Radeon 6630M vs Nvidia 540GT

I'm looking at maybe getting the Acer TimelineX 3830, which has a 540GT with DDR 3 (even though notebook check says DDR 5) or the new Sony SB, which has a Radeon 6630. I can't really get a definitive read on which card is better, but I'd like to get the machine with the better card. My other concern with the sony is that if its anything like the Z, it uses a propitiatory smaller hard drive so I wouldn't be able to just pop in an OCZ vertex 2.

Any information would be great. Thanks!

 

The 6630 is a slightly higher clocked 5650. The 540gt blows it away in terms of performance. As for the hardrive issue, that's not something I can comment on.

 

What about the 480 pipelines in the 6630 vs the 96 in the 540? Does that make a difference? Also, how does the 6630 compare to the 330GT that I already have?

 

Note; the 330m in your Vaio Z is underclocked so it doesn't really perform as good as a full 330m should. Sony downclocked it to get better battery life. Kinda sad they don't tell the customers.

 

I OC it 30% with EVGA tuner (I think that's the program). With the OC I get around 85 C top end (maybe 87). I've been told that's okay.

 

simple and plain wrong.

 

Not completely wrong. The 540m is slightly better than the 6630 (misread the info about the 5650). Look at the benchmarks here ( NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M - Notebookcheck.net Tech) The 540 does show some higher performance.

EDIT- Doesn't sony downclock all of their cards? If so, wouldn't that make the 540 even more viable?

2nd Edit- The pipelines on the 540m and 6630 can't be compared directly. The 96 pipelines in the 540m are actually CUDA cores. I don't remember the conversion rate for this generation of cards.

 

Care to elaborate?

 

There are two statements in that quote that are wrong. First, the 6630M is not just a 5650M with different clocks -- it has more stream processors and a slightly modified architecture. Second, the 540M does not "blow away" the 6630M -- the two cards are almost equal. Look at the game benchmarks, not 3D mark which will be biased by the fact that the 6630M does not come with quad-core CPUs: the results vary depending on the game. I would guess the 540M has a slight advantage, but it's not much.

 

Yup, thats why I changed what I said.

 

Only game I really care about is SC2.

 

Fair warning huge post to follow

Lets complement a bit. I have a 4670m, which is basically a 320 core with GDDR3.

The 5650m have 400 core with DDR3

The 6630m have 480 core with DDR3

Now from the gaming figures that I saw from a chinese site and some reports on the sony SB lounge, the 6630m can beat the crap out of my card, although it performs equal or better than the 5650m, despite the higher core count.

Basically what AMD did is to revamp the core arch, without die shrinking the gpu, so although the 6630m have the same 40nm tech that the 5650m and only 80 more cores, it led to an increase in performance of more than 20%.

However, the 5650m have 80 more cores than my card, due to the clocks and the memory type chosen, my card is equal. So its not always about the core count, but also about improvements in the arch, you can see this also in the nvidia side when they launched the fermi line of cards, it was a leap in performance, since most AMD cards performed better than what nvidia had to offer with the 100/200/300 series (all failed series, with the notable exception of the gtx 260m, which was a rebranded 9800m gtx, so a good card)

Moreover if you only count the cores, some mid range should perform better than the gtx 260m, which dont hold true.

So the 6630m is also a lower clocked version of the 6600/6700 series. Its way underclocked, and it performs, from what I saw in the same level as the gt 550m (not to be confused by the gt 555m, which is a 4 different gpu line, rebrand on the gt 445m), If Im not mistaken the clocks are:

Core: 450mhz
Memory: 800mhz

Now the 6600/6700 line is basically the same GPU, with different memories:

6630m, 6650m, 6730m all pack DDR3 memory, with clocks of 450, 600, 725 on the core respectively, the memory goes up to 900mhz on the 2 last models.

The 6750m (which equips the MBP and the dv4) and the 6770m, use GDDR5 memory, due to the higher bandwidth they can perform pretty good, close to the 5850m using DDR3 memory (most notebooks used this crippled model instead of the GDDR5 version, which brings a GREAT performance boost, however the DDR3 version is not shabby, it performs the same as a gtx 260m)

Clocks of the 6750, 600mhz, and the 6770m, 725mhz.

So as you can see by this we can vouch for the bandwidth limitation of the midrange cards. Which also affects Nvidia, since it releases some models of the GT 555m with just 96 cores and GDDR5 equipped, which suspiciously reminds me of a gt 425m, gt 435m, gt 525m, gt 540m, gt 550m (yes they are all the same card).

I think I got it all covered, any more questions just ask.

 

Just to point out that the gtx260m is a rebranded 9800m gtx, not 8800m gtx.
The 9800m gt/gt2 was a rebranded 8800m gtx.
The gtx260m/9800m gtx uses same core/shaders/memory as the desktop 8800gt with a bus width of 256bit instead of 382, like the desktop 8800gts.

Its still a powerful card specially in sli.

 

Completely correct, will alter the post

 

To confuse you there are two 555m versions.

96 core, 128bit, GDDR5
144 core, 192bit, DDR3

They both use different cores lol.

 

I thought there were 4? Do you remember that other thread where we discussed the gt 555m?

And dont the 96 core, sound suspiciously like the gt 425m with GDDR5?

 

They are basically a desktop GT240 with GDDR5 and overclocked lol.

Yes the 96 core version is the same chip as the lower series, though it has a core speed and memory speed advantage so it will be faster than them.

 

lol take that AMD! unbelievable! unbelievable! btw the gt 240 isnt a fermi card.

AMD is really taking over the mainstream market, i hope nvidia can put a better game next time

Now the dv4 is coming to the US, and its packing a 6750m, the 540m pales in comparison to it

 

Sorry you are right, I should have put GT430 desktop. They did add DX11, though I think the shaders are actually weaker per Mhz.

They never used GDDR5 and the GT430 in the desktop series, likely because it was not worth it, better off going with the GTS450.

 

Which of the two cards would you suggest i get for a new laptop? i was thinking about getting the sony vaio with the radeon 6630m or should i get the other one? i may and likely will use it for gaming, games along the lines of starcraft 2

 

SONY and TOSHIBA are usually downclocking and undervolting their cards . Sometimes you have a good sample wich can be clocked back to the original values but you can´t rely that you get a good sample. The HD5730M with GDDR3 memory should perform like a HD6630M with DDR3. You have to expect that you will need to overclock your card to get to the original clocks of a HD6630M in the SONY VAIO. The nVidia card has GDDR5 only in more expensive devices but i don´t think you will get a GDDR5 card because it´s too expensive and consumes more power. Im not shure if the nVdia does support dX11 because its based on the Fermi dX10 architecture. However, if you have enough money go for the nVidia card but ask in the customer forum if it uses GDDR5 and how its clocked before you buy it.

 

since the hd5650 can be overclocked crazy high i say a overclocked 5650=overclocked 540gt

 

and thats why the 6630m was created.

No you dont. The 6630m is the underclocked version of the 6650m

The only gt 425m/gt 435m/gt 525m/gt 540m/gt 550m that uses GDDR5 is the gt 555m that uses that core. All the other implementations use DDR3

it does, fermi was always dx11