AMD Radeon? HD 6970M vs Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M

Okay, well I came across a decision problem when looking through Alienware's new M17x.R3 that has been resumed since the Sandy Bridge processors have shipped again. I'm no professional so I need help on this issue to figure out what's best for me. I know it will probably cause a little debate like all of these kinds of discussions, but really that's a good thing to have, so debate away, haha. This is also my first post in a forum in well over a year (since I left the site I was managing at the time because I was too busy to do it anymore) so it feels kinda good to be on one again, haha

Anyway, here are statistics of what I plan on getting :

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• Manufacturer - Alienware (Owned by Dell)
  
  
  [*]Model Name - M17x : 3D Ready (M17x.R3)
  
  
  [*]System Color - Alienware M17x, Soft Touch Nebula Red
  
  
  [*]CPU - Intel® Core™ i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache) (2nd Generation / Sandy Bridge Processor)
  
  ^---I'm going to ask Alienware if they'll be adding the Extreme Edition processors to this. If they are, I'll wait until they do and get the best of them instead. If not, I will go ahead and get this one.
  
  [*]Operating System - Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit
  
  
  [*]8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (4DIMMS)
  
  
  [*]Graphics Card - 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6970M OR 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M
  
  [*]Hard Drive - 256GB Samsung Solid State Drive
  
  [*]Display - 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED (if I get the AMD Radeon 6970) or 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 120Hz WLED w/ NVIDIA 3D Vision Bundle (if I get the Nvidia GeForce 460M)
  
  
  [*]Wireless Card - Intel® Ultimate N WiFi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology
  

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The debate should mainly be about the graphics cards, but if you have any recommendations about the rest of the system feel more than free to state them here.

I've also made a poll for voting on, but please compare and contrast the two in-depth before making a decision. I'm no pro, but even I feel annoyed when a person makes his/her votes simply because he/she likes the brand name :/

Well, post away! Every intellectual contribution helps! Thanks!!

Edit : Discuss SLI and Crossfire amongst yourselves if you wish, but if you want to help me Crossfire and SLI are irrelevant since I will be using single GPUs.

 

6970m is far better in terms of performance, it is on the same level as an NV 485m.

 

The 6970m clearly is the winner by a big margin.

The GTX 460m is still a pretty good card though.

 

I think there's also things to consider about the features and technologies that they have. I don't plan on photoshopping too much but games, browsing, multimedia, and multi-tasking is what I do much more of.

 

Ok, 6970 is only like 4% below a 485m. Which are both beast of a gpu's. The 460m is tried and proven and the 6970 is new hot stuff that may or may not have problems. I just cant believe AW would offer the 460m vs a 6970. Doesn't make since in performance. Here's your cheap model with the 460m or our top dog with a 6970. if your going to offer one top of the line card why not have both since you have a machine big enough to handle both. As for the 2830, i saw where the 2730 had it beat in some benchmarks. Might want to look into that before you choose a cpu. But if AW does offer the 2930xm I'd go with that one, if not then I buy a Sager 8170.

 

I might actually consider buying from a different company, but not sure who would be best to go with. Some people are trying to convince me into buying from Origin, haha.

 

Lol, 7 to 0. Now I know what I'm gonna get. I feel stupid for even raising the question now.

Also, I'd love to get crossfireX on this system, but we all know how Dell is a and won't let you customize for . Maybe if I call them it could be arranged, lol.

 

The R3 can only have one graphics card. There is absolutely no possible way to add a second card, and there never will be.

 

Okay, haha.

 

A Solid State Disk is great. But don't buy it from Dell. Buy your system with the cheapest mechanical HDD that Alienware offers. And then buy an aftermarket SSD, and install it yourself.

It will be cheaper, and you will get a faster drive than what Alienware throws in there. The sweet spot for SSD's is 120GB at $200. If you need more space, get a 240GB / 256GB model for $400. Also, consider getting an external USB drive. You should be putting only OS + applications + games on your SSD. Getting a large SSD and putting media (music, photos, videos, , etc) is a waste of the SSD. That stuff should go on an external USB drive, where storage is cheap and plentiful.

 

11 to 0, we have a winner.....

 

Sorry, I voted for the right brand but wrong model.

I was mis-remembering this:

From here:

See:
ASUS G73SW + SNB: Third Time?s the Charm? - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News


Apologies!

And, I would change my vote if I could...


From the same link above, it seems like the AMD 6970M should be at least ~50% faster than the nVidia 460M.

So... disregard the poll and count it as 12 to 0.

 

I really think you should consider dropping the 2820qm down to the 2720qm, you will see almost 0 difference in performance and save yourself a bunch of money you could put towards an aftermarket SSD, or an ES 2920XM.

 

Pure horsepower? 6970M
Drivers and support? GTX 460M

Still waiting for AMD to offer 3D laptops with their GPUs. Would be awesome because 6970M could offer high framecount where 460M fail to deliver.
So allin all it depends on what you mean by "best".

 

+1 gotta agree with this one. Nvidia's drivers have always been much better.

 

Hey

ATI is a better choice; ATI costs only a bit than the GTX 460M more but delivers performance equal to GTX 485M for much better price. On deviltech.de I only need to pay +109euro for the ATI but for the 485M I need to pay +439 euro. From the difference I could add another ATI if it would possible.

OFFTOPIC
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Intel/Nvida may be better than AMD/ATI but when it comes down to the price AMD/ATI is definitely better.
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Regards,
Valentin N

 

I voted 460M in support against the bigger man

 

I forgot add this link Just to show that their are equal

 

Equal? Never!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6970 is a power house trying running on full HD with Max out setting, we see who is the biggest loser then.....

 

In which universe?

 

EQUAL? I don't think so buddy. Even Im using 6970m, I can still say that the 485 still outperforms the 6970m. +the support for PhysX.

 

Thread has served its purpose.
Goes here next time:
Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)

Thank you.