G73-JH upgrade: 920xm vs 940xm

So I'm most certainly upgrading my g73 the end of December. I'm severely torn as to which CPU to go to. I've heard a bunch in both positive and negative for the 920 and 940. I'll list a few of what I know, I'd really appreciate everyone's input.

920xm :
Pro:
Cheaper
Cooler (assumed because of lower clocks and the inability to pump the voltage a bit more)
Still fast as hell.

Con:
Lower voltage tolerances ( can't over clock as stably)
can't pass 27x multiplier across the board ( up for discussion)
I haven't seen any good threads about stable overclocking for gaming

940xm:
Pro:
3.6 ghz stable for gaming on 4 cores
Higher voltage tolerance ( Or so I've heard)
31~32 multipliers ran with the possibility of stability (maybe)

Con:
150-200$ more
Much better cooling setup needed with an o/c
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I'm planning on doing the 7970 upgrade later on next spring if all goes well here.
If you have any more pro's or cons please add your input. I intend on working towards gaming o/c's not so much highest stable for benchmarks.

 

920xm. It is an unlocked CPU you must read up about the XM before purchasing. When unlocked both can be tweaked to 4ghz over all 4 cores. Meaning the only difference between them is if they were locked the 940xm would be faster but they are not.

If you want a locked CPU then you don't need an XM so the 940XM is useless. See my sig for a link.

Also your pro's are wrong because at stock the 940xm is only 3.6ghz when 1 core is active not when 4 are active. You use throttlestop to choose the TDP and allow to CPU to run the multipliers up to the speed you choose. You have to take into account the heat produced from this but the 940xm at stock is no different to a 840QM.

Stability wise the difference is minimal at best if there is any difference between them because they are both the same chip.

I wont brush over your other cons but put it this way I had my 920xm running all 4 cores at 3.6ghz on a prime run, and it did not brush 90oC at 98watts.

 

If gaming is your main goal then save your money and get a 920XM. You are not going to see a huge difference between a 920XM and a 940XM during normal use.

When not benching, both of these processors are ultimately limited by the cooling performance of your laptop. Are all of the numbers you have been seeing are they for the XM in a G73-JH? Your expectations seem a little high for daily use. Some of the sky high multis that I have seen (30X) are with voltage mods and sitting in a freezer or under an AC unit. When gaming, a 25X multiplier across the board is not going to be much of a bottle neck so trying to go beyond this is not going to result in a huge FPS increase.

 

Sorry Yiddo, I seem to have missed a few key points there XD. I've been keeping close tabs on the 7970 upgrade forum, and there are a few members posting results of a stable 27x multiplier on all 4 cores for gaming with 2.6ghz. I'm looking for the members but they are eluding me at the moment. But if you're saying the 920xm will be able to stand toe to toe with the 940xm in terms of that speed I guess your the one to ask. Was your 3.6ghz stable for gaming as well?

Also at Unclewebb, I'm aware that 29+ multipliers will require extreme cooling, it was simply an observation on the fact that I've never seen a 920xm over 27x multiplier, where as I've seen many 940xm's over 30 ( not sure on stability. But again, once you get 3ghz on 4 cores you're pretty much done needing cpu power. I will however be doing video rendering, so that will take advantage of the higher clock rates.

 

My 3.6ghz was stable but with quite a few mods to my heatsink and multiple testing with different compounds and tweaks. But the fact is the chips are the same just every chip is binned different and gives different results.

920xm is the way to go and the man above your post created a program which makes it so, what he says is true also the 3.6 only aided me with my video editing. You need no more than 2.6-3ghz max for gaming.

 

^_^ Thank you both for your input, and yea 3ghz is what I'd look for on a steady setting, now then I know once I get the 7970 upgrade I'll be getting a much stronger power supply, but would you recommend getting the power supply now, or will the asus one work fine with a 3ghz o/c?

 

I do not know a lot about the 7970M but it appears to be a mod that works if you know what your doing. However an SSD and a 920XM are the two upgrades you really want to focus on before going mod happy with it, they give a great performance boost.

I had a stock 150watt adaptor running mine upto 98watts it got a little hot but 3ghz won't cause it any problems. I think I ran games at 3.2 around 77watts. Depends on the game though most wont go anywhere near that.

 

Sweet, now to find a 920xm that is being sold used, but hasn't been overclocked yet . Again, thank you both for all your help. I welcome any input here still, and hope this will help out others wondering bout upgrading there cpu's.

Also as a side not XD front page on google for searching "920xm" XD woot.

 

Pick up a QS model new otherwise, they are exactly the same as OEM.