1080p Gaming - GT650M GDDR3/GDDR5 vs GTX660M

Hi all,

question for you experts - at 1080p and in demanding games like Witcher 2, will the GT 650M with 1GB GDDR5 outperform a GTX660M with 2GB GDDR5 with its slight core frequency advantage (900 MHz vs 835 MHz)? I'm guessing that the GT 650M with GDDR3 won't fare so well at 1080p.

The reason is - I have to choose among the following laptops:

Sager Np6110 - i7-3610QM (turbo disabled?) + GT 650M with GDDR3 - $880 USD
Sager NP6165 - i7-3610QM (turbo disabled?) + GT 650M with GDDR5 - $980 USD
Lenovo Y580p - i7-3610QM + GTX 660M with GDDR5 - $900 USD

All prices are tax inclusive. My typical use scenario is hooking the computer up to my 1080p monitor, so the screen on the laptop isn't too important to me.

Which computer would you choose in my situation?

Thanks!!

 

The 660M is just an overclocked 650M so I would choose any one of the three for reasons other than the GPU. I am not familiar with Lenovos but I do know Sager/Clevo is a great notebook.

 

There is a thread here on NBR that quantifies the difference between the two memories on the GT650m. It reached a general consensus that the GDDR5 version is worth it, I THINK. You should check it out.

Also, you can overclock the 650m to 660m performance. That being said, if you are getting a laptop with the 660m for CHEAPER, get it.

 

Just buy the 660M and say "screw you overclocking".

 

Witcher 2 is more demanding than any other recent game I've tried. It's playable at 1080p with most settings maxed using my GDDR3 5830m, however, the framerate is in the 20s most of the time and the lag makes the controls feel unresponsive. The frame rate did not improve significantly by dialing down the settings.

Considering how much faster the 650m is compared to my GPU, it should be fine at 1080p even with DDR3.

However, of course, you will not be able to play with ubersampling enabled, which is a setting designed for high end desktops with multiple GPUs in Crossfire/SLI.

 

Or buy a 650M and overclock it, it's easier and cheaper too

 

I decided on the Lenovo Y580 instead. I confirmed that yes, the CPU's turbo works just fine with the GPU active, unlike the Sager... and the price of $900 even tax/ship inclusive is too good to pass up.

Thanks everyone for your input!

 

The Sager's cpu turbo boost doesn't work if the GPU is active??? Do you mean the Intel built in gpu or the Nvidia gpu?

 

Over in the Sager sub-forum, the discussion result is on the W110ER and W150ER (NP6110 and NP6165), the CPU is observed to not turbo if the NVIDIA card is active. This is supposedly done to keep thermal requirements... however, this might have a impact on the performance. I have compared the detailed 3DMark06/3DMark Vantage scores of these notebooks with other notebooks, and found that the i7-3610QM in the Sagers remain at 2.3 GHz base clock whenever the GT650M is active, hence delivering roughly 25% less CPU scores. This is confirmed by Notebookcheck reviews also.

Review Clevo W110ER Barebone Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Review Clevo W150ER Barebone Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Interesting. I saw the same thing happening with people's posted benchmarks on the new Envy 17's. Pretty sure that's not happening on the P150EM's though.

 

The thing is that it's not just overclocked, but overvolted as well and he would need a modded BIOS (if there is one at all).

 

Its not easier. That was my point

 

If one knows how to handle his stuff, things can be fixed without spending money on the 660M but I get your point

 

$900??? WHAT!!! Really, what the hell? The closest thing available here in UK with GTX 660M is $1500!!! Man, I gotta move to America. Everything is so damn cheap over where you guys are. I despise you VAT!!!

I mean, that is way cheaper than what I bought my new laptop for just now, and it destroys mine in performance. Life in UK sucks

 

Yes, well, actually, in the great America, it would have cost me $1k for the base config. For some bizarre reason, over here in CANADA, I was able to get the best deal