485m + 2630QM vs 6970m + 2820QM questions

Apologies beforehand if this thread should be merged with the general sticky, but as the thread title says I have a few questions regarding the two sets of GPU+CPU combinations. The list of questions as follows:

1. Gaming performance: I believe the 485m combination is stronger but not by too much. Am I wrong?

2. Video playback: Both combinations likely overkill for hardware-accelerated playback, but any difference performance-wise?

3. Battery life: Which combinations lasts longer on battery?

4. Driver/CPU issues: Problems have been reported with the 6970m and downclocking when not gaming. Are these widespread or temporary glitches to be resolved with the latest driver packages?

5. Longevity: For games and general usage, both combinations should see 1-2 years minimum maxing out most games at 1080p? Is one combinations significantly stronger than the other?

Any replies regarding cost can be safely ignored, I'm looking at the two combinations solely based on the above criteria. I'm not keen on seeing the thread dissolve into a red vs green flamewar either so request any replies to be constructive and hopefully backed up with a few benchmarks.

 

The 485m combination is indeed stronger, but not by much. And it will give you more battery life since you are looking at sager/clevo

For maxing out games on FHD, this is going to be though, since they are basically in the same power level as the 6850 (desktop), and those are not truly high end cards.

since price is not something you are concerned about, I would go for the gtx 485m.

However if permutation is allowed I would grab the 2630qm and the 6970m, its more, cost wise, effective.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, cost-wise I would pay a lot less for the 6970m + 2630qm combination, but I'm currently contemplating an order change and the combination I quoted above is still roughly equivalent to what I've already put down. Budget's not an issue for me since I've more or less decided on the specs I want, the above comparison is just to confirm a few questions that I can't seem to find answers for.

This should mark 3000 proper posts in the notebookreview forum, I really lack a social life with this landmark.

 

Hmm, a 485m and HD6970m are within 5% in performance with each other, when using the same CPU.

Seeing as how the HD6970m is being paired with a faster CPU, they might perform exactly the same gamingwise, and depending on the game, even faster with the HD6970m.

Given how close in performance they are, and how well designed they are for higher resolutions, I'd go for the AMD combo mainly due to the CPU. That 300mhz extra speed should come in handy.

 

The difference between the 2 cards sometimes is good, and sometimes isnt. It actually depends a lot on the games that its used. An example:

In Dirty 2, the gtx 485m wins hands down, or any nvidia card for that matter.

However in AMD optimized games the 6970m wins by a good vantage too.

Most of the games however the difference is there but its not something to rave about.

I would invest in other necessary things like SSDs with the ''left'' over money.

 

Regarding the last two posts, my configuration already includes an SSD and screen upgrade so it's purely down to performance between the two combinations.

I plan to run Shogun 2 on the above rig, which I understand is taxing on even the latest quad cores. If the new Witcher is anything like its predecessor, it's likely to ask for a beefy CPU as well. Some of the emulated games I played in the past were too much for my current C2D so I'm wondering if there'll be a noticeable difference.

I appreciate the feedback, please keep the comments coming!

 

1. 485m GTX is slightly better performing, but for the most part it is an even bet. I do know the 485m overclocks fairly well, but 6970m has had some good success as well. I'd say it's really up to cost and brand of preference. With 485m you get PhysX if that's important to you. There have been lots of benchmarks earlier on, but don't have them bookmarked unfortunately, but check out the Sager forums here as there have been lots of people finally receiving their machines with 6970m

2. No difference with video playback. Definitely both overkill.

3. Don't know for certain in battery life but mine gets about 2.5 hours on battery with ~ 30% screen brightness and wi-fi on, basic web browsing

4. I have heard of the 6970m issues as well. One can only hope it will be resolved, but not an issue with 485m so far.

5. I'm expecting a solid two years, as in through Jan or Feb 2013 with stock configuration. If Ivy Bridge is compatible, I plan on updating the CPU. Chances are there will also be a compatible GPU with this MXM IIIb slot that will be significantly better than the 485m or 6970m by two years from now as well that will be worth upgrading to.

As far as gaming, the 2630QM should be more than adequate for any gaming for quite some time. The 2820QM IMHO is a waste of money because you get only 100MHz improvement and 1MB extra cache over the 2720QM. I'd say get the 2720QM if you want a faster chip with the extra feature set (VT-x, AES new instructions). If you really want a boost to performance then the 2920XM is what you'd want and then only the Sager NP8170 will support overclock profiles, not the 8150. But specifically for gaming, that would even be a waste.

 

1. I've been observing and posting in some of the benchmark threads, I don't think I have any games in my portfolio that support PhysX so that's no loss to me.

3. Yours is the 485m machine if I remember correctly, thanks for the battery estimate. Now I'm wondering if someone else with a 6970m and high-level quad core has a battery estimate.

4. The latest 11.4 WHQL ATI drivers are suppose to resolve the driver issues on the ATI side, but more feedback from others on this matter would be nice.

5. I'm not good at upgrades so I'll keep my machine until the warranty expires before considering alternatives.

Regarding the CPU issue, does the 2820QM not support the extra features provided by the 2720 (Virtualisation etc.)? I've checked the ark intel website and the only differences seem to be clock speed and cache size...

 

Pretty much the 2720 and 2820 are only different on the clock speed multipliers count. Otherwise the features on both of them are the same. Now the 2630QM does get gipped on the Virtualization, TXT and AES-NI stuff.

 

I misread HTWingNut's post, he believes the 2820qm isn't worth the expense since it only boasts improved clock speed and higher cache compared to the 2720qm. The 2920 extreme processor is not mentioned in my comparison since that charges quite the premium for the ability to overclock the processor which I do not require.

 

Oops, I did forget to mention about the cache size. However, the VT, TXT and AES-NI stuff are still in the 2720QM.

 

Based on the feedback received, I'll summarise what's been recommended to me based on my criteria:

1. 485m stronger than 6970m in general, however the stronger CPU coupled with the 6970m makes overall performance dependent on the game/application being run.

2. No worries regarding video playback, the 6970m has a problem downclocking when idle.

3. 485m sees minimum 2 1/2 hours battery life, no idea about the 6970m. I'm not getting an Alienware so I don't have switchable graphics anyway.

4. See 2.

5. Two years for either combination should be a safe bet.

Based on the above, I'm leaning towards the 6970m combination. I lose on GPU-heavy games but gain on overall performance and future RTS games with more demands on the quad core's computing muscle.

 

I don't think the 6970m have a problem downclocking. Mine downclock perfectly find when idle.

 

I bet Kevin_Jack2.0 can send you links for 6970m bechmarks...

 

The problem has been identified and isolated on a few machines and driver versions, it's not universal and not that big a problem since performance at full power remains unaffected.

I've seen performance benchmarks on DEagleson's thread in the Clevo forum, I'm not sure if anyone has done any battery benchmarking with SB quad-core CPUs equipped with the 6970m.

 

No, but there was a review of a machine with 6970m that did a battery test comparison, and iirc the 485m fared better.

Here's one from anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4223/eurocom-racer-radeon-hd-6970m-rocks/6

and gaming benchmarks comparing the 485m and 6970m on the previous page of the review.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4223/eurocom-racer-radeon-hd-6970m-rocks/5

HotHardware did a comparison with the 470m, but that's kinda useless imho

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Mobile-GPU-Battle-Radeon-vs-GeForce-w-Eurocom/?page=1

There was another site that did one vs the 485m too but don't have a link.

 

I remember the anandtech review, curiously enough I've just finished reading notebookcheck's own review of the 6970m and they claim its battery life surpasses that of the 5870m although no comparison is made with the Nvidia 485m. The benchmark results basically tell me I shouldn't see a problem going the ATI route, a shame no website to date has tried using Shogun 2 to measure computing performance.

Edit: Finished the HotHardware review, nothing new I haven't already learnt from the Anandtech and notebookcheck reviews. They mention the increased power requirements and the limited battery life thanks to the 6-core desktop CPU in their test build but that's about it.

 

Internet and general use, I get 2h 20m, on battery with no tweaking.

 

I would pick the 6970M+2820QM for the moment. There is no laptop that have the 485M with Optimus, which makes the 6970M look a whole lot better since atleast with Alienware you can manually disable the GPU and use IGP. Neither does anyone have 3D with 485M which is sad because it could perform enough to play all games in 3D on high details where 460M struggles today.

The difference between 485M and 6970M is neglible too. If 485M costed less i would have considered it, because of Nvidia`s excellent drivers and support, but the way it look today the 6970M+2820QM is the best imo.

 

For what it's worth, I've gone the 6970m+2820QM route. I've cancelled my last P170 Clevo order and updated it with my preferred options. I wasn't getting an Alienware anyway so switcheable graphics and Widi for higher battery life was out of the question.

Thanks to everyone for the contributions, now I hope to see the machine in the next 5 months or less!

 

why five months?

 

School maybe?

Congrats on your pick! Excellent machine.

 

If the 6970+2820QM is not too expensive (namely, if the price differential is marginal/acceptable), then go with it.
If you work in CPU intensive programs for 3d rendering for example, then the 2820qm will easily surpass the 2630qm since it would provide a 300Mhz boost (15% increase per core - not much, but will be slightly noticeable during longer rendering), and it will equalize the gpu during games (the 6970 is already a very powerful mobile gpu to begin with... within 5% performance difference of 485m).

but if the price difference is too much, then go with the 485m + 2630qm

 

According to our CPU stress test comparisons, the 2820QM can maintain 2.8Ghz on 4 cores, to the 2630QM's 2.2Ghz.

That's an impressive 22%, but it still wouldn't be worth the $350 premium, for me. I want it though.

 

2720QM 2.4-2.5GHz on 8 threads/4 cores, not too shabby either. But in most cases really won't make much of a difference.

 

Labour day holiday means no internet and no posting until work restarted.

Shipping issues, anyway my family will enjoy my machine for use as a backup not only for gaming but also for office work since I configured mine with Microsoft Office 2010.

Not doing too much CPU-heavy work, but the occasional video conversion and console emulation might appreciate the power difference. Basically the money saved from picking the 6970m when into the CPU upgrade with change left over.

 

Notebookcheck.net has a review of a Sager NP8150 I believe with the 485/2630QM, while laptopmag.com has a review of the R3 with a 6970M/2820QM. Look at those reviews and see which gives you better performance If you can't find them, I can link you.

 

Congrats on the buy!

For Shogun 2, the extra power of the better CPU will definitely help, since its a CPU intensive game. At the resolution you'll be playing at, the GPUs will be more or less a wash anyways, so the extra CPU will help

 

I'm expecting better overall performance with the 6970 configuration for Shogun 2 compared to the 485, both should still manage high settings regardless of environment though.

Until the order comes in and materialises itself as a delivery, I'm still stuck with my current Vostro. Hopefully it'll be finished and delivered by next month so that the family can enjoy it in my stead.

 

does the latest drivers provide perf boost to gtx 485m and 6970m?
are they still within 5% to 10% of each other or more?

 

Both have received performance improvements with driver updates, but few comparative analyses have been made with the latest driver updates so it's safe to assume the gap is still the same as was reported during reviews earlier this year.