A few questions for i7 owners and HD5870m - Asus g73 etc..

Hi guys,
im planning, maybe not, to sell my xps m1730 in sig and get a pc (custom built like clevo w860cu or retail like asus g73) but im kinda puzzled about the performance they deliver.

Lets say, may budget is around 1500 euros / 1700$.

With my xps tuned in daily (3,8ghz, 2x 9800mGTX @ 600/1500/900) i pretty nailed the performance in some games i play. Below i will post the games i play mostly and settings, with average fps:

Dirt 2 - Ultra - 8xMsaa - 1200p: 45-58 fps
COD Black Ops - All Max - AF16x - 4xAA - 1200p: 45-75 fps
NFSHP - 4xAA - 1200p - Maxed out: 45-60 fps
BFBC2 - DX10 - 1200p - 2xAA - 16xAF: 30-45 fps
BFBC2 Vietnam - DX10 - 1200p - 2xAA - 16xAF: 40-68 fps
Mafia 2 - 1200p - Maxed out : 32.4 fps
Mafia 2 - HIGH (no AA) - 1200p - Maxed out: 51.2 fps
Crysis Benchmark - HIGH - 1200p - 2xAA : 34.5 - 41 fps

I want to know what kind of performance drop i get switching to a system with same spec as g73 (i7-720qm, single 5870m).
Im asking this because from youtube videos, dirt2 at the same settings hovers around 26-30 fps, so does crysis. Now im aware that drivers can help in the future, but still i wonder if its worth the performance drop.
Thank you all, any help is appreciated.

PS: please refrain to say "get a crossfire system like alienware" or "get something with gtx470m in it" because they break my budget, that is already a bit high.

Many thanks again

 

Why sell your XPS? Sounds like its a great system.

 

I cant match a Xfire 5870 for sure, but i was tempted to switch to an i7 + a decent card. The problem is that i dont want my fps halved...right now CODBO is doing fine, but sometimes 45fps arent enough.
Thats why im asking to you gurus on what to do: keep the xps or sell it for something like i described.

 

Keep you XPS for now, and wait for good systems with a high-end Sandy Bridge quad-core and either the 6970M or the 485M.

 

Agreed, wait for the next generation with Sandy Bridge and Nvidia 5's or AMD 6's or you're not gunna be happy.

 

Thanks peoples. Sandy Bridge notebooks are already available here in italy (santech) but with scarce gpus, for now only gtx460m. Bleh.

 

Your best bet probably for now will be Alienware with Sandy Bridge and HD6900M. Maybe Clevo will introduce something. The GTX 485M should be the fastest but it's nearly the cost of an entire decent laptop alone. The GTX 470M would be a good buy though if you have to have Nvidia for now. Personally I'd go with Alienware since there is a possibility it will support switchable graphics.

 

I love alienware, but hell those are insanely overpriced for my tastes. Plus there arent so many personalizations available in italy, and that sux....I guess the next m15x will have Sandy Bridge and a decent gpu, maybe that will be my "jump".

 

Sign up for Dell Small Business, and you'll get a 20% off coupon which is good for laptops. It'll make an Alienware more reasonable. Do some haggling with Dell rep, get your online quote, then slap in the coupon. SCORE!

 

Unluckily theres no such a way to get a coupon like that in italy oh well newer m17x just announced will be in 1500€ price range, maybe that would be my occasion..

 

From what I've seen and read, a single 5870 will get you around the same performance. GTX 460M will get around ~5% less in most stuff, but get's around ~10% more in games like Dirt2 and such.

Check these links for game/3Dmark scores.

460M GTX
5870

 

The Asus G73 will handle all those games on ultra/very high graphics flawlessly. I am a G73 owner and I cant really find anything to complain about. I play CODBO, Arma 2: combined ops, Fallout New Vegas ect all on maxed graphics without any framerate issues. ASUS is also one of the most reliable brands to boot.

Laptop reliability survey: ASUS and Toshiba win, HP fails -- Engadget

laptop-reliability-1109 | SquareTrade Warranties

 

Thank you for your input mate,but explain me why dirt2 runs @ 30fps.
Thats barely playable in my book,even in sli on my xps 45-50fps arent ok.

 

Minimum 36 FPS is 30 FPS? Really? Huh... I better learn my numbers again. And BTW that's ultra settings which your SLI can never do.

 

That doesnt mean nothing mate, althought i appreciate your input.
I want a real comparison with these settings:

1200p (or 1080p)
8xMSAA
All ultra settings

A cut image will not do mate...youtube videos are a good proof, game runs around maxed out @ 30fps. And i mean 1080p.
And since you're so hironic, if you talk about DX11, obviously i cant. But at standard DX9, i have 45 fps of avg. And yes, i can do ultra just fine. In game i can even keep 55fps.

 

That is 1080p and DX9 is not Ultra. Ultra uses DX11 features.

 

Ok so codemasters should be ashamed of themselves,because they sell a game that uses dx9 with ultra settings when its only a normal quality,because dx11 mode is the real ultra.
Cmon mate,as far as i see it dx11 mode brings only tasselletation and i can live without it. The game is the same,thats it.
Anyway leaving my stupid comments apart,a quick question: are you using your gpu oced and your cpu as well,or is it all stock?

 

The way you turn on DX11 features is to turn on Ultra settings. Good grief, getting angry over nothing. Get over it, that's how Codemasters did it. And the G73jh just ran benchmark with high settings (DX9) and MSAA 8X and still got minimum 34 FPS and Avg, 43.3. But whatever, at 1080p on a 17" screen, AA is pretty useless, unless truly anal about your screenshots.

Obvious the 5870M isn't up to your standards. So do as everything suggested. Buy yourself a Clevo with a monster Sandy Bridge and a $950 GTX 485M. And it will likely be slower in DX9 games.

And this thread isn't needed at all. Questions about how 5870M does against an SLI system have already been answered. It's been proven by other 8800 SLI or whateve system that in DX9 games they are faster than a single 5870M, 460M or even a GTX 480M. There are currently no single GPU systems as fast, the reason to buy 5870M is because you don't want to create custom profiles all the time for games to use SLI or deal with waiting for driver updates from Nvidia or want DX11 features.

Use the search feature and you'll see that your question has already been answered and compared before all last year.

 

But man,i wasnt getting angry or something like that,trust me.
Thats why i said to leave my stupid comments aside.
I appreciate any single contribute trust me.
And yes,im sick of sli profiles or bad drivers...still my question is the same: have you oced your gpu in those tests?

 

Ok so I just ran the Dirt 2 benchmark @ 1920x1080, 8x MSAA, and DX11 maxed with stock gpu clocks and my gaming OC of 800,1100. I then ran it in DX9 mode by going into documents/my games/ dirt 2/hardware settings and editing the hardware setting config by changing direct x forcedx9= false to true. That is how you make dirt 2 run in dx9 ruckus.

Stock clocks DX11: 36.9 avg, 27.8 min
Overclocked DX11: 40.3 avg, 30.4 min

Stock clocks DX9: 52.4 avg, 38.4 min
overclocked DX9: 57.1 avg, 42.7 min

I took vids off all the benchmarks I did and can post it later if you want. In my opinion your M1730 is still a beast and I would wait till something better comes out.

 

Now thats what i was asking for! This makes up my mind
With some luck ill fetch 900€ for my xps,im getting a custom built w860cu with same spec as g73,with i7 740qm and 8gb of ram.
The xps still a beast but dont forget that to get those numbers im using two gpus instead of one; with a single 5870 based on you scores i can achieve the same,probably in the future with newer drivers it will be better, and i will be able to upgrade the gpu at least 1 time too.
Thank you mate