dual cards vs single!

Not quite $800.

 

Nobody said performance and mobility was cheap and that also wasn't the basis of the argument. I wouldn't of purchased a laptop of this caliber if I was only playing games on it a few times.

 

Are you saying it's more or less?

SH67H3 (case, mobo, psu): $240
i5-2400: $150
GTX 460: $150
8GB DDR3 1333: $50
SSD: $100
2TB HDD: $80

$770

Ok so it will probably be beat by an SLI or Crossfire laptop, but I can still play everything maxed out at 1920x1200 without a problem.

Right, but the point was brought up that a desktop consumes so much more space. I don't care what people buy. Everyone has their needs. I even used a DTR for a good six months, but it didn't work out for me. With the money I spent on the DTR, even after taking a $300 loss from selling it, I still get a desktop and gaming capable laptop for less. If a laptop is your primary PC and you need some portability, I understand 100%. Otherwise, the argument that desktops consume too much space is really somewhat of an inaccurate statement.

 

It'll also be beat by single GPU laptops.

 

Drop the SSD and SLI 460s.

 

I completely agree with the argument in regards to purchasing a high end laptop just to have it sit just like a desktop would. However you are preaching to the choir when you mention a desktop is "this much cheaper" to a bunch of guys with high end laptops.

 

Well this topic went a long ways from single card vs sli/cf.

I don't think it's anyone's place to tell someone to get a desktop instead of a high end laptop. If they want one let them get it.

If someone told me I wasn't very smart for getting one of the desktop replacements I've had then I would ask them to carry a desktop around in a dufflebag in Iraq/Afghanistan for a couple years and see how they like it.

 

I don't think anyone is criticizing anyone. The whole argument ended up about desk space, and of course cost. As I already stated a couple times, I personally don't begrudge anyone for whatever they choose. I was just stating disagreement about the size.

In any case I can say that after experience with the GTX 485m, that a single card is more than adequate for at least a couple year's gaming with good performance. SLI and Crossfire have their headaches, and issues I've read, and issues I'm having, on a much lesser scale, using the asymmetrical Crossfire on the Llano laptops can be problematic.

 

Back when I had my 9800m GTX's in SLI I never had any actual problems with the SLI. On most console ports the benefit of SLI over single cards seemed to be a great deal smaller than PC exclusive games, and I assumed this was due to companies not wanting to optimizing their console games for multiple gpu use.
The only PC exclusive game that game me issues was Global Agenda, which gave me pretty bad microstuttering with SLI.