M17x r2 - SLI 285 GTX or Cfire 5870

Which one to take
what performs best
can you use default AMD drivers on the 5870?
can you use default NVIDIA drivers on the 285gtx?

cant decide ....

 

it's been discussed quite a lot before. i believe the general consensus is that the 5870s are a better choice.
Yes to both your last questions..

 

better choice for gaming/benching.if you need CUDA go nVidia and for both you have to wait for Dell to release drivers

 

Conflicting answers on his last 2 questions is not good. Best to clarify on who's right or wrong.

 

i would say its best to wait till dell comes out with drivers cuz i tried the drivers from the nvidia site and my machine crashed and froze alot and ive only had my machine for 4-5 days now so i went back to the dell drivers and my system is back to normal and ive bin playing alot of games on it lately and no crashes or frezes hope this helps

 

same goes for the ATis.so it's just a matter of choice of what you're actually going to do with your machine.

 

Yep, I had 260m's then 285's now 5870's.
They all have their good and bad points.

Although, I think overall I am a bit more happy with my 5870's than I was with the 285's

Just CURRENT personal preference (I am not a fan-boy of either company)

D.

 

I have the 5870's and I am very happy. As for the driver's yes you can use either websites. I did the drivers off ATI's site, but I found better performance off the Dell drivers.

 

I have had no issues with mine running nvidia drivers, very happy.

 

like i said, you can run most of the drivers for both cards.

 

cool , thanks for the answers. My M1730 is failing (a lot) under warranty, the techs made it even worse and i'm pushing Dell to issue a replacement, i'll ask for 5870's, because after my M1710 and M1730 i do not trust high end Nvidia mobile chips anymore, too high failure rate .... never seen that with the red team

 

Good luck with that replacement buddy!

 

THANKS, say how's that SSD + 500GB 7200rmp combo workin in your notebooks? and where do you store games? on the SSD or on the HDD?

 

Hey there, Psyloid.

As an Nvidia user, I'll say that the 280s and 285s run fine. The M17X is a much cooler laptop, as are the cards. I have never had an actual GPU failure, but because of the throttling issue with the R1, they are switching one of my R1 units to an R2 with 5870s.

From what I have read across this forum, the 285s do run fine, but in the case of the M17x R2, the verde drivers don't behave too well with the setup. I am more comfortable with the idea of going with the 5870s largely because the driver support for the M17x is maturer, and also because they are signficantly stronger with a greater headroom for increasing performance.

You should be able to score a crossfire 5870 configuration, since officially, they're the 'same price' option, if not cheaper. Let them offer you a replacement specification first, and then negotiate from that point forward. Try not to make it sound like they're doing you a favour or an 'upgrade' by giving you the 5870s -- it's quite the contrary case, actually.

Best of luck with the support team.

 

I have 256 ssd and 500 7200rpm combo. Works great for me I love the speed of the ssd in windows and i keep WoW on the ssd. Everything else goes on the 500 gb and also works well.

 

My secondary 750GB HDD is purely for storage. I only have a 120GB SSD, but all of my apps and games go on it. Why are you only running WoW off of an SSD that big, Sir?

 

yeah, my 500gb drive is storage only, all apps + games are on the ssd.

 

i only have a 64GB SSD so i'll be running my games of an 7200rmp 500Gb HDD

 

^^ don't worry about it too much. As long as the OS is on the SSD you're all set

 

i'll use yer great guide then +1rep

 

I got the 285s and they are great, the new beta drivers work perfectly, and every game runs on high spec with no crashes.