GT650M versus Radeon 7970 -- $300 difference

Hi there. I'm shopping for a new laptop, and I'm basically torn between two laptops. They're both pretty much identical except that one has a GT650M and the other has a 7970.

I'll basically be using it for gaming and multimedia (listening to music, light editing, etc). I pretty much play blizzard games (sc2, d3, wow), as well as dota games (LoL, HoN, dota2). I really don't play any other games than those, but I might be interested in playing others in the future.

With that said, do you think that I should make the $300 push to future-proof my laptop with the 7970, and do you think I'd be fine with the GT650M? Once again, I pretty much stick to Blizzard games for the most part and these franchises (sc2, d3) are going to be going in expansion cycles, so I might not be needing to future proof too hard. However, I would like to be able to play those Blizzard games on high / near max / max graphics, but any other games I might decide to flirt with (like bf3 maybe), I don't mind the graphics being lower.

Do you think the 7970's performance justifies the price increase for my purposes? Or should I stick with the 650M and save the $300 for something more important. What would you do?

Thanks.

 

7970m is 3 times faster, but the 650m can cope ok with the games you play.

 

thanks Meaker. When you say ok, is that "high / ultra" for what I currently play, or just high?


Also, a bit offnote, but I see you have an BKN 1102. How is the wireless for you? Should I bump up to an 1103 or is 1102 everything you need from your wireless card?

 

1102 is good, though the 1103 will give you a better signal if you have a high end router.

 

thanks much. I think i'm just about ready to make my purchase, and save myself about $300.

 

Spend the extra 300 dollars and future proof yourself for all the amazing next gen titles to come.

You might say you will stick to blizzard, but who knows...some amazing game comes along and you regret you decision.

And it is not like blizzard won't release a new title in the period span you will have the notebook.

 

The 650M should be fine for most games @ 768p. Depends on the game for the detail level ( med/high/ultra ). Look at notebookcheck to confirm.

The 7970M will play almost everything ultra @ 1080p.

Th 7970M is the more "futureproof" card. Should be able to get a couple years where it will play everything.

 

Well, I mean, then it comes to exactly how long you want to keep this laptop before buying another one.

True, Blizzard doesn't exactly release the most GPU-intensive games, but who knows when a DX11 patch comes out for SC2 or WC4 (praying for this) comes out with BF3-like graphics.

 

If you have a 1080p screen absolutely get the Radeon 7970m, especially if you plan on keeping the laptop for two years or more. Otherwise for 768 screen, 650m is more than adequate, and should be for the next couple of years at that resolution. You can play ALL new games with the 650m at high/ultra at 768p and likely future games in the next couple years should be no issue.

 

Yes, this will depend a lot on your screen resolution. For now, the 650M will max out any Blizzard game even at 1920x1080 resolution. Who knows about the future though. If your resolution is something more like 1366x768 the 650M will be futureproof for years, unless of course you want to hook up your computer to a higher resolution monitor.

 

future proof is measured in the future not in years. You could get outdated next week or the next hour. If blizzard comes out with a big patch next month to address the new capabilities of GPUs then you'll get left behind and may regret your decision. If you play at low resolution and it is acceptable then go for it, but don't see why you would hurt yourself when it can prove beneficial to invest now to only put minor upgrades in your future.

 

Thanks.

While I love the idea of having the worry-free convenience of having a 7970, I just don't think it's cost efficient or practical. Both laptops are 1920x1080, but have no problem lowering the resolution in the future in order to play the games at higher settings. Either that, or I can lower the graphics settings (it's a compromise I think I'll be fine with).

Thanks everyone for your help. Many of your posts made me a little bit more confident with the idea of having a 650M.

Yeah, just in general, Blizzard's model has always been more CPU intensive instead of GPU intensive just so that their game is more widely available to a broader range of computers. Blizzard's one of the biggest sellouts in the industry as far as that goes.

And awakeN, I dream of the day that they even mention anything regarding wc4.

 

this is the m17x r4 it has the 7970 and shows how it performs in games. you can see what it can do and get some good insight.

Review Alienware M17x R4 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

300 bucks may seem like a lot but if it lets you keep your laptop for 3 years while gaming at good settings you'll be glad.

7970
currently maxes every game.
2 years from now you'll probably playing at 1080p with high settings
3 years medium with overclocks
650...your already at medium settings at 1080p....get the picture?

EDIT: by no means is that exact...just trying to convoy a decent picture of your gaming on a laptop. I got the 260m 2.5 years ago and it blows. I wish i would have gotten something better but then again i got this laptop for like 200 bucks off on release

 

Out of curiousity, what computers are these? Or at least the screen size?

 

17 inch mostly. read the review

 

WCFire: im actually looking between the Asus n56vz (or n76vz if you wanted a 17") and the Sager 9150 (Sager also has a 17" equivalent). The Asus is more built towards multimedia that can handle gaming pretty well, whereas the Sager is pretty much a beastly gaming laptop. I'm using XoticPC to help me configure.

 

Hey man I have the 650m in the 1080p laptop in my sig. I can play WoW, D3 and Skyrim at ultra flawlessly. The particular configuration in my laptop doesn't place a fan on the gpu and I can still play those games at ultra without ever going above 75c. This is a solid card, save the $300 and buy a nice ssd to stick your o.s. and those games on. =]

 

I've ordered a laptop with 650M. When it arrives i'll do some benchmarks.