GTX 580M.. anyone try it ?

I wonder how good is GTX 580M compare to ATI 6970 ?(considering it's $350 more expensive)

 

Is not $350 dollars faster only 10-15% but if you just going to purchase your laptop now go for the best if money is not an issue NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

You cannot base your answers off one source. We do not even know how they conducted the experiment. Was it random? Was it independent? Was the population below 10%? Without any form of evidence we cannot conclude anything.

 

If the 580m is faster than the 485m, which it is, it's definitely going to trounce the 6970m. That said, the 6970m is still a much more cost effective upgrade.

It really comes down to your personal funds. If you can afford the 580m, there is NO reason not to take it. It's a monster. If you're on a budget, the 6970m is more than a worthy "2nd."

 

Really all the 580m is for is bragging rights, benchmarking, or future proofing if you want to keep the same gear for multiple years. The 6970m when tuned in right will stomp pretty much anything out there. The only reason the 580m is viable is in the situation where you would rather spend the extra $350 to benchmark and stay on top or to add another year or so to the life of the laptop if you're not beating the heck out of it.

 

Some people are willing to keep their notebook for more than 3 years if you can believe it or not. I recall spending $600 on my 9800 GX2 4 years ago, and it lasted up to this day for everyday gaming before I received my R3. It may have been overkill in the beginning, but that was 4 years without a GPU upgrade.

But after looking at the differences between the 485M and 580M, I'd rather have the 485M for a few dollars less.

 

You#d also get the benefit of PhyX. Although it's super expensive :S

 

Yeah I'd rather get the GTX 485m - and prices will probably drop now that the GTX 580m has hit - may become more viable. OC the GTX 485m by 45mhz and you have a GTX 580m. whee.

 

Well, I am going to get the GTX 580 on my new R3. I was going to get the 3D with the 460, but the 580 will do 3D as well since it does 1.4 HDMI out.

 

$350 more for 13% performance increase.

 

Again people, you're not thinking this all the way through. I said that already in the 580M thread, it's not just about the probable 10-15% performance increase, it's about getting it with the 120hz screen! As powerful as the 6970M is, you're stuck at 60 fps, so the performance increase is potentially 100% not just 15, since the screen allows 120 fps, so the smoothness of the gameplay would be so much better.
That's something to consider when deciding which to choose, and like Saosin said, absolutely no reason not to pick the 580M if you're not on limited funds, but to me, 580M + 120hz screen is no contest against 6970M + 60hz screen.

 

For me, (while on laptops) Optimus will always be the single source of avoiding NV's.....cuz' I spent 2+ months of trying to fix it's issues...finally relenting and ordering a new m17 with ati...despite the fact that I always enjoyed nvidia and would have picked the same (570..budgetary issues) if it weren't for the wretched Optimus

 

its not available for order in Austria yet ...

 

Yeh, if it would of did 3d with the 120hz screen, I would have been all over this.

Although, because of "problems" Dell says, they cannot get 3D working now or anytime soon or so they say.

Also you could get a 120hz screen with the 6970m, if you are talking about getting 120 fps with no 3d... Good luck pushing 120 fps with a laptop, most games you will only get 70 or less, unless you start skimping on the settings except in Black Ops or older games.

 

The mobility 6970 doesn't work with the 120Hz panel in the M17x R3...

 

That is what confuses me. The 580m is apparently compatible with 3D vision, yet it doesn't work.

 

Same here. I worry that if I do get the 3D 460 model today that there will be some hardware change that will prevent me from upgrading in the future.

 

First I said that 3d is just something extra, not the reason the 580M appeals to me. And since Sager are offering 3d with the 580M then I'm sure Dell will offer it too pretty soon.
Second, you can't get the 120hz screen with the 6970M, Dell won't allow it. And in 99% of the games you will get 100 fps+ at high with no AA, don't throw Metro in the mix, that game is an exception and the reason it doesn't get high fps is because of issues with the game itself.
And you don't have to actually hit the 120 mark to see a difference, even at 90fps the difference in smoothness will be visible (although in many games 120fps will be reached).

 

I don't think they are. Their 3D-ready display is available with the 485m only.

 

The question though is what hardware issue(s) are they having to cause this issue.

 

Cmon guys. "most bang for you buck?" If i wanted that i would have got a 360. For £190 or $300 thats cost effective right there........

BUUUUUT we dont do cost effective; that why we buy super expensive laptops..........

get the 580, it'll be worth it.

 

580m will be worth it if you are willing to spend the extra $$. It will be 15-20% better. I mean c'mon guys if we all wanted bang for the buck why even buy Alienware, just get other cheaper laptops with similar performance but not as good quality(you know which company i am talking about)

 

Most people won't even notice a difference between 120 fps and 60 fps. In fact, some people actually think it looks worse, not better.

 

It is true that 120fps and 60fps really don't look that different (considering the human eye operates at 60hz). However, all 120hz screens are 400nit as opposed to the 300nit of the 60hz. It has been proven many times that the comparison between the two shows the 120hz at half brightness being equal to the 60hz at full brightness. And I've never seen anyone say that it looked worse than the 60hz; there is nothing of lesser value to complain about. Unless you're in a really dark room, then the brightness might hurt your eyes (you could just tone it down).

 

I put a forum topic on Dell's site hoping to get an answer, so maybe Chris will reply and let us all know the true reason.

M17x 3D - no GTX 580 option? - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

And this is the ONLY reason why I want to get the 580M and 3D package. I don't care about the 3D at all really, but the better specs on the display are worth the extra money to me. I'm just not going to pull the trigger on any configuration until this gets sorted out. I will settle for a 6970 if necessary, but I would like the option to get the 580m+120Hz display.

 

That's not true. There is no set "framerate" at which the human eye operates. The human eye is more comparable to an analogue device which continuously sends all the information it receives to the brain - not just 1 poll every 1/60th of a second.

The key is that most people can't differentiate between 60fps and 60+fps. The reason for this is not their eyes - it's the part of their brain which processes vision. And since all people are different there are definitely a lot of people who can tell the difference between 60fps and something higher.

Some people can't tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps.

 

Well - Chris M was able to get back to me on the forum:

"I have not heard that there is a technical issue. All I was told is that the Nvidia GeForce GTX460m is the only video card that engineering validated on the 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 120Hz WLED w/ NVIDIA 3D Vision LCD panel."

So it looks like it will work - just waiting on Dell....

 

Go ahead and be Dell's guest and upgrade to it lol.

Head up though, that the 6990 will be right around the corner with better performance and price.

 

The 60fps limit on 60hz screens is only if you have vsync enabled.

 

60 hz screen can't display more than 60 fps. 120 can display up to 120 fps.

Anything over their refresh rate will result in tearing.

 

Without vsync, if your game is running faster than 60 fps then your display is "skipping" frames since it only refreshes 60 times per second. This is what causes tearing to occur.

 

The 120hz screen facilitates smoother and silkier gameplay when you are getting frames consistently above 60 FPS in a game where there's an element of speed. It's kind of like watching a movie at 60/24 and then seeing it in true 24p - there's a smoothness and natural element to it that is just very pleasing.

I've got five 120hz screens in my apartment right now and a 30" SIPS, so I've had more than ample opportunity to compare.

 

I don't know. but in hong kong its a very expensive option.

2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M [add HK$36,046.00]

divide it by 7.7 and you get USD

 

The 580M has the power to TRULY kickstart 3D gaming. The 460m is good but nowhere near enough if you want to play games in 3D at 1080p, and that is why I rarely switch on 3d at the moement. The GTX 580m can raise mobile 3d gaming to the next level and I for one am seriously considering upgrading once it becomes compatible.

 

I just ran WoW at 200fps and I didn't notice any tearing. Runs just as smooth as on my 120hz Envy 17 3D.
I really don't see the use of a 120hz screen other than 3D.

 

Pan the camera around quickly without vsync on and I promise you will see tearing. In WoW specifically, I remember immediately enabling vsync/buffering back when I played because of the visible tearing at the high framerates I was running at. Vsync very noticably minimized them, and fast movement or panning was much crisper.

 

It will show up mostly on special effects etc. Normally in FPS games it is on muzzle fire etc.

This is because your screen is refereshing at 60 frames and your game is going 200 faster then it. Since it is not "synched" you can see a difinitive line separation. I imagine that wow you would not see alot of it, however there are other negitives to not using vsync. It is always better for graphic quality to sync your games with your refreshrate. It makes the games run the best.

Stable FPS > Higher FPS

 

my current understanding of this would mean that to get the 580m working in 3D with the internal 120hz panel there would need to be an exclusive bios for each card - 460m and 580m, hardly an ideal solution, can you imagine trying to manage that

 

Keep in mind that AMD has terrible driver support. Plus, nVIDIA offers things like PhysX... I mean, c'mon. Do I really need to mention this?

 

On a 460M 3D model does the 3D still work if you download the drivers from nVidia? Has anyone here done this?

 

yup, we tried to get a 485m working in the R3 with the internal 3D and it would only work externally, we exhausted every possible configuration concluding that it had to be something Dell did with the system bios to get the 460m to work, the 485m worked every other way except for internal 3D

 

Dont forget the fan control was buggy.

It looks like Dell is screwing 3D owners again.

 

So, the gtx580m finally arrived. Any ideas when will gtx560m be available on m17x?

 

No, we don't and on a personal note I don't think it will ever be available due to the small gains against the 460m , buy who knows..

 

Seeing as how the 580M is better than the 485M--which was better than the 480M; I expect the 560M to perform quite well.

 

You can just base assumptions on how the other graphics cards compared to their predecessors. You have to look at the specs. The GTX 560m has a different core but the specs are exactly the same as the 460m. Same 192 shaders, same 192bit bandwidth only higher clocks. I overclocked my old 460m GTX to more than the 560m GTX clocks and still didn't reach 9k GPU points in Vantage.

 

^^ My buddy just bought a Sager 8130 w/ the 560m and he was able to achieve a 9200 GPU score on vantage but only when he overclocked it to the max. So...when I had my Clevo (in my sig) with the 460m installed, I could only max it out at 8700 GPU score on vantage with a heavy overclock. My point? the 560m is slightly faster only because you can overclock it to slightly higher clocks than a 460m (at least my friends could). Obviously every card will be different.

 

Apart from 560m, anyone tried 570m? So far, I can't find any laptops equipped with that. Anyone knows y?

 

Just sold my M17x R3 because Dellianware refuses to give 3D owners a better GPU option.

Will order another Dellianware in a couple of weeks, the 580m cost a pretty penny.