Alienware 17X R3 6970m vs 460M vs 485m Real Tests

Eurocom Racer: Why the Radeon HD 6970M Rocks - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Was in doubt before waiting for GTX485 or get 6970m but apparently they are pretty much identical performance wise
paying 500$ more to upgrade from 6970m to GTX485 seems silly nvidia need to price drop their cards or introduce GTX580m.

 

Definitely close at 1080p very high/ultra. At the lower resolution the 485 beat the 6970 by about 5-10% pretty consistently.

Only draw back to the 6970 appeared to be battery life.

 

Yes $500 for 5% performance boost is pretty steep

 

According to their tests there is even less than 5% overall both cards got 84 frames overall in their test of all games combined, 6970m sometimes beat GTX485 and that's with old drivers, latest AMD drivers on the desktop made their cards gain massive performance unlike any of their previous drivers, at least they are learning now, even though amd getting good now i still prefer nvidia drivers and software

I wouldn't say GTX485 got better battery, Both are almost identical again, the 6970m win at idle and the GTX485 win during media playback, and they are identical during browsing the internet.



And it doesn't get super hot during heavy load (was 80C max under heavy load with a 15inch laptop) 17x wont have issues cooling it.

 

Makes me feel slightly bad for the people who pay $75 extra for the 460m instead of the stock 6870.

Only slightly, though.

 

There are other things than benching that you can do with a nVidia card and not with an ATi...that explains the price difference.

 

6970m > 485m (performance/cost)

 

With the upcoming AMD drivers it will properly even beat the GTX485m
http://blogs.amd.com/play/2011/03/1...review-driver-that-you-have-been-waiting-for/

. Up to 70% performance improvement in Civilization V
· Up to 49% performance improvement in Call of Duty: Black Ops
· Up to 23% performance improvement in F1 2010
· Up to 21% performance improvement in Wolfenstein MP
· Up to 15% performance improvement in Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X
· Up to 17% performance improvement in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
· Up to 28% performance improvement in Metro2033
· Up to 33% performance improvement in Left 4 Dead 2
· Up to 26% performance improvement in FarCry 2
· Up to 15% performance improvement in Crysis Warhead
· Up to 50% performance improvement in Unigine Heaven
· Up to 22% performance improvement in Batman: Arkham Asylum
· Up to 19% performance improvement in Aliens vs. Predator

Like cuda? Intel Sandy bridge GPU/CPU encoding now is superior and faster than both GPUs it will become the main tool sooner or later because how fast it's.
Optimus? 6970m support GPU Switch in the m17x R3
Nvidia drivers? i still prefer them but AMD is working on them as i see.

Unless more heat is a feature....

 

Great marketing

 

The more I read this thread the happier i feel that I chose alienware over sager and amd over nvida.

 

A big thing missed out besides CUDA is physx and 3d support. Yes the 6970 can support 3d, but its a lot more annoying of a solution than nvidia. Absolutely the 6970m is better performance/cost, no arguments there.

 

AMD 6970M + Alienware M17x-R3 = Winning Combo for newest 17" gaming notebook on the market. No other vendor comes close. Sure X7200 blows away the R3 in gaming performance but it's thick, heavy, ugly, loud, has no battery life and the power brick is half the R3's size.

 

I am not a benchmark freak, however even I can see the flaw in this study. How about we test video cards actually using the same processor instead of the 6970 with a more powerful processor from what the 460 is being tested with (not to mention the rest of them).

I am pretty sure there is more to frame rates than straight GPU input...unless EVERYTHING else is standard during the testing.

 

I can see the argument for the 460, but the 485 and 6970 both have a 2720qm according to the tests done by Anandtech.

 

i see where some may wish to appropriately compare/debate features/performance/value of the HD 6870M with the GTX 460M, and the HD 6970M with the GTX 485M - but what is with the continued new posts/threads with comparisons of different class (460M vs. 6970M) gpu's?

its literally apples to oranges - as should be for hundreds of dollars in cost difference...

so let's *please* focus on any q&a with valid comparisons as to the advantages/disadvantages of *same class* gpu options workable in the M17x R3...

 

I loled

@Topic
Come on there were already other topics regarding 6970m beating the hell out of 460m. But you can't deny that 460m is still a good card tho and 3d is a plus to some people.

 

Considering the 17xR3 is not offered with the 485 or the 580 and that the review you linked to was not conducted on a 17xR3, I'm at a loss as to what this has to do with Alienware.

If you want to discuss #s produced on systems other than Alienware, head over to the Hardware or Graphics forums of NBR.

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TO ALL:

If you want to discuss the possible implementation of these GPUs thats fine however no trolling concerning the 460. There are folks who prefer NVIDIA and are ok with it. Not everyone cares about benching GPUs. I'm seeing posts (in multiple threads) lately which are borderline trolling/firestarting - let it go.


Thanks.