Gtx 580m vs/or i7 2860qm

Hi,

I'm asking directly my doubts. For economic reasons i have to choose between the next two configurations. The idea is a gaming laptop:

- i7 2670qm 2.2ghz WITH gtx 580m 2g DDR5
- i7 2860qm 2.5ghz WITH hd radeon 6990m 2g DDR5

I've been looking to some comparisons between both graphic cards and it seems that the gtx 580m works a little bit better, but i dont know if its worth to sacrifice the i7 2860 2.5 ghz processor.


(( fps comparisons in: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compu [...] 849.0.html ))

Thx guys.

PD: its about an alienware m17x fhd 6RAM ddr3 1333 and 320gb hard drive 7200 (i had to save some money on the HDD )

 

For games you wont notice a difference between those two processors. Unless, you are playing CPU intense flight simulators or something. The 6990 and the GTX580 are on the same level performance wise. Some games you'll see higher fps with the 6990 and others with the 580m. It really comes down to personal preference on this one if you don't do any CPU intense programs and need the extra processing power.

 

Just get the Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2GHz, be happy that not even modern games stress it enough and when it does you can get a aftermarket i7 2920XM. :3

Thats my plan with my i7 2720QM at least.

 

Get the 2670QM. As eagle said, no modern game will bottleneck it, and you get a slightly faster GPU out of the deal.

 

I'd take the '- i7 2860qm 2.5ghz WITH hd radeon 6990m 2g DDR5', given the two options.

It's wrong to say that no modern games will take advantage if it, when games like The Witcher 2, Starcraft 2, and Skyrim will run at higher framerates with faster CPUs, even at 1920x1200.

 

I think between the two I would also take the 2860. The 6990m and 580m are very comparable but the 2670 and 2860 are not insignificantly different.

 

uff now its getting more complicated! i took a look to the Nvidia 3D option and seems to work pretty well. In that case i should choose the 580m, the "cheap" processor and the 3D option. Any experiences with Nvidia 3D Vision guys?

Tx for the answers!

 

3D will cut your FPS in half (the monitor has to display images 2x as much). So you have to use lower graphics settings to have playable games. I have never used it but I hear it works fine. If you want 3D, then it is a no brainer, get the 580m.

 

3d will not only cut your FPS in half, it's also nothing more than a gimmick.

Ask yourself the following:
What will I be doing with the laptop in queston?
If you will use it purely for gaming, then I recommend the one 6990m gpu.
However, if you expect to be working in software that supports CUDA technology, then the 580m is definitely the winner here.

Between the two cpu's you mentioned, in games you will NOT notice any discernible difference. It's only 300Mhz difference anyway.
This CAN be noticeable in CPU intensive applications such as CAD based software (like AutoCad or 3dSMax when rendering animations), but ultimately, the differential is minimal.

So, if you need CUDA, go with Nvidia gpu.
If it's purely for gaming, go with AMD gpu.

 

take i7 2860, much better, in the gpu you can take either of the two

 

well if you want to show off your system crysis is the game to do so. the 6990m is faster in crysis and to me thats what counts. crysis is still the king of graphics and if one gpu does better in crysis then it is def the better gpu. only thing im curious about is how a single 580m handles bf3 i can only do ultra and the rest high settings at 40-50 fps

 

Lol @ Crysis being the graphics king. Crysis hasn't been the king of anything for a couple of years.

To the OP; I'd go with the 580 if you put value into CUDA or Phsyx games and if you don't I'd go with the 6990.

 

ok, in the Alienware m17x, the 580m will throttle. There are two throttle points...at 67c there is a power throttle...then at 79c there is a thermal throttle. Just keep this in mind if you want to go the way of the 580m. You get zero throttling in the 6990m

So to the OP, if you get the 580m in an alienware m17x r3, you will 100% have to update the system bios and/or the vbios, and repaste your GPU with a quality paste. There are many threads on this in the alienware m17x forums. There are also many mature techniques that have been employed to combat the throttling. But your performance will drop huge when the throttling kicks in

 

throttling was fixed already.

 

You're comparing a $350 upgrade to a $75 upgrade and saying you can only afford one or the other? I'm really confused here - the 580m is $75 more than the 6990m and probably only worth it if you need hardware PhysX or CUDA. The 2860QM is $350 more than the 2670QM and you will probably only notice it in processor-heavy tasks, not in games.

If you have non-gaming uses for the 580m's power, get it over the 6990m. Otherwise, skip both upgrades and buy yourself an SSD on Newegg or just save the money.

 

well im making search of both cards problems and i can not understand how so many new laptops could have the famous "nvidia's throttles" or "6990m drivers problems". Its unacceptable :S I've been looking for example to the solution for nvidias throttles and its an adventure (take out the battery, press "end" button...) i dont even know if im gonna be able to do it, it should come WELL DONE originaly!

Reaversledge, u said it is fixed. Its dell/nvidia way fixed or should i do it myself like on that post?

(( http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ttling-m17x-r3-580m-without-120hz-screen.html ))

i gotta decide soon if ii want my laptop for before christams :S

 

i vouch for the 580m's specially in m18x department. i have tried it myself, i purchased m18x weeks ago and had throttling issues (specs on my sig) as far as possible i don't want to flash or change anything, my m18x bios is A04, and my vbios is still default 70.24.2B.00.06, but in my case i only had throttles when i use a single card (i have sli config), on sli its going smooth. when i tried mr. fox's tweaks no more throttling was evident when i played, and more improvement when i use sli. drivers are all up to date until today.

imo in 580m throttling is the only thing that holds this sick cards. once i removed it, i have lower idle temps (48) and better gaming temps (58 on metro 2033). so far without the throttle i have the most stable clocks at stock. it performs above my expectations, and the driver support is the best, that i have continuous improvements of the latest games like bf3 and mw3.

as indicated on the given link just follow the steps, i tried it once and it worked the first time that is why i was surprised, seeing if that is only some sort of luck or glitch, i made a dry run again, booting my rig with the nvidiainsepctor disabled, then i again experienced throttles, 2nd time rebooting is again nvidia inspector enabled, no throttles, did random runs on the last two days with enabled/disabled mode. i vouch that it works.

whatever gpu choice is really up to you, there's a price drop on dell on 580m's which lowers the steep margin between 6990m's, honestly i have no experience on ati and its impolite to make it a one sided opinion.

 

Nope not fixed...throttle was reduced via dell 580m vbios. However, there are various things that you can do to remove the power throttle and hopefully keep your temps down below the 79c thermal throttle point.

For example this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...throtting-fix-no-need-modify-system-bios.html

All i was saying to the OP was that you have to be aware of things that you will have to do if you get the 580m

 

dude that is what i was saying to my post above yours. read it clear. fixed or not for you idc. all i can say is i have throttles before, now i don't using nvidia inspector tweak from mr. fox.

 

well i think i decided for the same price (more or less) to choose the m18x FHD screen 6990m crossfire with 2769qm. Should work fine the combination cpu/gpu right? i mean the cpu is not gonna bottleneck the gpu.. hope so. Thanks for the help, it was a non stop reading week looking for the pros and cons of all possibilities.

c ya!

PD: the prices are different from the US, im looking at the Spain Dell website

 

For gaming, you're not going to see any difference between the 2760QM and the 2860QM (you'd probably see no difference even if you went down to a 2630QM or a 2670QM), and the Crossfire 6990m's are going to be beastly. Cheers.

 

from my experience:

- in needing of more GPU - you can OC most of the times;
- in needing of more CPU - you get stuck often, or the methods of doing it suck;
- I keep hearing various issues with NVidia cards, and yet not as many with ATI cards. Given the choice I'd go with ATI

... just saying

 

i have nvidia and imho i had issues before, the throttling, i just got that throttling fixed with a little tweak of nvidia inspector and after that my gaming performance is like butter nvidia is just a matter of having the right updates with the right tweaks.

 

xfire 6990 w/ any core i7 2630QM+ was a very good choice over an nvidia 580m thinking you would use 3D glasses for games. Have you ever been to a movie theater and seen a 3d movie?

Yeah.

Not that the 580m is bad, but I wouldn't pay the premium for it thinking you'll get the value out of Red/Cyan or 120hz 3D features.

 

I agree, the 580 and 6990 are quite at the same level of performance (top of the top). Both can be easily overclocked.
Got the nvidia one with a 2820qm, and it rocks ! No pb runnning any game (SC2, Crysis 2, BF3 ...) at max level.
Even if I prefer nvidia, always got pb with ATI (AMD), go for the 2860+6990, you will have more for your money.