HD6990m or GTX580m????

hey guys, amd has just released a high-end notebook gpu which is hd6990m. when i look at the spec, it seems slower than the gtx580m because it has lower clock speed. However, amd claims that the hd6990m is 20% faster than the gtx580m. Amd's claim is too bias and the gtx580m is $300 more expensive, that makes me still believe the gtx580m is still a faster gpu, it must me a reason why the gtx580m costs more. Which gpu do you guys think is the faster one? please help me out, im so confused between the two.

 

Dont look at the clock speeds for the 2. They arent comparable. The chips are different design as far as architecture goes so they are made up of different clock, memory, core, ect speeds. Look at reviews and benchmarks.

Go to notebookcheck.net and look up 6990m. You will get actual FPS of gameplay comparison. Nvidia is always going to be more expensive by the way. Probably because they make most of their money through their GPU's where as AMD has GPU's and Processors being sold alot.

If I were you I would go with the 6990m. I'm waiting until I can find a supplier and then ordering right away. I'm excited about it!

 

thanks for your advice, i thought $300 more will give me more quality, i still have to wait for the official review or benchmark from high tech magazine then i will make the final decision.

Another question, do you think that's possible to upgrade ram up to 16gb 1600mhz with cpu core i7 2820qm? i found that the 2820qm support up to 1600mhz, im just not sure whether higher ram speed will consume more power (watts).

 

I dont know a whole lot on ram and its speed but if the M18x can have the same processor as us and be configured with 32 GB RAM i would think you would be ok.

 

Nvidia cost more becouse of the complex architecture of their GPU's. AMD has a much simplest aproach and architecture.. It is really visible looking at the die size of both brands. Nvidia has a much bigger gpu die. Gpu/mem frequency doesn't matter as far as one design allow for more data to be processed per clock cycle

 

WOW! I have just checked out the performance of HD6990m on notebookcheck.com
here is the link: AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
the HD6990m is better than gtx580m in most games. Don't know why the GTX580M so expensive. Nvidia sucks this time

 

I doubt those stats tell the whole story, somehow I'm still leaning towards the 580m because Nvidia cards are just so much more consistent and stable.

 

yea I was more of a Nvidia fan before buying my R3, but I'm gonna go with whatever company makes/sells the best product. that just happens to be AMD right now. Nvidia is good stuff though.

I'm curious to see how the 6990m overclocked would do. i overclock my 6970m now and is probably as good as the 6990m w/o overclock. Still want the 6990 though. I'll have to play Witcher 2 over again and see how it runs 2nd time around.

Off topic, I played CoD Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox360 today and it looked like crap compared to games on the R3.

 

You can also use RAM with speeds of 1866mhz or 2133mhz (2133 isn't released yet), just gotta make sure it is plug and play.

*EDIT* Also, the 6990M is better, but both cards are very good. You will be happy with either. I would rather save money and get the 6990M, but that is personal preference.

 

Wait a couple of weeks. Will have mine and run some tests.

 

Another reason why you pay more is because of Physx technology and ability to run CUDA apps with a nVIDIA card. Also 3D support which is not a hassle like with the ATi/AMD cards (3D not being supported on the M17x R3 is another story, ask Dell why).

But for the average user/gamer, the mobility 6990 is the way to go

 

You cant go wrong with either of the cards in terms of performance.

6990M has a great price/performance ratio. I would probably only take the 580M if I needed a nVidia gpu for work.

 

I will go for which ever one has higher fps regardless Physx or CUDA.

 

hah! thats why nvidia still launches the cards at that price! its all about price VS performance, and nvidia lost greatly at this time

 

Is this even a question? 6990m for sure! why would you pay more for worse performance! (in most cases)

 

So how much would the 6990m by itself cost? And how much could I sell the 6970m for? Just curious that's all... (Just in case I'm feeling adventurous one day ).

 

$200 more for a 8% weaker card...

 

I wouldn't say it's weaker as it depends on what specs they used to test it with. I've actually seen higher results for the 580M compared to 6990 on PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Custom PCs, Custom Computers, Custom PC, Desktop PC, Custom Built Computers, Gaming PC notebooks, and this was the result:

3D mark Vantage (P)

GTX 580M - expected 15,000. Actual result: 16,263
HD 6990M - expected 14,000. Actual result: 14,273

 

Point is you're paying double the price for technology that doesn't work properly (Optimus), no current 3D support, and same level of performance (even though most tests show a negligible increased performance by the 6990M). For me personally, CUDA is useless so I'm left with Physx, which only a handful a games support currently... Just configured my R3 yesterday with the 6990M and didn't look back

 

The 580 runs 3d externally just not internally.

 

Apparantly the benchmarks on notebookcheck where done with a Desktop 6870 card at 6990M clocks, also with a desktop CPU - Core i7-2600K, so it was a bit biased compared to the 580 results that were taken from Clevo notebooks. I'd wait until we can have a proper comparison between the cards in similar spec notebooks.

 

6990m without a doubt. The 6990m is supposedly more than 15% faster than the 580m, but that's obviously biased on AMD's behalf. I still think it will be at LEAST 10-12% faster, if not much more.

 

BTW, some guy over at the Clevo forums has asked the guys over at mvktech to overvolt the 580m from the 0.87 to 0.92v. Results are absolutely staggering. He managed a bit more than 560 Ti clocks on one of his cards and benched giving 17.8k GPU on single non-SLi. His overall scores are inflated due to using a 980X (over 19k) but he is doing everything physx off and we can just focus on the GPu score. Here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/595787-extreme-gtx580m-overclocking.html#post7718166
I wonder if there will be any differences hardware wise from the Clevo ones and the Dell ones...

 

I have used both the 6990m and the gtx580m on a 17inch Alienware laptop playing crysis 2, Gtx 580m does better at high 1920x1080p

 

Proof please. How? Where did you get the cards?

 

Sure I will get a SS this weekend dad has a m17x r3 with gtx 580m and brother has a m17x r3 with 6990m, Dont get me wrong for the price of the 6990 its a way better deal then the 580m, some games favor nvidia some favor ati, BC2 plays much better on the 6990m then the 580m but that game favors ati.

 

Since you seem to be the only person who has access to both cards, can you please post some benchmarks of each?

 

Yes I will do that this weekend, Sunday the only day are family gets together lol.

What games do you want benchmarks for?

The reason why we didnt get 2 6990'm is due to my dad does folding at home-Nvidia over ati on that 100% of the time.

 

Awesome stuffs man! Can't wait to see the stats and benches!
Take SS's of everything lol!

Shots of GPU-z + gaming benches + GPU benches 3d mark and all that....just everything or whatever you can eheheh
Thanks.

Cheers.

 

Dont believe it. Must be 6970m. Cards are out 2 weeks and Dell does not even have them, but they are taking orders.

 

Lol, wrong dell has had them. Ill rip it out the pc and take a picture for you. Alienware was the first to have them before anyone eles.

 

There are people on ebay selling the 6990m in the m17x's lol and they ship next day. People that pay more get stuff faster. Also being a share holder didnt hurt.

 

Well will wait for the screen shots and benchmark results then.

Call your brother and let him join this forum.

Do you have a link to those ebay sellers? I cant seem to find them. :/

I've only found 2 re-sellers who order the system with the specs you want, they do not have any systems in stock and so wont ship next day.

 

3d panel is available with the 580m in the uk now. yeahhhh!

 

i highly doubt you will see any benches this Sunday. My current order has been sitting as work in progress for 2 whole weeks now.

Also my friend has ordered a M18x 1week and 1/2 status showing work in progress.

dell 6990m and 580m are still not shipping yet.

So Dell either dont have the stock yet (as Nvidia just released 580m card ending June/ Early July.) (ATI 6990m released 2 weeks ago)

I know Alienware Lappys may take a little bit longer to be made due to custom builds etc, but 2 whole weeks at work in progress stage is saying something.

I agree with Brabostaan comment Dell is taking orders with no stock grrr!

 

I'm sure that Clevo and Compal are waiting for stock as well. It's all a matter of supply and demand.

 

Still waiting for that 6990m bench.

 

I will be ordering a 6990-equipped m17x tomorrow, for what it's worth.

$500 more for the 580M and the 120 Hz screen was just way too much for me, considering I don't care about 3D and since the 580M and 6990M seem to be roughly equal performance-wise.

 

would be boring if we all wanted the same stuff

would be interested to see the benches though

 

According to Mythologic corp (Sager Builder, custom laptop), the 6990m is about 2 to 3% faster than the 580m, so hand down the winner is AMD.

 

2/3% is practically not measurable!

also lose 3d, physx, nice drivers, etc etc etc!

 

Yes yes Nvidia fanboy

3D is not very important, physx only occur in few games, and nice driver is nice, and or butttt the 580m is too dam expensive, I would take the 580m in a heartbeat if they were the same price point.

 

yeah, im not a fanboy actually. i just have had bad experiences with ATI in the past.. nothing against ati guys

anyway 3d for me is very good, physx i could take or leave it.

 

No denying it good, but 2D gaming is more than enough especially with DX11.

I have a total of 6 Ati cards and 1 Nvidia card. The only card that didn't give me a problem was my Geforce 7600GT, whereas all my other Ati card has, however those problems are minor, like shuttering in some game (patch came out soon enough), or no AA in some big AAA game, and blur effect in games like Sim City 4, not to mention the lag when trying to look at my score on Bad Company 2, but even still Nvidia is overprice, and I love my HD5850 GPU even if it has some minor annoyance.

As you can see I will take Nvidia over AMD anyday but it price is not justify.

 

we have some dual channel conversation here

but yeah ive had mostly nv with 2 ati cards. the 9700 pro was awesome till it died

 

Yeah the 9700 Pro was one of the best cards ever. It blew everything nvidia had out of the water at the time, and for a good while afterwards, especially in price/performance.

 

yeah it was awesome, good times

but my Overdose on max overclock and constant WoW killed it

 

AMD has been on a roll with drivers lately.. the 580M isn't even officially supported yet IIRC by Nvidia.

And for the price gap, I'd put the rest into a fast SSD or something to make my overall laptop insane

Yes, but Vantage is a terrible game to play

 

i already have an ssd 580 will suit me fine im sure

 

People will always prefer one over the other, using points more or less valid. I'm keeping an open mind about it, I went through nvidia's 7950GTX, 9800GTX and 280GTX SLI and ATI's 7200, 9700 and 5870X2 xfire, all laptop cards, and liked them all, save the 7200 and 9800GTX maybe... Not to repeat myself (post #19), but for me, especially in this market, it's all about price vs. performance. Nvidia tries to justify 300$ with 3D, physx and "nice drivers", not to mention the Nvidia brand name. Worth it? You decide... I configured my 6990M and got the best price/performance deal in current notebook graphics, period.