATI, errrr, AMD and they are currently testing the 7800 engineering samples (desktop) so what the mobile versions will be or how they will perform, i have no idea. But the 7900 will be my next upgrade if this laptop doesn't get given to my wife before then

I'm kinda torn right now though: upgrade the vid card, or just get a new laptop. My wife wants my alienware so i have the green light

 

that's a nice solution indeed (don't anger the wife, get the new laptop, 2 birds with one stone ) I think I will stick with R3 until R5, and upgrade the GPU next year, gtx 580m anyway I think will be able to max most games next year (do you think anything can beat frostbite 2?) also BF3 skyrim and diablo 3 will be enough entertainment next year

btw I read somewhere (don't remember) but mobile cards will come out first? (this is contradictory though, as TSMC did not start mass manufacturing only the mobile ones so far, rest is going on)

 

no problem with being computer savy, i earn a living in IT. buying an alienware is the easiest build i have ever done.. (choosing option on a website) since i usually build them from scratch (buying pieces and building it).

But even if i can't buy that actual deal (and kinda forced to use dell.ca) .. i should be able to create it from DELL.com.

My point being, if there is something i dont know, and cant choose/build a sweet deal on the US site.. maybe i make the same "mistake" on the CA site by not seeing every option available.

And the currency US/CA is close to the same thing.. and i endup with many $100s more than the US site. Just trying to understand.. maybe its just that i must be on watch for deals when they come at the right moment.

 

ya, i think that's contradictory...you'll probably see low volume shipments of the highest end cards first...then the regular desktop versions, then the mobile chips. That seems to be the well established pattern in recent years.

your current config will kill Diablo3 and it should already be running skyrim and BF3 just fine. So there may be nothing on the horizon to upgrade for lol...but i have a feeling that you'll want something new just for the sake of getting it. You have that hardware bug

 

Doc, you can't order from the US site. You can try but i don't think it will let you...once you put in your address, you might have issues.

Anyways, pick your parts, then go through a reseller like reflexnotebook. That is the best way.

 

crap, so true! bye bye money

something very sad about 28nm is that it will be mainstream first to enthusiasist later release...