660m? 6990m? 7950m? Help me!

Hey everyone,
I've been upgrading my system a bit the past few weeks and I'm currently in a bit of a pickle over the GPU upgrade. Frankly, I don't know what to pick!
I've currently got a 460m so I don't *need* one now, but with the new 1080p screen coming in and me wanting to extend the life of my M15x, I think I need a new card!

I don't really want to deal with the 7970m's throttling issues, so that's out of the picture. I don't know if the same issues have been as numerous with the 6990m or 6970m, so if they have been, please let me know.

I'm not averse to any vbios flashing/driver modding and, while I am particular to Nvidia cards, I'm open to AMD cards as well.

I like the idea of having a 28nm architecture and if the 7950m is actually going to surface at some point in the future, I'm willing to wait to purchase it.

I have a budget of $500, so if anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

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At that budget get the 7970m. From what I've read on this forum the throttling is a minor inconvenience at the beginning of each lengthy gaming session.
Not sure if people experience throttling at stock clocks but people on this forum are running huge overclocks on a 7970m and OCing cpu as well!

I was in the same position as you not so long ago and decided on a 6990m. Unfortunately it was a Clevo card so no native fan control which became annoying. I decided to sell that to get a 7970m (which is on its way). The 6990m was a powerful card but did run quite hot. It could handle Tomb Raider on Ultimate! Good value option.

The GTX 660m would definitely be my second choice now (looking back) due to its low power consumption and large overclocking potential. Also these pop up on eBay quite often from people wanting to upgrade a new laptop etc.

If you don't want to spend all that money or deal with throttling issues and would maybe be interested in some overclocking, the GTX 660m can be overclocked to beat a stock 6990m! Power consumption will be quite high though.

Keep an eye out in the NBR Marketplace for bargain gfx cards.

 

the Nvidia GTX660m has no throttling issues at all, runs very cool and great for overclocking if you are into overclocking. if you buy a dell card you do not have any issues with internal monitor working, or DP port,audio or anything its simply plug and play with a slight driver inf file mod.
the Nvidia GTX660m is also within the dell's set thermal/power limits for the M15x to which just makes it a perfect fit.

 

No matter what card you get, make sure its a DELL branded card. This way you won't have to contend with fan control or with the 660m DP, Audio over DP, or anything non-PNP & INF file related.

Frankly with a 500 budget allowance, why don't you get a newer generation M17x by selling off your M15? If your budget was smaller, I'd highly suggest a Dell 660m or 7970m -- I don't know if the 660m throttles but the 7970m CAN throttle if at stock volts or you OC your CPU decently. Without a high CPU OC, I find the majority of games I can max out without 2nd thought and this is on a Clevo card which has known grievances with our M15xs!

 

I just don't want to spend that much on a card and then not be able to use it to it's fullest potential as well as look out for power draw all the time...
I think I'm going with the 660m

 

Where did you get yours from? and could you point me to where you learned how/what to edit in the inf file?

 

Because I love my M15x This thing is awesome and I plan to stretch it out for another few years and buy a desktop at some point to complement it lol

Getting a Dell card is dually noted

 

i was going to buy it from ebay, but my brother ordered the cheapest m18x with the 660m to keep costs down as he had a 7970m given to him from a friend that bought the same laptop but with a crossfire config but kept having driver issues so removed it and gave it to my brother, the day my brothers m18x arrived i drove down to took the 2GB Nvidia GTX660m as for info on editing the inf file i went to: LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers and downloaded the inf file.
it was just a simple case of downloading the driver from NVidia site and opening up the driver and overwriting the inf file in there and the driver installation installed without a hitch. i play BF3 with a fps of 50-60 depending on map @ high settings on a 1080p res. im very inpressed with the card and it runs cool top temps are 2hrs gaming on bf3 are low 70's now i put newer better thermal pads on.

 

Thank you for the help, but I don't see where to download the INF file? And how to edit it..sorry, but I've never done something like this and I just wanna make sure I get it right!

 

What would the boost in performance be from an OC'ed 460m to a 660m?

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3dmark11 graphics score (performance) of 1800 (OC 460m) to around 2900-3200 with OC on 660m.
Just to put this into context, the 7970m has a graphics score of around 6000!

 

Lol and the 6970m and 6990m?

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6990m stock is around 3200 but I OCed mine to 3600 before I sold it (can't remember exactly what clock/memory speeds that was though). Basically OCed 660m is the same as a stock 6990m.

 

lol why does the 7970m have to be so good...I'm just worried about drawing too much power and throttling issues. I don't want to get that awesome card and then not be able to utilize it.

 

If this is helps ease your mind, I decided to get this card despite these issues. It's just too powerful to ignore. The throttling issues can we worked around. See the thread in this section.

 

I've seen it. I guess I'll be looking at getting one in the near future.