Amd 6990 or Nvidia 580M

Just curious which is better videocard or are they roughly the same in performance

 

6990m is better in some games then again the 580 is better in others. want to play games in 3d go with the 580, otherwise the 6990m is a great card

 

K thks. I'm an AMD fanboy and was going to see if anyone wanted to swap videocards, especially if performance is the same.

 

I'd love to swap just because of being a nvidia fanboy, but I doubt you would want an ES 6990m. 580m gets higher benchmark scores when overclocked though and are more expensive.

 

the bottom line is that if you are handy with computers, a 580m is an option. There is a high probability that you will have to repaste, install throttling fixes etc with the 580m

If you want trouble free...get the 6990m. You could repaste, but its not required as there is no throttling. however, the 6990m is not without its headaches...sometimes, previous version drivers get stuck and you have to go through some effort to clean up the old drivers before the new ones will install properly. Of about 10 driver updates since owning my R3, this has happened to me once

The 580m does get better 3dmark scores but as far as games go, it really depends on which games. Some like amd better, some like nvidia.

 

580M is faster *only* when overvolted and I prefer nvidia's drivers.

 

This is definitely true. The 6990M is neck and neck with the 580M in terms of overclocked scores without overvolting. The 580M can be overvolted while the 6990M cannot, which gives it a higher potential, if you're into serious overclocking, BIOS mods, etc... If you don't want to dedicate that amount of time and effort, I'd stick with the 6990M. I am very happy with mine, and have had little reason to overclock it thus far, with the exception of benchmark scores.

One additional note. I just went and tried to configure a new m17x and the 580M wasn't even an option. It only had the 6870M, 6990M, and I think the 560M or 570M was the sole nVidia option.

 

The decision between 6990M CrossFire and GTX 580M SLI is mostly a matter of personal preference. There is not a gigantic difference between them and both have their pros and cons. Arguments for either GPU are possible, but trying to sway a fanboy is a waste of calories, LOL.

It's interesting that the M17x R3 and M18x are now only available with downgraded CPU and GPU options. The Extreme CPU is not available in either system at the moment. The 6990M is the only top end GPU option on the M17x R3. Thankfully, GTX 580M SLI is still available on the M18x. This really sucks for someone ready to pull the trigger on one of those two systems and has the cash to buy the best components available. I'm making an assumption, but I would speculate that perhaps they are trying to get rid of some of the aging mediocre hardware sitting on the shelves, and possibly to make waiting to purchase the M17x R4 and M18x R2 more attractive. Without the best CPU and GPU options available, now is not a good time to buy either or those systems unless you're strapped for cash and willing to settle for less than the best CPU and/or GPU setup.