8700 sli questions

I'm pretty much sold on a np9261/d901c but have a few questions regarding it.
Firstly, is the quad core proc worth it, with regards to futureproofing

Secondly, now that the 8700 sli is available, which is the better choice? i know 7950 performs a bit better but realistically, with future usage in mind what would you guys suggest?

Thirdly, two 256mb 8700's in the 1730 can get a score of 8000 in 3dmark06, how much of a performance increase from this can i expect from two 512mb cards as in the d901c?

 

I can't answer the questions, but as I am in the market for a laptop, what reseller are you using?

 

looking at either xoticpc or pctorque.They seem good enough to me,with excellent tech support.

 

What's the pricing like?

Definately go with xotic, I just built a better system on their for cheaper than torque!

 

The score of 8000 was gotten on a 2.8GHz X7900, and 256mb 8700M-GT GX2 and 4gb of RAM, the $4999 setup. You wouldn't see much of an improvement from increasing the VRAM size but the processor in the Clevo would thrash any mobile processor


As for getting an 8700 over the 7950GTX... it's better to wait for a high end DX10 card...

 

If you have to buy now, and don't plan on upgrading, I'd get the SLI'd 8700M-GT setup. However, I'd strongly suggest either getting a single 7950GTX and upgrading in a year or two, or just waiting until a high end DX10 GPU becomes available.

 

Yeah,in an ideal situation i would wait it out,but my ageing desktop 9800 died out on me and onboard graphics isn't an option for me coz i do cad work as well as 3dsmax, i'm running on a borrowed card right now but i have it only till late november or early december, so gotta make a purchase till then. So in that scenario, 8800 probably doesn't come out, then 8700 is the only option considering that i won't be upgrading the gpu after the purchase is made.Your thoughts?

Upgrading later on doesn't really appeal to me coz no matter what the producer guarantees, in the end it doesn't seem like a safe bet.The cost is another prohibitive factor, including the fact that i don't live in the states or europe, it would make the purchase more expensive for me.

 

9800 !?!??! as in nvidia 9800 =)

 

No dude....radeon 9800...old agp, but decent workhorse

 

It's up to you choose between the 8700M-GT SLi or the 7950GTX SLi. With the 7950 you'd be sacrificing DX10 (Already outdated with DX10.1 lol) for performance and with the 8700 you'd be sacrificing performance for DX10 which considering what current DX10 games have to offer... isn't worth it... (b4 you say that DX10 Crysis looks better than DX9 Crysis consider that there are many DX9 games which look bettr than DX9 Crysis so I think "they" crippled DX9 Crysis)
Id prefer the 7950GTX+WinXP over 8700M-GT+Vista

 

Vista vs XP fps are very small (or non-existant) due to more advanced drivers. DX10 is still an infant with only a few true DX10 games so its too early to tell how far it will go.

 

What you say is true to an extent...my concern is that with dx10 shader model 4.0 was introduced, since i plan to use this notebook a minimum of 3 years, doesn't the fact that 7950 doesn't support sm4 become an issue?

 

SLi drivers in Vista are... abysmal at best... that should improve but nVidia first has to fix the desktop drivers. I'd expect that in 3 years SM3 will still have widespread use but that's just speculation and then again nVidia and Microsoft already obsoleted my desktop 8800GTS with the upcoming 9800GTX and Direct3D 10.1 (completely breaking the usual two year cycle) before the Arctic Silver even had a chance to set lol

 

Lol well isn't that typical of them?...and isn't it gonna be the same thing as the difference between dx9 and 10?...that with a dx9 card you can run dx10 games but without the additional eye candy..so is there any benefit to go with the 8 series gpu?..i'm confused again...i guess there is no perfect choice at this point of time...if only nvidia wouldn't be such an ass about the 8800!

 

I think it would be best to get the quad core cpu and the 8700's.

I am in the market for a laptop and run graphic intense programs (such as solidworks, 3dsmax, photoshop, fluent, pro/engineer and pro/mechanica) as well and my trio of choices is the M1730, the M9760 and the NP9261. At the moment I am definitely tending towards getting the Sager/Clevo straight from the factory, but the problem is I live in Italy so it would have to be shipped (which adds on the risk of encountering damage during shipment, and probably facing import and value added taxes )

Anyway my Sager configuration was about $3000+ and I took into account future proofing. In my opinion the Sager is the best "future proof" laptop available, with dual MXM compatible graphics cards Raid 0/1/5 and a desktop processor in its architecture. This would make future upgrades a snap if required, and it ensures competitive performance throughout its lifetime of usage. If I didnt live so far away from where they make them, I'd buy it in a millisecond..

Personally I dont see the point in arguing over the graphics card. I chose the 8700 because i believe that while SLI drivers for vista are known to be poor compared to XP's, they will improve. Thus making the 8700 faster than the 7950GTX (I have read from people with experience of both cards saying that the 8700M GT is already faster than the GTX) Ultimately I would pose myself the question: when you have 1gb of graphics memory available, is all this fussyness worth it?

 

then the people you are hearing this from are lying or are misinformed....two 8700gt's will probably be better than one 7950gtx. One 8700gt cannot get within even 5-8% of a 7950gtx and it never will. Also 1GB of gfx mem is useless unless your running a res higher than 1920x1200, and secondly the 8700gt cannot even utilize all of that mem because of it limited bus bandwidth.

 

owned!!!!

"Ignorance more often begets confidence than does knowledge" - "pwning machine" Charles Darwin