Cant decide between these graphic cards. Can anyone help?

I'm looking at buying a laptop from pcspecialist but can't decide which graphic card to go for.

Firstly there's the GTX 670MX which brings the laptop to £900, then there's the GTX 675MX which brings the price to £985 and finally the AMD Radeon HD 7970M bringing the price to £1014.

Basically my budget is really £900, but I can stretch it to £1100 if its worth it.

How much better are the more expensive graphic cards? The GTX 675MX got a better 3dmark score than the Radeon HD 7970M, but seems to perform worse in every game i've looked at.

So is the price worth getting an upgrade between any of those? Or should I just stay with the GTX 670MX?

Thanks!

 

Go for the middle ground and get the 675MX..

Edit: on second thought.. The 7970 is much faster for only £114 more.. If you trust AMD to provide good drivers go for it. They are behind the nvidia in that respect, but they have improved quite a bit in the last few months. At first I was thinking USD though, so pounds sterling is a bit more of a gap..

 

Are you an experienced techie who doesn't mind troubleshooting and wants the best performance they can get? Get the 7970

Do you want to be able to run most (if not all) of your games on high/ultra settings and not worry about drivers and troubleshooting? Get the 675mx

Do you just want to play the newest games at medium to high settings at the cheapest price possible? Get the 670mx


I asked myself the same questions and decided on the 675mx. The 680 was more than I wanted to spend, the 670mx wasn't enough for a few of my games, and I want to be able to game on my laptop, not fiddle with drivers, etc, so the 7970m wasnt for me.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

Ah so AMD is for more experienced users? I'm mediorce at laptops lol, but not overly experienced so if that card requires a lot of tweaking and whatnot then it's prob not the best. But on the other hand the gap between the AMD and GTX 675MX is quite large?

Also wondering is it worth upgrading to 8G RAM and a processor upgrade?

Edit: Oh lol looks like both of us got the price gap wrong between the 675MX and AMD Radeon. Its a £29 price increase. But yeh like you said if its a compicated card then dunno xD

 

Dude, do yourself a favor and get the 7970m. I got it and I am thrilled with being able to play games on ultra high settings. I'm not that great with computers (I know enough to get by) and I run my games fine with the latest drivers from AMD. Just be sure to download 13.1 or whatever they are up to now, and you'll be fine.

Good luck.

 

@ fluent, wasn't trying to knock AMD or the 7970. But, without being biased, it is true that the 7970 has had some issues (mostly resolved) and it is also true that AMD is behind Nvidia in terms of driver support. While this might not be an issue for 99% of this forum, it is something that should be taken into consideration. The 7970 is a beast of a card and many users have had no problems. However, there is a chance there could be some issues. For me personally, my gaming time is limited, I don't consider myself that tech savvy, and I didn't want to have to deal with any issues - hence my choice for the 675mx.

@Zero, most of the issues with the 7970m have been solved, but some still linger, especially with enduro equipped machines. Given the fact you are even on this site, I am sure you wouldnt encounter any problems you couldnt solve (possible you wouldnt encounter any problems at all)

With all that said, my personal pick is still the one i chose for own machine, the 675mx. Whichever of the 3 cards you do pick will certainly give you a great gaming experience.

 

Awesome thanks people! If anyone has any other opinions please share!

I know this isn't a graphic card related question, but as mentioned above, is it worth upgrading the RAM and Processor? Also what are Lan & Killer wireless cards? Are they worth the price? Apparently they make sure you get a better internet connection?

 

@zero, what type of laptop are you buying by the way? MSI, AW or Sager?

Ram is a pretty easy upgrade to do yourself. You can get the sticks cheaper than what the resellers typically charge, and you just have to plug them in. Wont be much of a savings, but every little bit counts.

I myself went with the 'entry' level i7, the 3630. The CPU intensive games i have are older, so I have yet to find anything that the CPU can't handle.

I have a killer wireless card, but it was a free upgrade. My rig also sits hardwired most of the time, but i haven't had any problems the few times i have played wirelessly. If you can get it as a free upgrade, go for it. Otherwise, the intel cards are just as good (some may say they are actually better)

 

PCSPECIALIST - VortexIII 17 Laptops, VortexIII 17 Gaming Laptops, Build Your Own VortexIII 17 Laptop

thats the laptop i'm thinking of buying...not sure what type it is...think clevo? xD

 

You need to factor in a basic i7 quad core preferably, just doesnt look right a HD7970m + i3 3120M

 

Yup, youre looking at the NP9170, which just so happens to be the rig that i own. I'd recommend looking at my signature and going pretty much the same - a 3630 i7 + the 675mx should allow you to play any game, most likely on high settings.

I am in the US, and i bought my rig directly from Sager's own website. In your case, you may want to price shop amongst the various european union resellers to get the best deal.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/652403-clevo-resellers-european-union-v1.html

 

Awesome thanks! Looks like i'll go for something similar to yours then. I can't afford going for the AMD + a CPU upgrade. Already stretching my student pay to the limit lol! Gonna read up on the killer wireless card and see whether it's worth it!

 

Don't be afraid to price shop. Also, some resellers give discounts to NBR members, students, etc so make sure you get all you can. Also, i feel I made two mistakes on my purchase.
1) I didn't buy the dead pixel warranty. I figured it wasn't worth it, but since I ended up with one measly stuck pixel, I wish I had.
2) I only got the standard warranty (1 year). While the sagers are very solid, I do wish i had extended the warranty for my own piece of mind.

 

Just reviving this thread as i've finally made a choice. Looks like i'll be going for the following:

Vortex III
Intel Core i3 3120M 2.50Ghz
8G RAM (2x4G)
Nvidia Geforce GTX 675MX
750G HD
and am also adding one of the killer wireless LAN cards...hope its worth worth.

Here is a link of my choices...dunno if you guys can see it with the choices I made. The laptop comes to £1055 which is already stretching my budget. MAY be willing to go to £1100 if its REALLY needed.

So what do you guys think about the setup?

Do you reckon I could get some freebies of PCspecialist if I order via phone? Maybe like a free 5 day delivery or whatever? ><

 

Hm...the config seems ok... but the CPU is weak (I'd pick and i5 at the very least).
I wouldn't recommend pairing the i3 with 675MX
It will bottleneck the card in that case - but not by terribly a lot.

In such a scenario you could also consider this:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-077-MS&groupid=959&catid=1828

Its £900... and you will probably be able to replace the CPU with newer Richland, or better yet Kaveri (when it comes out later this year).

Ultimately its up to you.
PcSpecialist offer seems ok, but the i3 CPU with that gpu is abysmal (nevermind the price-tag).
Granted, pairing A10 with 7970m is not exactly that much better, but its a lot cheaper option that comes with a more powerful gpu, and a cpu which you will be able to replace with what will probably a better one (with Intel, its sketchy on the CPU upgrades).

Edit:
This is another option:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/laptop/range/novatecheliten1526.html

But it doesn't come with Windows pre-installed.
However, there is something interesting I noted... on the right side of the screen where it says 'Price:'... below that you can pick the OS, and picking only Windows 8 (plain with no extras or Pro or whatever) brings the price down to £1080 (while any other OS option severely bumps up the price).

Anyway... the Novatech seems like a much more powerful option.

 

The only thing I don't like about the MSI is the 15". After gaming on 17" I'm not sure I can go back to 15" ><

I had look at this and its slightly more expensive but a lot better than the pcspecialist one - OcUK Limited Edition P170EM 17.3" LED Full HD Intel Processor, 1600MHz DDR3, SSD + HDD, ATI HD 7970M 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card - Windows - Black [OcUK_LTD_Edition]

Only thing i'm wondering about is the HD. It's 60G, but SSD...i'm still pretty clueless with most pc things....so what is that worth compared to say a 1T HD?

Also how reliable is overclockers.co.uk?

 

Its ok.
Better than the i3 combo from PC specialist, and with 7970M gpu (but comes with 4GB RAM... however this can be easily upgraded later on, and RAM is fairly cheap).

As for the SSD coming with 60GB...
Well, its enough to house the OS, essential programs (both of which should take up about 25GB) and several installed games (depending on their relative sizes).
In this case, I'd get the laptop as is and buy a 2.5" 500GB Scorpio Black for £54, or a 700GB Scorpio Black for £70 (and install the HDD into the second HDD slot).

That way you get an SSD with relatively enough space for installed OS, programs, etc. and a HDD for storage.
Another option is that you can bump up that SSD to 120GB for £34 and get a 500GB Scorpio Black separately (in this case, you get double the space for OS, programs and games while still having extra storage).

In the end, the differences between 15" and 17" are marginal size-wise when it comes to the screen itself (the resolutions remain 1080p on both, so this isn't an issue) - in real life situation you probably wouldn't be phased by this difference, so its entirely on you (and 15" certainly makes things a bit easier for transport).

However, the good news is you can probably upgrade the i5 later on to an i7 quad core (should you require it).

 

Ah thanks...well looks like I may give overclockers.co.uk a go. If anyone has any experience with them then please do let me know!

The graphics card is an AMD...hopefully it wont give me to much issues (being a complete pc noob and all).

I'm going to give them a ring tomorrow and see how things go!

Will check out the MSI one more time. Would be nice to spend a lot less cash for the same pc lol!

 

The 7970M should not give you trouble if you install/use latest drivers (but make sure to promptly clean the system of previous drivers beforehand - unless you receive the latest ones in the first place) because I think AMD managed to address most issues that some people experienced (these problems were not as widespread as you might think - many people never experienced problems of any kind).
Also keep in mind that Nvidia's Optimus to this day experiences similar issues here and there (though their driver support is a bit more mature). My point is that there are no guarantees with either one, and worrying over what happened in the past is moot, seeing how we are past that.

 

Just as a huge warning before buying 7970M + A10-4600M. The AMD APU is choking the living hell out of the 7970M.




Also if you pick i3+ GTX 675MX, the i3 might bottleneck the 675MX sometimes, but it does a good job even with keeping up with 680M in the majority of the games...
Intel Ivy Bridge Guide for Gamers - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

How can I find out if I have the latest AMD drivers? Do I have to uninstall them and then re-install new ones? Or can I just update them the same way as with nvidia (via their website)?

Sorry lol i'm clueless about pcs...which CPU is that? The one I choose was an i5 I think. Not sure what the A10 is xD

 

I was reffering to the MSI GX60. I saw you thought about it earlier in this thread. Bad idea since it have not so great CPU.

This one is all good though
OcUK Limited Edition P170EM 17.3" LED Full HD Intel Processor, 1600MHz DDR3, SSD + HDD, ATI HD 7970M 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card - Windows - Black [OcUK_LTD_Edition]

 

Yeh that's the laptop I was thinking of getting. Better graphics card and less cash than pcspecialist. May ring them and try barter a bit lol!


Oh and I know i've asked this before, but how much better is are the killer wireless LAN cards? Are they really worth it?