Video Card Vs. Ram/Resolution

I'm soon going to buy a new laptop with the following specs:

750GB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200 RPM)
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz)

For the same price, I have to chose between

8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
17.3" WLED HD+ (1600 x 900) Anti-Glare Display
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 770M with 3GB GDDR5

OR

16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
17.3" WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare Displa
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5

Which option you think is worth it? I'm using it mainly for gaming and programs like autoCAD

Thank you

 

I think the GTX770m is about 30% faster than the GTX765m so if gaming is a concern to you, I suggest the 770m option. I know the 1600x900 LCD won't be the best, but it will even help with gaming, as you will run games faster than at 1920x1080 res.

 

What is the price and what laptop's are those, hm?

 

That's a dilemma. Like ryzeki said, the 770m is significantly better than the 765m. However, for your CAD software you want to use a larger screen resolution. Will you have access to an external monitor? That could solve the lower resolution problem. Alternatively, you could may be look at other notebooks. I'm sure there's more than just the two for your purposes.

 

It'd be a 17" alienware for $1750. I am aware I could find something with same/better specs for lower price with other brands but I've tried HP, Asus and Qosmio before and I'd really like to try an Alienware. I would eventually get a 23"+ Monitor, but not for a while, I gotta let my wallet cooldown haha.

 

SO basically your budget is around 1700 dollars. HP laptops aren't geared towards gaming and cad, Asus has the G750 with the 770m for around this price with a 1080p screen and a 4700hq processor. The current Qosmios also have 1080p laptops with 770ms as well. a 1600 by 900 screen at 17.3 inches is not a good choice, at that resolution you really want a 1080p screen. Sure your GPU will perform better in regards to 1600by 900 vs 1080p, but you'll notice a huge difference between the two.

 

Why even consider 900p on a 17.3" laptop...? 1080p+ or bust.

Anyway, you can always upgrade the RAM yourself for cheap, where GPUs are a bit harder to upgrade on your own (or, most often, not at all).

 

If your Budget is 1700dlrs, you can't go wrong with MSI's GT60-2OC. At gentechpc, it costs 1700dlrs for the config with 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD, 20GB of RAM, 770m, bluray, and all the exclusive MSI features like dynaudio speakers (best in class) and up to 3 additional external monitor support, which can come in handy with CAD work plus the stock LCD is of great quality and 1080p res.

if you absolutely must have 17 inch, the MSI GT70 2OC fullfils the same specs you listed except for 1600dlrs while still having better screen. I do advise getting the GT60 with extra specs, ssd and free ram upgrade

 

Thank you all for your help, it has been really useful
Just a few more questions, and once again thank you very much. I know my way around laptop stuff but i'm definitely no expert.
1. I'll probably have to wait till around the end of 2015 to get another laptop, I dont really care much about graphics as long as the game can run smooth. Do you think a 765m with 16gb ram/quad core 3.4 would perform well until around that time?
2. I know technically they have pretty much the same things inside (MSI and Alienware) but as far as quality goes, is there a big difference? I might be a little biased cause MSI is from taiwan and Alienware from the States.

Thank you !

 

Yeah if you are just able to be under your budget with the the AW 17 base model, don't go for it. You have taxes above that too. If you want to purchase an AW just for the looks and keep it not upgraded, go for it but it is a complete waste of money imo.

 

If those are the only options I would prefer the 770m, otherwise I would get a 8970m. It is faster than any of those in games, has more memory and is probably as good with CAD, it is also cheaper in my country than a 770m.

 

If you can't upgrade the GPU then get the beefiest one.

 

I would get the 770m and get a decent external monitor. The laptop will probably stay on your desk most of the time given its size/weight.

 

If its mostly for gaming, go for the 770m and its 900p screen. Not only is the card better but also at that res youre games would run more fluent, especially those games that will come in the future.
1080p sure is nice butits more suited for desktop videocards then notebooks GPU's

 

You know, with a 1080p display you can always scale back the resolution to 900p to run "fluently", but the same isn't true the other way around (you can't scale a 900p display to 1080p when you need those extra pixels).

 

True, but downscaling a 1080p native screen to any lower resolution will look pixelated and ugly.

 

Native 900p doesn't look much better either .

 

A notebook with native screen 900p will look MUCH better then a downscaled 1080p notebook to 900p, i can assure you!

 

You ALWAYS take the most powerful GPU.

 

I beg to differ. To me 1600x900 looks pretty horrible on a 17.3'' screen, not to mention they tend to be worse than the 1080p panels in terms of stuff like viewing angles and colors. 1080p should be considered the bare minimum for a 17.3'' notebook that's going to be used for productivity or content creation tasks. If OP can look past Alienware he will find other notebooks in his budget from MSI, Clevo (and its various brands), and ASUS that have the best of both worlds, a GTX 770M and a 1080p screen.

 

I can tell you the GT60 have great build quality. Why don't you check out my review? It's for the 780m version but the 770m is physically the same, it will only run cooler on the GPU part.

A 765m with quad core CPU should fare alright but it's by no means that powerful noawadays. It's similar to the second last gen's high end offerings (6990m and 580m) to some degree, and should run current games alright, but it should struggle with the more demanding games forcing you to dial down settings to remain playable. Even my powerful 780m struggles with some games at max, but for the most part, murders everything haha

 

Thanks everyone for their help and opinions. I was about to buy this MSI

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Corp...=UTF8&qid=1374277041&sr=8-7&keywords=msi+770m

But today browsing I found this one

Amazon.com: Alienware ALW17-6869sLV 17-Inch Laptop (Silver): Electronics

And i decided to go all in with my savings and buy the alienware.
Good buy?

 

Has both the 770M and 1080p that you wanted, so I'd say so spec-wise. Might have been able to get it a bit cheaper by calling up Dell and haggling over one from their website, though it's up to you if you want to do that (it'll eat up a bit of your time, and you might have to go through a few reps to get one that'll cut you a deal).

 

No. 770m GPU and the trouble of buying from Amazon. Buying from Dell is easier and can yield discounts.

 

That's not a good deal, even by Alienware standards.

 

Forgot to link to this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/456885-aw-dell-ordering-advice-how-save.html

Considering that 20%-25% isn't unheard of, I'd say that it's worth your time to haggle (while also using discounts, too).

 

Ring alienware and haggle for the free upgrade to 1080p

I got my m17x R4 with 16GB ram 1080p screen and gtx 680m for £1600 which was about 20% off.