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    Need advice on the Price of an AMD6990m

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by siang_rd, Sep 20, 2011.

  1. siang_rd

    siang_rd Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi everyone, is it worth it for me to upgrade to the 6990m with this kind of pricing?

    Price including GST: AUD $770.00
    Freight Charges (inc GST): AUD $40.70
    installation charges would be billable for additional payment of AUD$242.00

    Is it worth it for the extra performance to pay such a huge and ridiculous amount of money? Thank you.
     
    siang_rd, Sep 20, 2011
    #1
  2. DarthPierce

    DarthPierce Notebook Consultant

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    I think it's roughly 20% faster than the 6970 you have. in general, 20% is nice, but it's usually not enough to make something that was unplayable playable or anything super dramatic like that...

    e.g. if you get 40fps, you might then get 48... which is nice, but does it matter?
    if on the other hand there was something you got 10fps on, after a 6990 you might get 12. It's still unpleasant.

    at the same time, it's your money.... none of us really know what ~1k AUD really means to you... for some people that's nothing, for some people it could be a heck of a lot. So the question of is it worth the money is inherently a question only you can answer.
     
    DarthPierce, Sep 20, 2011
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  3. siang_rd

    siang_rd Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you for the advice. 1k AUD means a LOT to me. haha. But i still can afford it if it is really worth the upgrade. Like how you describe it, whether I will gain enough performance to justify its price. I am not a very technical kind of guy, I am going to UK soon for further studies, I just hope that I can future proof my laptop for the 2 years i am going to spent there because from what i heard from this forum, stuff from UK is DAMN EXPANSIVE. haha. So thx for the advice and hope to hear more from more better understanding people of this kind of tecnical issue than me.
     
    siang_rd, Sep 20, 2011
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  4. Vulnavia

    Vulnavia Notebook Consultant

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    Vulnavia, Sep 20, 2011
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  5. zoolian982

    zoolian982 Notebook Deity

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    Doesn't seem worth it really. You might as well just OC your 6970 a bit and stay with that till they introduce the 7000 series.
     
    zoolian982, Sep 20, 2011
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  6. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    Exactly. You can capture a large portion of the increased performance available from the 6990M by using TriXX with the 6970M, at no cost. I own both cards; the 6990M is a beast, but not enough to justify that kind of upgrade expense. Wait for the HD 7000's or invest in an SSD, which will provide a much more apparent increase in speed and responsiveness for general use.
     
    The Revelator, Sep 20, 2011
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  7. DarkXeRoX

    DarkXeRoX Notebook Consultant

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    wait for the 7xxx series, their not too long till release it be better for the long run.

    and ssd = win :p
     
    DarkXeRoX, Sep 21, 2011
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  8. Zeggy

    Zeggy Notebook Geek

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    Seems your specs are like mine.

    Im not going to upgrade or anything for at least a year or two, playing Bf3 or Skyrim will be v.good with these kind of specs. Other multi player games have over 150+ FPS so easy no problem.

    Seriously though its going to take a good 2-3 years for these specs to start to fall behind and upgrades needed.
     
    Zeggy, Sep 23, 2011
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  9. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    but then, what if you have a 6990 and overclock it even more? :D

    To the OP, overclock the 6970 to get close to 6990 speeds...the 6970 and 6990 are too close to justify $700?? :eek:
     
    SlickDude80, Sep 23, 2011
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  10. zoolian982

    zoolian982 Notebook Deity

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    Let's say he buys the 6990 right now.

    September 30, 2011

    "AMD has announced their newest 7000 series HD Radeon cards! Same price as the 6990, over 30% faster!"

    I think the OP might get pretty annoyed if that happens. It's better to stick w/ the 6970 and wait for the 7000 series anyhow. I mean there's already previews of the desktop 7000 series, I'm sure it won't be too far away in the future.
     
    zoolian982, Sep 23, 2011
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  11. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Stick to the 6970m. Still a decent card and much quicker than many other GPUs.
     
    widezu69, Sep 23, 2011
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  12. SlickDude80

    SlickDude80 Notebook Prophet

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    The cards that i'm really interested in would be the 7900's because they are going to use RAMBUS XDR2 ram which features twice the bandwidth of DDR5.
    However, the 7800's will be coming out first (probably Q1 2012 so it will probably be Q2-Q3 2012 before we will see the 7900's)

    Sounds like the OP has cash to blow if he is even considering upgrading a 6970 to 6990. I wouldn't personally do it...but you know what they say: "IF you want to play, you've gots to pay"
     
    SlickDude80, Sep 23, 2011
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  13. Chaos92

    Chaos92 Notebook Consultant

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    Chaos92, Sep 23, 2011
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  14. siang_rd

    siang_rd Notebook Enthusiast

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    thanks for the input guys ! really appreciate it. I guess I will hold off the upgrade and wait for the 7000 series from AMD. Thank you everyone.
     
    siang_rd, Sep 24, 2011
    #14