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    ATI HD 5850 or Nvidia GTS 360m?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by cjwhite92, May 6, 2010.

  1. cjwhite92

    cjwhite92 Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm looking to buy either the MSI GX640 or the Asus 51GJx-x3, and the MSI has the 5850 and the Asus has the 360m. I have heard that the 5850 is better overall and that the Direct 11x will pay off more in the future, but also that it has driver problems and that there is a good chance it will have some serious problems. It sounds like the 360m isn't as good and that it doesn't have direct 11x, but that I won't have any problems with it. Is this true? And which one would you pick?
     
    cjwhite92, May 6, 2010
    #1
  2. JimGoose

    JimGoose Notebook Consultant

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    one thing about msi i'm always weary of is their touchpads and how they wear out so quickly.

    Notebook check has the 360m edging out the 5850 on 3dmark vantage by a few hundred points Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 there are no gaming benchmarks fo r the two cards though yet
     
    JimGoose, May 6, 2010
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  3. kingtz

    kingtz Notebook Consultant

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    What driver issues did you hear that the 5850 was having?

    ATI 10.4 drivers fixed many of the earlier issues for the 5000 series under Win7:



    You can read more about it here:
    http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/Catalyst_104_release_notes.pdf

    Even if (hypothetically) performance was identical, having DX11 with the 5850 future proofs your card better than the 360M. Not to mention, I don't like the fact that the 360M is just a neutered rehash of the previous generation, the 260M.
     
    kingtz, May 6, 2010
    #3
  4. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    My lowely old GTS 9800m gets P5367 in 3DMark Vantage. I am not really that awe inspired by either of those cards...........
     
    TANWare, May 6, 2010
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  5. sniper_sung

    sniper_sung Notebook Evangelist

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    Obviously go for ATI this year, as nVidia stands for "Old architecture", "hot", "no DX11" etc...
     
    sniper_sung, May 6, 2010
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  6. lackofcheese

    lackofcheese Notebook Virtuoso

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    Most people (myself included) have gotten a GPU score of ~7k on the 5850 GDDR5 at stock clocks. The problem with Notebookcheck's 5850 benchmarks is most of them are for DDR3 versions of the card.
     
    lackofcheese, May 6, 2010
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  7. p51mustang23

    p51mustang23 Notebook Evangelist

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    The gx640 looks better to me, but it has a retarded (for lack of a better word) keyboard. Probably getting one myself.
     
    p51mustang23, May 6, 2010
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  8. catacylsm

    catacylsm Notebook Prophet

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    MSI touchpads are fine too, they wear from matt to glossy, which feels like its a brand new layer in itself, so its not a problem.
     
    catacylsm, May 7, 2010
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  9. lozanogo

    lozanogo Notebook Deity

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    I'd say go for the 5850 in the MSI. It has GDDR5 so your benchmark in principle should be a bit higher than those in notebook check. You have Directx 11, which is more useful than PhysX, and it is less power hungry.
     
    lozanogo, May 7, 2010
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  10. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    that's the problem but generally for gaming , the 5850 should trash GTS360M... also it is DirectX 11... unless u want PhysX which IMO is useless( i barely see any difference) , 5850 is the way.. if u don't like MSI touchpads etc, u might consider Sager NP8690.. way better specs although slightly more expensive.. also has a ATI 5870 which is better than 5850.. also the 5870 is upgradeable so if something better comes out , u can use that.
     
    sean473, May 7, 2010
    #10