Why are laptops with Nvidia 540m so expensive?

You can get a 17" laptop with a Radeon HD 5870 or an NVidia GTX 460m, get around P7800 in Vantage and only have to spend $1000.

Or you can get a 17" laptop with an NVidia 540m, get around P4500 in Vantage and have to spend the same $1000... what gives?

I don't understand what is going on right now. The only place you can get a Radeon HD 6970 is with Clevo or Alienware and the only place you can get a GTX 560m is with MSI and thats only in a 15.6 incher, not 17". The price for those makes sense ($1500-2000) but they aren't even widely available...

 

The 460M and 5870M are obsolete technology and therefore somewhat cheaper than their more modern counterparts (check what CPUs those laptops come with). Also, the 540M typically has Optimus so you're paying for the battery life.

 

That, also take into account that manufacturers rarely use a 540m and an i3 together so they still pack a good punch at 1366x768. I wouldn't get a 540 on a 1080p screen if it's for gaming, but on lower res and smaller 13-14" notebooks it performs rather well and there are sub 1000$ models in that category. You pay for the newer hardware and the size too, 17" means more materials, more expensive lcd etc too so there's a limit at which you no longer make a profit on the laptop. Also take into account that nVidia GPU are more expensive than AMD ones too. I think it has to do with the amount of silicon used among other things.

 

How good is the battery life really on a 17"+i7+540m laptop?

They 460m and 5870 obsolete but more powerful. Power is the name of the game in... well gaming hardware. Imagine if the villain in T3 was less powerful than the villain in T2... would have made for a more disappointing movie lol

 

With a big battery, it can be huge. For example, the Lenovo W520 with an even bigger GPU (the 2000M which has twice as many shaders as the 540M) and the most powerful mobile i7 (the 2920XM) gets around 7 hours.

 

really? Well thats impressive. I take issue though with 540m laptops that are marketed as 'gaming' laptops. If you can't play The Witcher 2 at medium settings 1600x900 and get 30fps, it can hardly be called a gaming laptop

 

Thats clueless marketing it the works.
I even seen Intel IGP based notebooks advertised as gaming notebooks.

 

for shame. Apparently the new definition of gaming laptop is "it can play WoW at least"

 

Take into account that The Witcher 2 sets a new bar of minimum GPU power. To run at those settings you'd need for sure some high-end mobile GPU (the low part of high end, not the highest for sure).

 

Any specific notebooks you're looking at?

The GT 540M is pretty common in the more trendy/stylish systems where the GPU isn't what you're paying extra for...and the opposite can be true for the HD5870 and GTX 460M, where they'll appear in some budget conscious gaming rigs from ASUS or MSI.

 

The 560m is default card in the Sager NP8150.

Supposedly it will also be included in a new Asus model, the K53-3D as reported by Anandtech. No word yet on whether the K53-3D will have 1080p display.

 

That makes no sense. The Asus K series has traditionally been a low budget media laptop. Perhaps you meant the G53?

 

No, I was referring to the K53 as reported by Anandtech. Maybe it was a typo but I hope not. It certainly looks a lot better than the G53 IMO.






Source

 

Farmville is a game