gtx 970m 6gb vs gtx 980m 4gb

in thew process of researching for a new gaming laptop and seen these 2 laptop nearly the same in price

do you think the extra memory on the 970m would be better for future games or should i just go with the 980m

thanks!

 

If you want futureproofing I´d say the 980M is the way to go. It is what, ~20% faster than the 970M?
Even if games are becoming more dependant on VRAM (though CPU is the most recent hogger) I don´t think 4 GB is downright bad. And having 6 GB instead of 4 GB wont trumph those 20%.

 

980M is between 20 and 30% faster than the 970M out of the box and generally overclock well on top of it so if you have a chance to get one for the same price, its worth it, however 4GB chips are generally soldered while 6GB 970Ms are usually MXM and thus upgradable (check though, these rules don't always apply).

 

Good point, forgot to add that. And OP this can be important even if you don´t plan to upgrade the GPU. If a soldered GPU fails and you´re out of warrranty you´re looking at a new motherboard. A failed MXM can be exchanged on it´s own.

 

thanks guys some interesting points .....one more question would the 980m 8gb be mxm and the 4gb version soldered in

 

generally yes though in the latest alienware 15/17 revisions have 8gb BGAs (they're using VRAM chip with higher capacity)...which is the exception. everyone else that uses BGA is still 4gb.

 

Also, MSI used 3/4 GB MXM variants of 970M/980M IIRC. Perhaps Acer does the same with their Predator line (not sure if they're MXM).

 

The 980m is generally the correct choice.

What two laptops are you looking at?