Thinking about a new GPU...

Ok so I have a GTX 670M 1.5GB now. Games right now are so so. Looking to get into Crysis 3, just finished Crysis 2 for the 2nd time (45FPS on High with DX11 Texture Mods). What GPU would you suggest or wouldn't suggest (stay with current)? Couple of questions I have are:

1. How well is the GTX 670MX 3GB overclocking?
2. Would it be worth going to the HD7970M for almost twice the price?

Games looking to play:

Crysis 3
BF4


Current system is

Sager NP9130

Intel Core i7 2670QM
HM77
GTX670m 1.5GB
8GB DDR3 1333
128GB Samsung 830 SSD
Windows 7 Pro x64
15.6" 1920x1080 LED

 

for crysis 3 you are def. gonna need a 680m to play it. 675m/x isnt worth it/enough. I wouldnt go 7970m just cause of the drivers... I dunno maybe they are better now. BF4 without a doubt will be very demanding aswell, you might wanna look to see if you can upgrade you CPU too, to atleast a 3610qm

 

I wouldn't upgrade now, wait to see what Maxwell has to offer. As for BF4 and all those other games, I wouldn't worry about them much. BF4 will just be BF3.

 

2670QM is as powerful as the 3610QM, I wouldn't bother with CPU. But for GPU if you can wait a few months then get a 780m, otherwise the 680m will be more than sufficient. Just remember that with either the 7970m or 680m (or 675M/MX for that matter) you will need a new heatsink and 180W power supply.

 

will 180W power supply be enough? (I guess the system will need 170W minimum to drive 2670qm and 680m/7970m right?)

definitely wait for next rehash of GPU though, C3 is not a game worth attacking in an instant and dropping +500$ for it, just wait and play it later on (still will have the best graphics around ) and BF4 is the same game with BF3 except a few unlocked functions of frostbite2 that we didn't get in BF3.

 

I realize that I would have to get a PSU and heatsinks.

How's this look?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=110984849727

Sent from my VS930 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

Or a GTX 670mx 3gb


http://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30175

No new PSU is needed.

Sent from my VS930 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

670mx will only give you marginal gains in performance, like 10-15% at best. 7970m will nearly double the performance.

 

Sounds like the HD7970M is the logical upgrade.

Sent from my VS930 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

To tell you the truth a GTX670MX will do about 15K in Vantage, a HD7970M will do 21K. Relative performance from GTX670MX to HD7970m is a 29% delta.

 

7970m is about on par with the 680m. There's no comparison to 670mx. Vantage is a flawed test, it relies too much on CPU than GPU so a more powerful CPU will greatly increase the overall score. If you compare in game FPS, the 7970m is nearly double that of the 670mx in many cases. In general 70-100%. I think upgrading from a 670m to a 670mx will leave you quite disappointed. Is it really worth $300 to gain an extra 2-3 fps in games? Where you'd previously get 30fps with 670m, the 7970m will run at least 45-50FPS if not more. That's a serious improvement. Plus the 7970m is a 256-bit GPU which means more bandwidth for higher resolutions, the 670m/mx is only 192-bit which is partially why it struggles with 1080p. You need at least 256-bit GPU to maintain decent FPS at 1080p.

 

Fair enough, a real FPS game it is. Let's take BF3.

GTX670M : 47FPS on High
GTX670MX : 52FPS on High
HD7970M : 67FPS on High

GTX670M to GTX670MX 10%
GTX670MX to HD7970M 23%
GTX670M to HD7970M 30%

All results taken from http://www.notebookcheck.net.

 

Just a heads up, notebookcheck.net can be a good place to compare cards, but their results are often outdated, especially when it comes to cards that are heavily affected by driver updates (like the 7970m.) I'm not saying those numbers in particular are incorrect, but I've definitely seen some that are.

It's more accurate to compare how both cards run on ultra settings. The 670mx does around 20fps, while the 7970m does 40+fps. This falls in line with their 3DMark 11 benchmarks (670mx=3.5k 7970m=6.5k)

 

It's a decent starting place though.....but yes it is dated at times. I wish reviewers actually reviewed the mobile lineups.

 

With the 7970m I get like 100fps+ pretty much all the time in bf3 on high in 64 man servers... Your scores are way off.

 

What are your settings then? I doubt that goes for 1080p/Ultra.

 

Problem is Notebookcheck offers 3 settings at 1366x768 (low, med, high) which isn't indicative of true performance if you're playing at 1920x1080. Unless you plan on playing at 720p then don't use those figures. Otherwise the Ultra bench results are the only ones they offer at 1080p, and that setting is a bit harsh on most games even with a top end card, although more indicative of relative performance between cards at 1080p. And notebookcheck's BF3 figures are for single player only, not multiplayer. MP is a lot more stringent and depends on CPU used. Must have a decent clocked quad core to get decent FPS.

 

I have a 3630qm and I was just using the default high setting. IIRC ultra was around 60-80ish I don't remember

 

I found a few HD7970M reviews, one is in a Alienware M17x, the other in a P170EM.

Radeon HD 7970M Review • Reviews • Eurogamer.net

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/digital-storm-x17-radeon-hd-7970m-enduro,3345.html

 

Decided that laptop gaming is too expensive. Back to a desktop for me! mITX build is gonna be fun!