1gb ATI Radeon HD 6870m or 1.5 gb Nvidia GeForce 460M

Which one and why?

Is there a noticeable difference, in gaming, to pay the extra money for 460M?
How does each perform?

Thanks ;D

 

The 6870m is basically just a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 with slightly slower core clock rate.
The core speeds of the 460m and the 6870m are both equal at 675Mhz, but the shader and memory speed of the 460m outweighs the Ati card.
_________Ati | Nvidia
Memory: 1000 1250
Shader: 675 1350

Depending on how you use the GPU, I would say the Nvidia card will perform better, and has more headroom for overclocking.
To be honest I wouldn't spend more than ~ $150 the get the 460m, I would simply get a better computer with a 485.

 

Pretty much just want it for gaming purposes. Starcraft, WoW, whatever game interests me in the future...

It's pretty cheap. I think its 50 more than the other. But I wasn't sure which was better, so just thought I would ask. Didn't want to pay -more- for a worse card. (For my purposes)

 

Btw, thanks.

 

Yeah I'd get the 460 in that case, what machine are you getting btw?

 

I'm looking at the Alienware m17x r3's.

core i7 2720
6gb ram
1.5gb gtx 450m
256 Solid State
1920x1080 wide FHD screen w/blu ray player

 

Yeah I just played around with the config options, I'd definitely go for the i7 2720 and the 460m.

 

interesting...I thought ATI's 68x0M series might be better than 460M but it is not..? Why don't we see 470M instead of 460M in comparison with ATI 68x0M series? what is dell and nVidia doing here?

 

Yeah..haha I already have an m15x on the way. So I'm going to have to cancel/return it (depending on where it is) and then wait for another system to be built. Which kinda sucks, but I'm willing to pay a little over $100 more for a much upgraded system, but I'm a little weary of this new "plastic" cover.

 

The 68xx series are almost literally the 58xx series, with maybe some clocks switched around. The top AMD performer is going to end up being the 69xx family.

 

Well I can't wait to see what Clevo puts in their mid range machines (the ones that use 460M right now) once they come out.

 

So, the 6870 and the 460M are about equal then, ay?

I just want the best graphics for games between the two, lol. This answer was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be, haha.

 

Get the 460m, the shader and memory speed are much better from stock.

 

This is irrelevant, as you can't compare shader and memory clocks on two very different architectures. The 460m will be slightly slower in anything in the playable framerate range. It will win in heavy tessellation games, but we're talking 16fps vs 12fps there.

As for overclocking, the 6870m (5870m) is much more capable. Some users (including myself) were able to get an extra 35% out of the core at stock voltage. I was even able to overclock 20%(835MHz) on the core after undervolting the chip 7%.

I would get the 6870.

 

I second this. If it were as simple as comparing speeds, the 5470 would be a high-end card. Roastedpork, please be more careful about what you say, since you gave totally false information. What you said is the equivalent of saying that the Phenom II x2 N620 is faster than the i7-720QM.

 

In the alienware m15x forums the other NBR members tested the 460m vs 5850. At stock in 3dmark vantage they score close to equal. With 5850 overclocked to 5870 levels the 5870 scores higher. And beyond that it just widens the gap. I dont think it's fair to compare 5850 scores any higher than 5870 levels without also overclocking the 460m.

The point is the 460m is almost equal with the 5850m. I am not counting Tessellation as that is just Nvidia hype and of course they are going to score higher.

The 6870 should be just fine if you choose to go with it. If I was ordering the alienware m17R3 that's exactly what I would choose. The overclocking capabilities for the ATI cards from alienware are really nice.

Best Wishes,

StevenX

 

According to notebook it is a slightly underclocked 5870m meaning it is probably just a standard 5850m rebranded. The debate between 460m and 5850m has been raging for a long time, the 5850m is no doubt better for most games, it is proven but there isn't much in it. 5850m is very overclockable as well.

 

Actually, it's closer to the 5870M than the 5850M. It's core only underclocked by 25MHz (meaning that it's core is 50MHz higher than the 5850M), and I'm sure most cards will reach 5870M speed easily when overclocked.

 

460M is in between 5850 & 5870. Since 6870 is slightly oc 5870 the choice becomes obvious.

 

Thread closed.

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Thanks.