Question: Nvidia GT550m vs. Radeon HD 6770m

The only game I play is Rift (like WoW but with better graphics). Settings would be customized between High and Ultra. I was wondering which of these 2 cards would offer the best performance in a MMORPG type of game.

Dell XPS 17
*2nd gen. i5-2520M (2.5GHz) 3MB L3 cache
JBL and Creative SB audio
Nvidia GeForce GT550m 1GB DDR3 with Optimus GPU
-1480 MHz, 128 bit, 28.8 GB/s

vs.

HP dv7t Quad
*2nd gen. i7-2630QM (2.0GHz) 6MB L3 cache
Beats audio
Radeon HD 6770m 1GB DDR5 GPU
-1600 MHz, 128 bit, 51.2 GB/s

*for this game and many other MMORPGs the i5 systems run slightly better b/c these games don't really benefit from a quad core (yet). The i5 also runs cooler than an i7.

So I guess it boils down to 1G DDR3 vs. 1G DDR5 in this type of game. The resolution would be set to 1600x900 for better fps. Would you even really notice a big difference between these 2 cards in a "20 man raid with spell effects flying all over the dungeon"?

 

Even if your question is about the GPU I think the 2nd system would perform better in MMOs thanks to the quad-core CPU. Anyway the 6770M is better than the 550M. It's approximately on par with the 192bits version of the GT 555M which is clearly more powerful than its little sister.

 

The 6770m is in a different league.

 

Agreed.
The quad system with the 6770 would effectively outperform the first one by a good margin (especially at the resolution you mentioned).

 

28.8 GB/s from the 550M gosh thats low

Definetely the 6770 without doubt it would outperform the 555M and the second system would generally handle games better the Sandy Bridge is more than powerful enough even with 500mhz less.

 

bandwidth = memory type

 

Oh yes I know that but that still does not make it any better my 8700M GT had 25.6GB/s at 128bit 3 years ago with the same memory it could have done better having a 192 bit bus.

The faster memory is always the better option but still such a shame to see cards with a stupid amount of Vram being wasted the 445/555m with 3GB's worth is the same marketing scheme.

 

Have you looked for gaming benchmarks using GPUs similar to the 550M and the 6670M? Despite the memory bandwidth issues, maybe Rift is optimized better for Nvidia. I'd lean towards the 550M just because Nvidia runs this game better. The 57GTX 460 is noticeably faster than the 6870 for medium and high quality. I don't think the memory bandwidth with what 6770 and 550M are capable is going to make that big of difference.

It is worth noting that on high setting, the 6870 surpasses the 460. But with your setup, I don't think you'll be playing on high though. The 6770M and 550M are like half the performance of a desktop 460 and 6870.

 

Even excellent optimisation would not affect the performance as much as double the memory speed and bandwidth. GDDR3 to GDDR5 and double the bandwidth will make a huge difference. If you could get the 550M GDDR5 version that would be a different story.

The issues ATI faced with RIFT are now fixed with the recent driver release im getting 15-20 more FPS now with my 5870m with the same settings.

550M

6770M

No gaming benches yet but vantage shows a 2000 points difference and 3dMark11 benches 500-700 points.

 

The 6770M with DDR5 will perform visibly better than 555M on 1600x900 resolution exactly because of the higher memory bandwidth (which offers about 35% improvement over the DDR3, if not more).

 

Rift issues were fixed

 

What would be better of these two in battery life? I know the 555 has optimus. I don't know much about the Radeon HD 6770M.

 

The 550M is 128-bit DDR3, which is why it's so much slower than the 555M.
I'd choose the HP setup ten times out of ten.

 

The dv7tqe has the 2ed gen i7 CPU that has a integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU. That being said, you will be able to switch between using the Radeon 6770M(gaming), and the Intel HD 3000 (everything else), as needed for whatever tasks you wanna throw at it. I didn't receive my dv7tqe yet, but having the switchable GFX, and the ability to swap GPU's on-call will be awesome.

less power consumption = better battery life + laptop running cooler = better performance and overall life

 

the GeForce Gt 550m has the exact same thing. and same with the 555m.

Optimus Technology

so i really want to know how this compares

 

6770m obliterates some of the older 4800 series cards, and 280, 260x and the like in some games. I bought a 6770m mxm a for my acer and upgraded from a 130m. Good Upgrade.

 

Has it been confirmed that this model supports switchable graphics? Since just because the GPUs are there physically, doesn't necessarily mean that all the hardware or software is there to support switchable graphics.

 

it supports, its just a right click at the desktop away

 

I found some benches on notebookcheck.

fifa 11: 555 29% faster
starcraft 2: 6770 18% faster
risen: 555 16% faster
nfs shift: 555 32% faster
dirt2: 555 10% faster

Not sure how useful that info is, doesn't really tell you how they'll do in rift.
the site ranks these 2 right next to each other with 555 barely ahead