GTX 460M or HD5870?

I dunno. I'm getting an Asus G53Jw or G73Jw from xoticpc.com, either the A1 model with the GTX 460M or the G73jw with the HD5870

The HD5870 one costs around $70 more, and I know that it has better performance, but are there any cooling issues? Since I'm upgrading both to have an IC diamond thermal compound.

I also heard that ATI cards don't have drivers? Is this true?

 

The 5870 is slightly stronger but it's really a toss up between different games and benchmarks. There shouldn't be any cooling issues if the thermal compound is applied professionally.

If you haven't already looked, there is a sticky at the top of this forum with instructions on how to install drivers for both Nvidia and Ati cards. Ati cards use the catalyst driver package, the latest should be 10.10.

 

If you have Windows 7, installing ATI drivers is 100% normal, no modding required. To be honest, installing the drivers on Vista took about 5 additional seconds (just gotta add a line to the .inf)...

They're both good cards..

 

They are around the same performance, so it is up to personal preference. Dependinding on the application, specially DX9-DX10 games, HD5870 might give you the edge, while in some DX11 games the 460m will perform better.

Keep in mind that any "edge" that one card might have does not necesarily mean much, as the performance is too close to fight or argue about, unless your overclock.

 

Honestly I'd go with the 460M myself. The higher memory bandwidth and more memory is a big plus in my eyes and probably will let the card age better in comparison to the 5870.

 

Must have missed something, the 460 memory is at 625 on the memory giving it 60gb and the 5870 is at 1000 on the memory giving it 64gb.

 

there is a thread on this which is 20+ pages long, and I don't think it comes to any conclusion

so just go with whatever you want

 

HD5870m has higher memory bandwidth than 460m. They are both on the 60s GB/s range and neither will age better for resolution purposes.

 

Unless you are looking for some 3d vision and physx, 460M is the right choice.

 

lol. You probably misunderstood an NVidia fanboy who meant that AMD makes terrible drivers.

The performance between them is so close, there's not really a good reason to spend an extra $70. Get the 460M.

 

Its not really that Ati makes bad drivers, its just that they don't spit them out like nvidia. Both provide limited support for laptops, but both of them are trying to change this.

The updated ports cooler temps and fixed track pad are reasons to get the jw.

 

I think I would get the 5870, but the 460m seems to ace dx11 games...

 

I know, but the NVidia fanboy that probably said that probably doesn't care, which was my point.

 

Not exactly ace at all. When it gets to outperform the HD5870m they are both usually at unplayable fps. We need proper DX11 mobile GPUs

Get the cheaper solution. or well, get the one with the screen you like the most. I like 15.6inchers but I would definitely consider 17inch with my same specs.

 

The OP's post is just wrong in many ways. The HD5870M is cheaper than GTX 460M. And the G73JW has a GTX 460M not a HD5870M...

It's unplayable. I don't really see how acing is having unplayable framerate. Average 21 FPS with tessellation on is not acing... Nvidia claims 30% with tessellation and turns out they were wrong, it's more like 15%. And even then 30% of 19 FPS is only 5 FPS and it's still unplayable. So either way, Nvidia flaunting DX11 tessellation on the GTX 460M is well... idiotic.

Lastly on the only 2 decent DX11 games Dirt 2 and BC2 run fine on HD5870M. Dirt 2 43 average FPS with ultra DX11 settings. And frankly HD5870M runs faster in DX11 on BC2 than GTX 460M with 41 average FPS with everything on high with HBAO on and 16x AF.

 

Or whatever miscellaneous features. I picked the GX660R over the G53 because of more USB 3.0 ports, sound, and RAID capability.

 

It sounds like people are just expecting too much! Just because a graphics card can't play everything on optimium settings doesn't render a game unplayable. I am perfectly content lowering settings to medium to increase gaming quality if that is what needs to be done. We are talking about laptops.

Some of the games coming out these days are so demanding on dx11 that you even need solid desktop specs to run them. A lot of mid range graphics cards won't run them at all.

 

Dude, we are paying a pretty penny for high end mobile GPUs When even medium range desktop components like GTX460 or HD6850 offer quite greater performance at a fraction of the cost.

I don't mind turning down settings, but its a fact that current GPUs can't handle DX11 well enough, so we do need better GPUs to take advantage of any DX11 features. I have high hopes for HD6000m series and that it will force nvidia to drop prices on 470m to have propper DX11 gpus.

 

mmmm.... This one is a toss up. I read some of the reviews and it looks like ATI is slightly faster. I think it comes downs to price. if you could get a good deal on either card, you'll win. what would i pick? the ATI

 

The nvidia card runs cooler and from what I've read there's no benefit to re-pasting it in the Asus laptops as the cooling setup is outstanding out of the box. I think there's more of a benefit for repasting the ATI card though. So you can save more money right there by not having to repaste it.

 

^That's only because some of them weren't pasted correctly at the factory (mine was from the 1st batch to Canada but was done correctly). If the OP gets one now, the quality control problems should have been solved long ago.

 

Correct, it seems they replaced the paste with a type of pad on the jh model. The jw also has a slightly different heatsink.