M17x R3 Desktop Replacement Comparison?

Can anyone tell me if I could expect similar performance CPU and GPU wise between these two systems? I've tried to get an idea of CPU vs CPU performance and that seems to be the harder question to answer, The GPU seems a little weaker, but I'm not sure if it will be that noticable.

i7 2860QM vs i7 930
6990M vs GTX 470

Neither overclocked, mostly using single threaded apps however, I know that windows will be using multiple threads so I am guessing the 2860QM is going to be running in 4C turbo mode for the most part.

 

The core i7 2820 is slightly faster than a core i7 920 desktop. I've also seen a review where the i7 2820 was faster than a desktop 2500k

Now your 2860 is slightly faster than my 2820 so it should be close to a i7 930 desktop if not faster

AnandTech - Intel?s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape

As for the 6990m vs desktop gtx 470,

the stock 6990m is about 10% faster than a desktop GTX 460 768megs. So you can use that to compare with your gtx 470

 

I'm really hoping so. Right now I need a powerful CPU to play my game (EverQuest 1). As stupid as it sounds, the game engine is so horribly coded, and since it is a single threaded app, it runs best on high frequency CPU's with a lot of cache in order to draw the graphics. The GPU tends to sit mostly idle (30% usage on GTX 470) and maybe 350MB RAM used.

Either way, I've got a MSI and Asus, both killer systems for non-EQ gamers for sale soonish~

 

Are you buying an alienware?

 

Yep have a M17x R3 on order, 2860QM, 6990M, 4GB DDR3 1600, 500GB HDD, 1920x1080 panel.

 

should be fine. the 2860 tb's to what, 3.6GHz, so for a CPU-intensive single-threaded game like EQ1 it should be comparable if not better (given the SB core optimizations) than the 930.

 

It amazes me that you need this kind of horsepower to play Everquest1? A game that was released in 1999?

A sandy bridge is a gen 2 core i7 which clock for clock is already about 20% faster than a gen 1 core i7 (like a core i7 930). For example, a core i7 sandy bridge @ 3ghz is roughly equivalent to a Core i7 gen1 @3.6ghz (assuming all cache sizes are equivalent, and assuming the same time factor to perform an equivalent amount of work)

you will smoke that game with this laptop

 

That was my thought as well. I was really mostly concerned since the 2630QM in my G53 didn't perform very well at 2.6GHz compared to my i7 930 at 2.9GHz. I wasn't sure if the mobile chips just weren't as "robust", if that's the right word, compared to the desktop chips, thus isolating solid game play strictly to a desktop. All the benchmarks for the 2860QM are above and beyond the i7 920 on notebookcheck.net, it's just you never know until you actually try it.

I almost wish I knew someone who had a system that I could test it on before hand, but I took the plunge anyway. I just need a system that I can take around with me to hotels and such and still be able to game during downtimes and evenings.

With my EPP discount through my company, I ended up building that system for the same price as a Sager, and get all the alienware bling to go along with it. Not to mention, the M11x that I had for a bit had solid build quality, so I know the M17x R3 won't disappoint. I'm so stoked!

 

Believe me, it amazes all of us. In a raiding situation where you have 54 players, a world created on DX9 engine, and all the effects and such that go into the game, it is just an absolute HOG due to the point that the game a) doesn't support multi-threads, and b) doesn't really use GPU for much at all in rendering graphics. Then add in corpses, tons of spawned creatures, things can get downright sluggish.

To their credit, the original engine created in 1999 has been modified, and it seems that with every expansion, they make some improvements to the textures in the "world" so the recommended specs increase, however, they still show the recommended specs for a Pentium 4, and a Geforce FX 5700. If I were to play the game in a raiding scenario with that system, the game IMO would be unplayable~

My GTX 470 and i7 930 still struggles to play without choppy frames on raids, albeit, not very often. The M17x R3 is going to be my portable solution and at-home replacement

 

If it doesn't do multithread get an ES 2920xm (ES would be much cheaper than QS). Now that you can overlock it 4.2Ghz+ is doable. You run into heat problems if your running on all cores though. Can easily handle something like 4.2/4.2/3.4/3.4 though.