nvidia 460 vs. amd 5870

Is there a big performance difference? I might just get the laptop with nvidia 460 in it next, since this G73JH is just a pain. The laptop just requires way too much patience, maintenance, and stress on the end-user. too bad it's so good when its actually working.

so i am thinking of replacing my G73JH with either JW or SW. can someone explain the performance difference, mainly for games and video editing (adobe CS5)?

i look at the problems/solutions sticky, and the G73JH section is basically in chapters while the other models are less than 10 lines each. so what is a good laptop replacement for the G73JH that is not a G73JH. i really like the G73 cooling system though

 

Ohhhh dear you really should have searched for these threads before posting one and noticing that my post is normally the last post just before a mod locks them hahaha.

You would never be able to compare between Nvidia and ATI because people will have their own opinions and support their own cards

Personally I love Nvidia but have an ATI because the JH was the cheapest G73 available and I went for price vs power vs problems in that order. It doesn't really matter as long as I can game above 30+ FPS so you just have to make the choice for yourself.

G73JH + Good Price... Good Power... Has Problems -
G73JW + Has fewer problems... Good Power... Ok Price -
G73SW + Very good power... Has fewer problems... High price -

3D versions + 120hz screen... 3D gaming... Higher price -

Both are very good cards. Both are good for video/gaming/editing but do not offer the best software available for CAD/3D work, like an FX or quadro card etc.

In terms of overall power by analysis and benchmarking you can find the results here:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

You will notice the 5870M is 7 places above the 460 GTX.

........soon to be locked by El Moderito.

 

There are plenty of threads here discussing performance both synthetic and real world games between the 5870 and 460 so just have a browse or search.

If I was you, and wasn't able to get my g73JH trouble free, I'd wait a little while and see what the G74 is like.

If you are not keen to wait, then there are other good laptops with the 5870, or even 5870 in crossfire... put a post in the "what notebook should I buy" forum.

Otherwise g73sw is a very nice machine, with fewer issues, as you said. And great cooling (which is why I am happy with my G73JH, cool and silent with performance is a big deal for me).

 

yeah i like the g73jh but its a pain to run into these problems since i need it to work for school. i might get a desktop with equivalent gaming specs instead and keep the laptop for mobility, because the g73sw is about $600 more than a jh. i just dont trust the g73jh to be reliable for long periods of time, because something always creeps up that causes it to malfunction. i also cant send to RMA because i cant go 2-3 weeks of not doing schoolwork. well i could if i had another computer to play video games on

 

Well, what problems are you having with it right now?

 

G73 Series

You'll find 2 reviews of the G73JH and G73JW with real-game benches.

 

unexplained lock-up during video playback, it no longer happens thanks to a system restore to 24 hours before the first freeze, but i dont trust it and don't know why it happened

 

That's because it's a really popular laptop. 99% of those problems were early-adopter problems that have been fixed. The other 1% tends to be hardware faults, same as anything else.

Don't think that because the G73 community is large that it has problems. And most of the "problems" have easy fixes, if you're willing to update some drivers - which should be high on your to-do list anyways.

 

The new G73jh's, well "new" as in if you happen to buy now, all come with the updated vBios and Bios, meaning the fixes are done.

 

Is your BIOS 213, vBios v93 and everything up to date? The lock-up, does everything just stops moving? What player were you using? Sounds more like a software problem.

 

Was going to say. That sounds like a software problem. Have you done a clean install? After a clean install i swear ive had 0 problems. The few problems i did have were all fixed with a fresh Windows install. Performance of the notebook seemed to double for me as well. I had 35fps max settings on BFBC2 before the clean install. Now after the clean install im playing max settings between 50-65FPS. No problems what so ever.

 

If you get the G73SW w/ the GTX 460, make sure you don't get the BB version; it has the stripped down 1 GB version.

The way I look at it: 5870m is more powerful, but runs a lot hotter than the GTX 460m.

Like a previous poster said, if you can wait until June/July, the G74 w/ GTX 560m is supposed to be on par if not faster than the 5870m.