280m sli or 4870 cf?

Im in the final stages of ordering my M17x, and Im not sure if I want to upgrade to the 4870s. My biggest concern is upgradability. WIll the M17x still be compatible with nivida gpu's or ati only? when the 300 series comes out, will I have that as an option?

 

So far people have actually had difficulty upgrading their M17x's (e.g. getting a second 260M), however in terms of upgradability, it won't make a difference whatever graphics cards you go for.

I'd go for the 4870s, they do perform better and for not all that much more.

 

I have the 280m, but i would prefer the 4870s, much faster cards.

 

tbh we dont know they are much faster cards, we only have dells info to go by which lets face it when the cards cost more they will "massage" to look better for ATI wont they

 

LMAO there faster simple as that


and you can EASILY get the cards from from dell (260/280_

 

so i should go with 4570s then?

 

I love how people talk about the 4870 being a much faster card but don't forget Nvidia is always on top of drivers update especially with the gaming community. Many bugs still have not been fixed for games such as WOW and Crysis with Catalyst driver.

So yes the ATI cards are faster for now but the lack of good driver updates make the card not attractive to many players.

 

^^^ I thought ATI got better in the drivers department?

 

^^^I aint got no problems with either of those games and my ATI drivers.......

 

Speaking as probably the only one on NBR who tends to favor nVidia, I must say the 4870 is looking pretty awesome. New design, new innovations, DirectX 11, and GDDR5, it seems clear the obvious better choice for performance is 4870 in Crossfire.

Too bad nVidia ain't coming out with any new stuff, I really liked them and was looking forward to seeing what they would of come out with....

 

It sure does make for good competition though don't it

 

ATI has gotten much better in terms of drivers but for games like WOW there is still some stuttering issues not addressed yet they know about.

Nvidia had the same issues and it took them months to fix it instead of never with ATI.

Also, keep in mind that a GTX295M should be coming around in a few months time and maybe the new 300M design sometimes after Christmas. I believe it's worth the wait for those who already have an M17X equipped with Nvidia.

 

The 4870 will be faster no doubt (seeing as two 512mb GDDR3 4870s in Crossfire trades blows with two 1gb GTX 280Ms in SLi). By how much? We don't know yet, but we can estimate that the added memory plus GDDR5 would make it at least 10% faster than the cards in the Asus W90, and probably more if these 4870s can run with the latest drivers.

 

the desktop 4870 doesn't have dx11. you sure the 4870m does?

that'd be pretty interesting to see considering the fact that nvidia couldn't pull off a 40nm die shrink on the gt200. for those that don't know, the current gt200s are NOT gt200(or g200, w/e it is) cores, they're just renamed g92s.

 

I never had problems running the dual 3870's in XFire playing WOW on my M17. Not sure why other people were. I ran everything maxed at 1920x1200 getting 130fps in wow. Im guessing the 4870's will run WOW just dandy.

 

Simply put, go with the ATI cards. They are faster and the driver support has gotten better.

If I had to have the best, I would find some way of obtaining them and upgrade my M17x, but I waited seven years before I "settled" on my M17x. I'm gonna wait till next year and hope that the new Nvidia cards will still support the current MXM slot within the M17x now.

 

But if you go with 4870 then you will loose Physx.

 

OH NOES!

 

^^^^^^^lol

 

Just a friendly reminder buddy!
Also, Bman is nothing without physx effects.

 

Its like no one agrees wiht any one. So lets see if I got this right.

-280m sli
physx
better drivers
2gb vram

-4870
gddr5
directx 11

but either way I still can upgrade to either one in the future as long as the platform is MXM. Is this right?

 

Couple corrections

 

they are not DX 11 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and you only have 1 GB VRAM


this whole thread was crazy

 

I though as long as its a MXM slot Im good. Come on Moo, if you have any input I would love to hear it.

 

mobile GPU are never set in stone

you cannot plan ON ANY GPU upgrades you can only hope you get them

 

I'm probably not as a hardcore gamer as some of you guys. 260m GTX Sli does it for me fine if I ever wanted a M17x.

 

Understood, Im just hoping for the best. Iy would suck to buy a $3500 laptop and then not have the option to upgrade later. With the way technology is advancing Im sure the M17x will be old news in the next six months, or even sooner. If I could get at least one gpu upgrade (295m) I think I would be happy for a few years.

 

can someone do me a favor and call dell US to ask how much it would cost to purchase an ati mobility hd4870 seperate.

i have called dell uk and they tell me they do not sell them seperate but they do seel the gtx 280m

thnx in advance

 

I'd wait for some benchmarks before deciding how to spend a huge amount of money

 

You're lucky to be able to upgrade it at all. Back even just a few years back, nearly every laptop would have the parts soldered onto it with no chance of an upgrade.

The thing for laptops is most now use what's called an MXM slot, as you're aware of. There are different slots however, such as MXM 2.1 (which is what the M17 uses for example) and MXM 3.0 (which is what the M17x uses). Obviously as new MXM slots come out (e.g. MXM 4.0) then graphics cards for laptops are more likely to come out to fit that MXM slot rather than older slots.

 

That is true....lol I remember those "olden days"....

 

Faster sure, but it's AMD..... I loved AMD when I was building systems.

Did you know over half the company was sold to a middle eastern firm? I work in a union and that just bugged me when I read it. I will never buy something from AMD again.

 

That entire issue about soldering the video cards in did suck, but my laptop from seven years ago did not fall victim to that issue. I have (still works, thanks to ebay) a Dell Inspiron 8600. She is old and plastic, but she held up for seven years, plus I have been able to throw new video cards into it when I needed.

Given, any new card created some new issues, ie thermal irregularities or AGP X slot overloads.

I just keep hoping that the new GPUs will maintain a MXM compatibility with the 3.0 standard, or at least some type of backwards compatibility.

 

Nice....I too still have a Dell Inspiron I bought back in 2001. It don't get much use now - and none now since I am in Iraq and did not bring it with me. Yep its old, clunky, thick, has only 384MB RAM, but had the first Nvidia2Go chipset with 32MB RAM and 1600x1200 resolution on a 15" monitor.

I'm keeping it mostly for sentimental reasons lol....

 

Trust me Im happy that Im able to upgrade. I remember not having that option, I have been working with computers for a while this is just my first performance computer.

lordqarlyn,
Good luck in the sand box man, I have less then a month left and It's bye bye Iraq.

 

Thanks Kerberus. I am here by choice as a contractor, should be here another another 9 months, maybe a year. My wife will not let me stay more than that regardless the pay, and I don't want to be away from her that long anyway.

But when I go back, I plan on getting an M17x refresh and building a wicked desktop system.

Thank you for your service!