Is the GTX 680M a severely downgraded GTX 670??

So is it? I was reading the specs of both on Wikipedia and the Core Config seems to be "the same"

I would rather think it is an underclocked 660ti but it doesn't seem like that, can anyone clarify?

I did some research on the subject but so far I haven't been able to get a straight answer.

Thanks!

 

its a 670 desktop

 

Yes, yes it is.

Unless you mess with the vBIOS that is.

 

Thanks for your replies guys!

What do you mean jaug?
I've seen some posts around (and in TI Forums) about... modded? vBIOS and increasing 100MHz in the process. That sounds like an amazing improvement.

I am currently about to upgrade my P180HM to a GTX 680M and I would love to get great performance out of it.

 

Specifically what is it that you mean? That one can get even better performance?

Could you squeeze so much out of a (laptop) 680M that it performs on par with a (desktop) 660ti?

 

You can OC the 680m to perform faster than a desktop 670, let alone a 660ti.

 

+100 for the core with 680M is absolute nothing. Im shure there is a lot of 680M owners laughing at that pathetic overclock attempt lol

 

D:
I am at complete awe...

Now my only concern is...

Heatsinks AND AC adapter...

P180HM comes with good heatsinks as far as I know.. I believe they are somewhat like this one
Clevo Heatsink special for D901C 6-31- D90CN 700 and D900C | eBay

Originally P180HM only supported GTX 560M, HD 6970M and 6990M... all three 75W TDP and 680M is 100.
Wouldn't temps skyrocket with all the tweaking/overclocking?
Do you guys think the heatsinks are good enough for overclocking? (cause Mythlogic was so kind to let us know they can be installed, it is OCing I'm concerned about)

How about the power draw then?
My AC Adapter is fortunately 300W but could it run with TWO Overclocked 680Ms in SLI?? PLUS 2920XM CPU??

 

You could push it in some scenarios. Especially if you OC'ed the CPU as well.

 

So I shouldn't really be concerned about power draw?
How much do you think a system like that would suck from the wall?
(I mean specifically
i7 2920XM/2960XM still thinking about the upgrade
DUAL OC'd GTX 680Ms
2HDDs
1SSD
12GB RAM)

 

I cannot give you an exact number. Only a user that runs two OC'ed 680ms and has a 2920XM and a kil-a-watt meter will tell you for sure. However, Anandtech's review of the desktop GTX670 with stock clocks says one 670 requires about 300W under load. Even IF you assume half the power per chip in the mobile version, that still takes you to 300W for two plus CPU, LCD, HDD and everything else. That being said, the Alienware M18x when configured with the IVB X series CPU and two 680ms AND three conventional HDDs still says that it comes with a 240W supply. I find that hard to believe. I think that they don't update their standard brick wattage when a customer customizes with higher powered options. If you ask me, I don't think a 300W PSU will cut it.

 

actually it did support a single 580m, but because of power supply limitations it wasnt able to use 2. as far as i know the 680m uses less power than a 6990m, which was 100w tdp, so if you were somehow able to get a larger power supply you could even sli 680ms, as long as the notebook supported it in the bios.

 

Luckily for me Mythlogic confirmed that the P180HM is able to take the 680Ms in SLI using 300W PSU; I'm just not sure about the CPU used for the testing.
As for the clocks they were for sure stock 680M clocks.

The thing is I want this upgrade to be epic, so that I could even OC SLI 680Ms and run 2920XM.

How well does a 680M perform on stock clocks? Not even as good as 660ti right?

 

The 680m is around 6k GPU scores on stock, but some users have reached the 8k range with overclock if not more. A nice, regular OC will net you 7k range easily on a single GPU.

As for your comment, "Not even as good as a 660ti" you seem to regard that GPU as if it was bad... the 660ti is still a GTX670 with less memory bandwidth on stock. If you raise the 680m clocks to match the same memory bandwith, and use the same core clocks, you will have more performance than the 660ti due to ROPs. Not to mention the 660ti is no slouch either, on the 8k range too for 3dmark 11 I think. Not that lower than a GTX670 to begin with.

 

Oh I didn't mean it that way. I am actually impressed about its performance. As I said earlier I am left at awe by looking how nice of a card it is. I am really eager to get one in fact.

It's just that I tend to have quite high expectations. You see, I am a desktop gamer forced to game on a laptop. I travel a LOT and I cannot get my desktop with multiple monitor setup everywhere I go; so some time ago (more than 2 years) I was forced into the high-end gaming notebook/desktop replacement scene.
I had a hard time every time I tried to travel with my desktop. Not to mention international flights. I also tried adapting my computer to fit a very small enclosure but it was still pretty hard to take it into the airplane, it is not a "normal" thing and that upsets a lot of people.

I am eager to OC a 680M and get desktop-like performance on my laptop! Like never before!
Before deciding to get one I was about to change my build for a small laptop and eGPU using either 660ti or 670. It's just that I couldn't settle for less than 660ti, which is already as good as it gets. Looking at the benchmarks makes everyone think if one really needs 680.

So thanks for your replies guys! I'm glad to hear this monsters are very overclockable and perform amazingly well.
Thanks to you all I' being able to clarify a lot just before purchasing! thanks!

 

Do you guys think i'll need thermal pads for the 680M or just thermal paste is fine?

 

Pretty shure that the heatsink for your old GPU does not fit properly with the 680M. So you have to use thermal pads on the VRAM etc to close the gaps between the MXM parts and the heatsink

 

I've been comparing benchmarks and poring through reviews of the GTX 670, 660 Ti, and the newly released 660. My reference for the 680M has been HTWingNut's review on this site.

Judging by his reports, the 680M performs somewhere between a desktop GTX 660 and 660 Ti. Performance seems to approach the stock 660 Ti level only when you heavily overvolt and overclock the 680M (overvolt + 1000/2400 clocks).

I haven't seen a 680M that exceeds 660 Ti performance except possibly in the case of Meaker's monster overclocks, for which I did not find any gaming benchmarks. Unfortunately all we have is synthetic scores for those results, which show slightly better performance than the stock 660 Ti.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me... I'm about to get some but I'n not sure wether to use .5mm or 1mm.

Would stacking Thermal Pads affect its performance?

I will be using IC Diamond for the GPU chip

 

Check out this post from pau1ow to get some idea what it means. He have the 670M heatsink so he had to modify it slightly to make it fit on the 680M, ie use pads. If you are a little unlucky you might need to dremmel down some of the copper of your old heatsink. But I doubt it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/677420-gtx680m-upgrade-msi-gt70-barebone-16f2.html#post8711334

 

It's not a matter of how much overclock/overvolt you use in which machine. The 680m is exactly a downclocked GTX670m. If cooling were not an issue, by clocking the 680m exactly to the same clocks as a GTX670 it would yield identical performance as it is the same GPU in the end.

Is that attainable normally in a laptop? For all intents and purposes, no. As you said, only some insane overclocks like Meaker's or Joker's and you can reach the performance for a brief glimpse. I am not confident such clocks etc are good for long term gaming. Personally I would not even game anything near those clocks myself.

a very small overclock does bring a big performance jump though. Due to how severly downclocked it is (memory wise at least).

 

Just to confirm: The GTX 660 Ti and GTX 670 have identical clocks; the only difference is the number of ROPs and the memory bandwidth. The GTX 680M is a GTX 670 with heavily reduced core and memory clocks.

Yet, with the 680M, clocking the core to 915MHz (boost to 980MHz) and the memory to 2250MHz (brings memory bandwidth to 144.? GB/s), a configuration which matches the clocks of a stock 660 Ti with the full 32 ROPs allotted to the GTX 670, we don't see identical results.

Vantage GPU scores only hit 25.5k for the 680M, while stock 660 Ti cards hit 27.5k. Likewise, 3DMark11 results are 300-500 points lower for the 680M as well. The 660 Ti seems to get a few more fps in most games as well, even when the review tests with 1920x1200 rather than the 1080p we have on our laptops.

Those are the results which were making me scratch my head since I honestly don't know why it works that way. Any ideas?

EDIT: Just looked at the Tom's Hardware review which uses 1080p benchmarks. The 680M is just short of the 660 Ti but doesn't even come close to the 670. Is memory bandwidth that much of a limiting factor?

 

Doesn't the 660 ti and 670 have like 6000MHz effective RAM speed? That would be a big difference.

 

We are talking 1500MHz for the 660TI and the 670 while stock 680M is 900MHz. I don`t know how far you people have managed to overclock the memory but I`m guessing nowhere near that.

EDIT: Yup, the world record for the 680M is with 1300MHz in memory clock

 

Dual video card M18's come with a 330W brick, the 240W is shipped with single card systems.

 

If Dell can do their SLI, i7 Extreme edition builds with a 330W I guess I will be just as fine with my 300W.
Or what do you think guys?

Does anyone know if the X7200 PSU splitter (the one that enables you to use 2 PSUs) can work with my laptop?? A P180HM?
It's got the same prong configuration at least.

 

if it has the same prong i bet it can work, i would just test the voltage coming out of the psu to be sure though.

 

You mean with a DMM? Thanks! Not long ago I thought I saw someone selling the splitter and another member selling an extra 300W PSU... not sure though...

Do you think it is necessary? I mean will it be a MUST?
Or could I run 2960XM + 680M in SLI with my single 300W adapter?

 

You should be ok, if its 100w per card roughly and 55w for the cpu, that leaves 45w for overclocking and all of the other components. And generally the 680m will use somewhere between 75-85 watts, so that should be more than adequate.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

See my sig for SLI 680m with i7-3720QM. Running OC'd GPU right now and will publish scores and power draw with that soon too.

 

HT, did you OC the 3720QM too? It has a ~400MHz OC capability

 

Not for that run, but yes I have. It's a bit toasty for my liking, and CPU is far from the limiting factor in games, except for artificial benchmarks like 3DMark.

 

Just curious, how much CPU score did 3Dmark 11/Vantage benefit from the OC?