So with Sandy Bridge GPU, where are the 15" laptops with a good GPU?

So now Sandy Bridge will be making its way to manufacturers again, where are the good discrete GPUs?

I'm seeing everybody from ASUS to HP throw out midrange cards in their non-desktop replacement notebooks. I can't see the point of weak baby cards being switchable with an integrated unit. People who want to play demanding games (while they are plugged in) but want mobility (or just good battery life with web and music) when needed are never gonna get a book that fits the bill.

Will somebody deliver a 6lb or lower 15 inch laptop with 1080p with a real discrete GPU able to play Crysis-like games (med settings)? Guess I'll just be holding out for even longer until someone can prove a nice balanced combo exists on the market.

 

Pretty sure Sager/Clevo has a 15 inch laptop capable of 1080p with like, a GTX485M in there ._.

But if you want something which plays crysis-like games with med settings at 1080p, battery life will probably suffer :3

 

Mine is a 16 inch, and plays Crysis on Mixed settings ( very high on objects, textures, vol. effects and sound; high on Physics, game effects; med on shaders and shadows; low on post processing ) @ 1080p with never dropping 30 FPS, and has a nice battery life ( got ~3hrs when surfing the web, gaming gets 1h30m )

 

The new Clevo P150HM (Sager NP8150), will have options for the GTX 485M and 6970M. No other announced 15" is touching that.

You just can't expect mid-range GPUs to perform as well as what's available in a heavier, high-level machine. 6lbs or less means smooth 1080p gaming is out of reach. You have to choose.

 

I have been using the P150HM alot over the past 2 weeks and the sandy bridge with a 485GTX is awesome, very very powerful and scoring wicked high in benchmarks

 

8150 on order too. Afaik nothing comes close. Its a beast

 

To correct myself:

1080p screen, not necessarily playing in 1080p. Maybe 720 upscaled.

Able to use integrated GPU (switch out) when not playing games thus making the laptop more mobile and battery friendly.

ASUS N53, Dell XPS 15, and HP Dv6 with a nVidia GT550+ or AMD 6750+ with GDDR5 would help eliminate bottlenecks from the GPU side. I don't understand how adding more RAM helps when the chip itself won't utilize it any better.

GT540 is weaker considerably.

 

Do any of the Sager/Clevo 15"ers have switchable graphics? The form factor is pretty useless otherwise.

I'm hoping that the W520 (Quadro 2000M) and the 8560w (TBD) have switchable graphics when they launch so I can get decent battery life out of either of those laptops. Either that or I'll keep the MBP and just build a desktop.

 

The 5830M was not bad, gets excellent frame rates for most games at 1920x1080.

hopefully HP will release an updated SB Envy 15 this year with new AMD or NVIDIA cards.

 

I'm pretty sure the new Macbook Pros could run Crysis on medium settings at 1080p. My old Envy 15 with the 5830 could run it, and the 6750 with GDDR5 is more powerful than the 5830 with DDR3.

 

The Sager/Clevo NP5160 and 5170 have switchable graphics, but mediocre GPUs (GTS 540m).

 

I still have my doubts that the 6750M is that powerful. I mean, why did they bother rebranding the 5830 to the 6830M in that case?

 

The 8150 still pulls 3 hours on battery. Thats good enough for me. Ill keep my 8150 since its as powerful as a desktop

 

because there is only one notebook that use the card?

and most models that come with the 5850 they use the GDDR3 version, not GDDR5

 

Yeah, GDDR5 is nice and all, but it's still a chip with 40% less shaders than the Mobility 5850.

But, 640/5 = 96 Nvidia shaders (very roughly, I know), so it is fair to expect it to come in just below the GTS 360.

If that pans out, it'll be amazing that it's in the Macbook Pro.

 

Well it looks like the 6750 is about as potent as a 9800mGS...

Which, while not horrible, is a tad behind the times.

Part of the problem are testers using benchmarks and not keeping track of resolutions...

The best and most reliable result seems to be the 9400 score in 3dmark06 at 1280x1024... which places it lower than a 9800mGS... especially considering 3dmark06's bias for CPU... and the fact a 2nd-gen i7 and a 6750 cannot produce the scores my 9800mGS and C2D2.2GHz have for years.

The Crysis benchmarks also seem to indicate only slightly better than the 9800mGS... once again, the i7 is likely helping quite a bit.

The mbp at $2200 is competing directly with laptops from 2.5 years ago that cost less than half that much 2.5 years ago. ouch.

 

Seriously, the gpu's are supposed to be evolving not stagnating like this.
Incremental increases in speed, no real innovation.

And what Apple is effectively doing here... lol... crystal clear example of capitalism.

 

aside from the 8800gtx the only other nvidia gpu that is not an incremental increase from the last iteration is the 485m.
thats why many are hyped up about it.

 

Well, under your example, microsoft and intel and AMD and nvidia are all "guilty" too... but quite frankly and unfortunately mac users are a vulnerable, captive (and fanatical) audience.

I am afraid Apple could put a Apple logo on a $20 toaster and sell it as a $1500 "value" laptop and some of their followers would buy it anyway.

For a better market, and a better computing world (yes macOS is part of that world, and yes I want it directly competing) I hope that the macOS addicts will give this release a pass for its rediculous price/performance.
(A sandy bridge + 485m is CHEAPER!)

Most of them won't... but little by little the market needs to wisen up IMHO.

 

Most of my university are mac users, let me tell you, they cannot escape the Apple stratosphere because they WANT, TO FIT, IN. They really don't care what the specs of any of these expensive hardware have, as long as they are using what their peers are using, their digital social life is complete and that's it for them.
That and the fact that their rich parents are paying for all these.

 

Pretty sure the only laptop with near the specs you want is the one in my signature...

 

Except that it's almost 7lbs.

 

Just hit the gym a bit and you wont even notice

 

By the way, it isn't the CPU that's been recalled, it's the SATA controller on the motherboard.