Sli 860m vs 870m vs m290x?

Thinking about getting the sager NP9377, which option would be better? The sli 860m's, or single 870m/m290x?

 

Sli 860m

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The SLI 860M's will be better. They'll perform about 20% better than a single 870M, and run much cooler.

 

For only 20% wouldn't it be better to stick with the single 870m due to problems with sli and better battery life?

 

Nah, I don't think so. The 860M is a great card. I'd definitely go with 860M SLI over the 870M.

It may be more than 20% in some games.

 

The 870m is only ~35% faster than a single 860m (Kepler) to begin with, so SLI 860m should be 30%-40% faster in games with good SLI scaling.

 

I will also be using this laptop for school work aswell, will the sli 860s or single 870 differ in battery usage?

 

Yes by a lot considering a single 860m can use optimus

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So the single 870 would use less battery? Would it affect the battery life noticeably?

 

The 860M's consume less power and produce much less heat than the 870M. It may actually not be all that different. We're talking, at most, 30 minutes less. You can always disable one of the GPU's as well.

 

Just to clarify you're taking about kelper 860s? And thanks for the help.

 

I'm pretty sure that optimus on the NP9377 is disabled regardless of how many GPUs you have, so battery life will be similar.

Also, the 860ms will not consume less power or produce less heat, but the NP9377 is designed for dual GPU, so I doubt it will be an issue either way.

 

What are you talking about? 860M SLI is Kepler not Maxwell.

 

Exactly what I was going to ask. If they are not Maxwell 860M's then you will have a hot laptop indeed and performance will be considerably lower. SLI maxwell 860M would be very potent considering a single 860M overclocked can reach stock 780M GTX levels!

 

In that case the AMD card is probably more powerful. 870M overclocks much better though.

 

So I should just go with the single 870m?

 

They're Kepler 860M's? Well, never mind. I thought they were Maxwell.

NVIDIA, stop confusing me. Why release two types of 860M's...?

 

Maybe by the time i order (~1 month) they will be maxwell, but as of now they are kelper.

 

Maxwell 860M are soldered and Kepler 860M are MXM cards. Unless they start making Maxwell 860M in MXM form, you're only gonna get Kepler for 860M SLI.

 

Alright, so would you suggest i go with the sli 860m's (kelper), the 870m, or the m290x?

 

For raw performance, the M290x may provide you with the best results. However, price for performance (and reliability), the 870M is the ideal candidate.

 

Alright, thanks. I've heard of some problems with optimus is this common and is there a way to disable it?

 

870M if you plan to OC, M290X if you don't. Or whichever one is cheaper.

 

870m I think is the best.


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Single 290X, it's a fine chip without enduro bogging it down. If you like Nvidia then the 870M for the sake of frame time consistency.

 

I'd say go m290x as it's a bit faster than the 870m, especially at high IQ/resolution.

As for whether you should go 860m SLI, my guideline from going back-forth between singly and multi-GPU configs over nearly 10 years is: if the SLI/Crossfire option is not giving you at least 100% improvement, go with the single GPU option. Even with today's frame smoothing improvements, I find the microstutter in SLI/Crossfire painfully obvious. I just "downgraded" from a dual 780m laptop to a single OC'ed 780m and the improvement in frame smoothness is very noticable.

 

They have two because GM107 doesnt support SLI while GK104 support SLI.
Which means Nvidia can make chips for both soldered machines and those who use MXM cards and have SLI.

Why GM107 doesnt come on MXM cards though? Have no idea and its strange. Especially when GTX 860M Maxwell is like 10% faster than GTX 860M Kepler and run so much cooler.

 

How does the m290x compare in everyday uses (battery life, reliability, etc) to the 870m? I plan on using it for school and gaming.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-R9-M290X.108643

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-870M.107792.0.html.0.html

I initially ordered the m290x in Crossfire, then when it became a massive wait I switched to the 870m in SLI. Based on the graphs you see above, they're fairly comparable. Some games favor one or the other depending on optimization.

Reliability wise, you never know, but lately ATI has been getting more bad press for failing cards. Personally speaking, my I went ahead and purchased a new system after my 6990m died after 2.5 years. Meanwhile, my 8800gtx (several generations back) is continuing to work in my old Sager that my dad uses as his primary computer. Admittedly anecdotal, but notice the thousand threads on failing 6990s and more recent versions as well. In any event, I highly recommend an extended warranty.

 

Funny you should mention the 8/9 series mobile GPU's as those were probably the most notorious in history for mass failure and there was that huge class action lawsuit against Nvidia for it a few years back.

 

Can you even use iGPU in an SLI rig? I thought it wasn't possible. Talking about battery life of a dGPU is rather pointless they all fall well short of being able to use optimus. If you plan on using your laptop on battery go for the 870M.

 

You can if the mobo has a MUX.

 

Good ol` Alienware got that covered

AW18 get like 2.5 hours of battery life with dGPU running (obviously severely downclocked).

 

Alright, thanks.

 

That is pretty good. This is rather amusing though. Surely if you own an 18 you would certainly not care about battery life! Lugging around that beast with or without the PSU won't make a noticeable difference. May as well just treat the battery backup in case of a power cut or something.

 

What's the use?

I agree, 17" boat anchor gaming notebooks just use the battery as a built in ups. If you care about battery life on the go but want to game when on AC, go for something single gpu with optimus.

 

Ok, thanks. I'll go with the 870m, not looking for extreme battery life just 2-3 hours incase I'm unable to charge it during class.

 

Ok, thanks. I'll go with the 870m, not looking for extreme battery life just 2-3 hours incase I'm unable to charge it during class.

 

What do you mean?
Shutting off the graphic cards works wonder on heat. The fans on this notebook doesn`t even run unless I run flash games and movies. Just surfing the web or doing office work, its completely silent except maybe 10 seconds every 5 minutes.
The manual switching between dGPU and IGP is really nice. Just a simple reboot and the MUX have done its job

Despite being much faster than my previous MSI GT70, its a world difference in noise. Even when gaming with the fans running its so much quieter. I will most likely buy a new AW18 when Maxwell arrives. I just cant go back now that I tasted the sweet nectar of Alienware. Unless one of the other brands offer something similar.

The only other brand that comes close is Asus G750 series I think.

 

You'd have to find an SLI gaming notebook with MUX. Is there one with 860?

 

The failure rate of the 7970m has been really high too, from what others have said and experienced.
I have personally experienced this myself as my 7970m died on me in little less than a year.
I wonder if the large bad batch of these cards that were pulled off the market in May 2012 has something to do with the high failure rate in some way....?

_____________________________________________________

 

I also had a 7970m die on me that was from a 2012 batch. Who knows.. but one thing for sure is know about half a dozen other people who had the same thing happen.
Which is a shame because the performance of the card was decent.

 

Only "decent," and you had two of them? You Alienware owners are a funny bunch. :laugh:

 

Lol. But seriously, I'd even try games on 1 card for the sake of curiosity (and sometimes frame pacing experiments) and some benchmarking and was never disappointed.
I pretty much advocated the 7970m over the 680m for gaming until it gave up on me.
Yes we are a funny bunch. Some of us seem a little insatiable but those instances are usually users who for whatever reason have no gaming desktop... at least thats what I tell myself

 

I must be lucky. My 7970m is a 2012 early QS card. Still going strong. *touches wood*....


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I dont think the AMD cards are top notch quality.
People on this forum also had 6970M suddenly die on them.

 

Only Alienware strangely have MUX and I don`t think AW18 comes with GTX 860M.

 

They also have an HDMI input on it. Sweet features to multiplex iGPU and use it as a monitor. The only problem is 12lb..

 

Well the weight or the size was actually not so bad. Ive read many posts regarding the 18" notebooks from AW that they would so shockingly huge and heavy.
But once you realize that the thickness is good for the cooling (I max out on 68C with my 770Ms) and noise, and you learn to love the big bright IPS display, you learn to appriciate the machine. I have gone from 15" to 17" to 18" and its like once you go big, you can never go back again. Atleast thats how I feel. Maybe settle for 17" but ideally a 18" because its just wonderful to game and watch movies on. Especially when its IPS

I am probably not the right person to ask about regarding the weight though, since I rarely carry this around other places than my house. For students and work related scenarios, I can maybe understand that a ultrabook or something like that would be better. Worst case is just to put it in a backpack and let your back do the work when carrying it around.
Or just use AW18 at home and then use a cheap machine at school/work

 

If you're a student an 18" or even 17" laptop will make your life miserable. Even my 14" made me felt bogged down at times.