Question about video cards

I am probably gonna make an upgrade jump from my ASUS G75VW for Battle Field 4. Been looking at some Sager laptops my question is about a few of the video cards, I been out of the loop when it comes to hardware for years, I'm a real newbie now a days.

I'd prefer something that is gonna give me awesome graphics for Battle Field 4, I got a GTX 660m in my current laptop 2gb version, and am not sure how well it's gonna run BF4.

I've seen listed with a few of the sagers;

770m 3gb

Nvidia Quadro K1000m 2gb

AMD Radeon 8970 4GB

780M 4GB

What would be the best out of the four, most likely though I would not spend the extra 350 for the 780M.

Sorry I am all over the place with my own laptop and then the sager video cards.

 

The Quadro is not a gaming card, so remove it from the list. All the others are OK for you. But it depends on what you mean by "Awesome". Do you mean visuals, or frames per second, or best visuals at best fps? And what fps do you want? 30 good enough, or 60 or more?

Kerp in mind the game has not come out yet. But don't forget a good cpu. BF3 taxes the cpu as much as the gpu.

At the bottom of this page you can see some BF3 benchmarks. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-AMD-Radeon-HD-8970M.97807.0.html

 

If you can afford it, go with the 780. You'll see arguments all day long on Nvidia vs AMD, but the one point most will agree on is that Nvidia has better driver support, by a large margin. That means a lot to me personally. I always advocate buying the most video card you can afford. While Sagers are able to be upgraded, there are a few issues to consider.
1) The next generation of GPU may or may not be compatible. Also, they may be physically compatible, but not compatible with the BIOS. You can get around this, but will need a fair amount of technical know-how
2) Price. The price of high end mobile GPUs doesn't really come down. Example would be that 680m are still holding their price, even though the new 780 has been out for a few months now. You can expect to pay anywhere between 350-600 for a new GPU

 

I wont be buying my next laptop until around November/December time frame as it is. As well I personally would not even attempt to install a new GPU in the laptop and deal with the bios.

I'd stick with what ever video card I got at that time and just let it run it's course. As you were referring as if I wanted to replace the gpu I had in with a new one correct and messing with the bios?

Also I was checking the article he had provided and some other articles on how those AMD drivers were not the best. I've had nothing but NVIDIA cards and have loved them with no issues ever.

I'll keep you in mind when I go to make my purchase.

 

The GPU in sagers are MXM, which means that they can be removed and replaced, unlike most laptops in which the GPU is soldered directly onto the motherboard, which means you cannot replace/switch it. To be frank, almost any videocard that is a 765m or above will let you play most games on high/ultra and the more demanding games on med/high.

 

I'll most likely go with the standard 770M 3gb, as I don't believe I'll pay the extra 350 for the up 780M as much as I would like too.

So you would believe the 770M would still be a solid card?

 

The 780M is the best mobile GPU on the market, period. This explains the extra cost.

The 770M is a nice card and will provide you with a better gaming experience than that of the 660M you previously owned. Keep in mind that these cards are upgradeable and that means when the 780M decreases in price next summer, you can grab one and experience a nice boost in performance.

In other words: go with the 770M now and upgrade later, if you need to. Just make sure the laptop you buy allows you to do so!

 

Ya that is what I figured. I have been looking at the Sager model's on Xoticpc. How hard is it to install a laptop gpu? I would be afraid of breaking something doing it myself, haha.

 

Just remember you're going to have to stay within the psu's Watt rating.

And maybe also that the only change in DICE's listed hardware requirements for BF4 compared to BF3 is going from 2Gb Ram to 4Gb.

Along with that even with the best mobile gpu right now, you're not really going to match a low range, extremely cheap itx box with a single gpu anyway.

 

4GB of system memory (RAM), not vRAM.

 

Right. Other than that, no changes. (Thank you, "Next Gen" consoles).