How far are laptop cards behind desktop cards in 2012?

So we all know that laptops rule while desktops drool.

With that said, it is also true that for any price range desktops are always going to outperform laptops for all sorts of good reasons. For a long time I used to believe that this performance gap existed only in monetary terms, meaning that one would have to pay a lot more to get top of the line performance in a laptop compared to same type of performance from a desktop card. But after reading a couple of articles and forum chatter I came to realize that this performance gap was also technology driven. You simply cannot place a desktop card in a laptop because of heat concerns.

Now in 2012 we have cards like 7970M and 680M that are able to run the most demanding of games at respectable settings without any overclocking. But still, on various random pc gaming forums I frequently see people being vehemently opposed to idea of gaming laptops on account of their poor performance. I have read people claiming how even these days laptop GPUs are two to five years behind desktop GPUs in terms of performance; no sources given to back this statement up of course.

Still, I am curious about the current status of laptop cards performance compared to desktop cards in 2012. First of all, what is a good measure of comparing laptop cards vs. their desktop counterparts? Are artificial benchmarks like this a good method? If so, it doesn't seem like laptop cards are so far behind desktop cards. Secondly, for those who keep up with bleeding edge of GPU technology, is there anything in horizon suggesting that laptop cards are ever going to catch up with desktop cards in near future?

 

To my knowledge the 7970M is based around the 7870 desktop chip and hence you can expect it to perform at or below that level.
It will certainly not perform around the 7970 Desktop Card.

7970M in Crossfire mode will allow for around single 7970 Desktop (or 7950 Desktop) performance I think, could be wrong.

The 680M I do not know what Nvidia chip set that is based from (maybe 660ti?) You can expect it to perform around the level of a 660 Desktop
card.

Expect only SLI 680M to even come close to a single Desktop 670 or 680 card.

I've seen some people overclock their 680M to perform benchmarks around the 670 Desktop level but whether or not it can game at that level is another story.

All of my assumptions are going off the benchmarks I've seen for all the Nvidia 600 and AMD 7000 series Desktop and Mobile range online.

 

The 680M is based off a 670, not a 660Ti

 

680m is about 25% slower than 670 desktop at stock. 680m can come within 10% of the 670 desktop though with an overclock (like 900/2400) without a voltage bump. If you want to overvolt and push the limits you can meet or exceed that of a 670 desktop, and can even game, just need to keep temps under control. A laptop cooler and laptops that offer a full throttle fan usually work just fine. The gap is closing considerably from where it used to be.

 

You know, the main problem causing laptop CPUs and GPUs to be behind their desktop counterparts is HEAT.
We all now cooling sucks in the majority of laptops. If you have a solution for heat then you can put whatever you want in a laptop.

Still the GTX 680M is more than amazing for a laptop and it runs surprisingly cool.

 

On the P150EM if you do some air redirection and add some Enzotech coppersinks plus foil mod, the max temp for a GTX680M at stock after a 3DMark11 session is around 62C and 64~73C depending on the games you play. However at core 1025 or around that, the temp can still shoot up to 87-91C, beyond core 1000 the balance between the heat production and heat dissipation will likely be broke on the P150EM. Alienware can probably handle that as their cooling have better heat dissipation than Clevo's, but Dell GTX680M seems to run into Throttling problem even at core 950MHz.