Laptop decision help

I am buying a Alienware m17x soon. I have a difficulty choosing if I should go with a Alienware R2 or R3 based on the video cards. Which video card should I go with?

Alienware M17x R2 with ATI Radeon 5870 Crossfire

or

Alienware M17x R3 with Nvidia GTX 460M

Also can the ATI Radeon handle 3D graphics or is that only with Nvidia? I cant decide which video card has good overall performance and high fps for gaming. I searched online a lot of places and the performance of both video cards is very close together.

What do you guys recommend?

 

I would stay away from Crossfire configurations (unless you think that AMD and Alienware will get you an updated and fully working driver to you 'soon').

If the performance is very close between a crossfire setup and a single card; I would always choose the single card setup.

Less power requirements, less heat output, less quirky/buggy software/driver issues and maybe most importantly:

The nVidia single card solution is most likely to be supported longer and independently of Alienware (through their Verde program) and most likely much longer than the Crossfire solution will be (because of the collaboration needed between the two manufacturers to release a driver for their product niches).

Good luck.

 

Both of these laptops are used selling from other people. I never heard of alienware Nvidia Verde program, I will have to check it out, however does this Verde program apply to only new alienwares bought from alienware website, or old ones to such as a used one I will buy probably from ebay.

 

I never thought about dual video cards can produce so much heat and more of a problem than single video cards so i thank you for this valuable information . Knowing this I will lean towards the nvidia gtx 460m

 

No it is not specific to Alienware...

Here is some more info for the nVidia Verde program:

See:
Notebook Drivers


Glad I was of some help.

 

The R2 listed with 5870 xfire will destroy the single GTX 460m in games

xfire will require more maintenance but many also prefer the R2 chassis compared to the R3. The R2 allows for 2 vid card...the R3 one.

In general, i prefer single card setups...but the gtx 460m is not powerful enough anymore for the upcoming triple A game titles. I have one overclocked to 560m speeds in an Asus g73 and it isn't enough for newer games like The witcher 2, Crysis 2 DX11 (high texture pack) etc @1080p. you will need to lower the resolution and/or graphical IQ to have these games run smoothly

 

You should ask to move this post to the Alienware m17x forums to get a complete perspective on this topic

 

If he/she researched the performance of the games he plays and came to a solid conclusion that the FPS is not superior for either card, then the single card solution is still superior - especially if it is a single nVidia single card solution and even though it is an older card.

If he/she is looking for the latest/newest games to play on, I agree that we shouldn't be looking at past technology.

But still a single card and still nVidia (because of Verde) for a notebook, at this time.

 

don't get me wrong...i prefer single card setups too because you don't have to worry about driver support and game patches etc...

but there is no comparing xfire 5870m's to a single 460m. The xfire will produce superior gaming results all day long. Even a single 5870m is faster than the 460m in games

The R2 is old, so my guess is that the R2 system above with xfire is used and comes in at the same price point as the R3 with 460m

But Nvidia cards on Alienware is not such a simple thing. You will have to update the Vbios to lower the thermal/power throttling that occurs on them. Plus many people are having issues with Optimus not working as it should

To the OP, head on over to the Alienware m17x forums for a larger perspective

 

Don't get me wrong... I don't game at all (just love knowing about hardware) - but was just going on the OP's statement quoted below.

rajuj13 said:

 

maybe he meant SLI 460m vs xfire 5870m...so two vs two

 

Aha! Another possible interpretation.

However, I still believe he means the Crossfire setup vs. the single 460 GTX.

We'll see how good our guesses are if/when the OP answers these pressing questions.

 

there is no discussion the 5870m and the gtx 460m have similar performance, being the AMD gpu the slightly faster option. However when going 2x vs 1x, there is no doubt which would be the fastest system. However dual gpus configs do indeed require a little bit more of maintenance, specially regarding some gaming titles.

However since the doubt is between similarly performing cards, not like a sli gtx 460m against a 6990m xfire, I would go with the dual card setup.

 

Thank you for your valuable information guys. Really appreciate it.

I am sorry to say but tilleroftheearth is right. Its a Crossfire radeon 5870 (2 video cards) VS. single gtx 460m (1 video card)

I used this website here Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech to look at gaming performances on each video card. And I searched this forum. I couldnt make up my mind so I asked you guys. Unfortunately the laptop with the nvidia graphic card cost more but its overall performance versus the crossfire 5870 is less. But so many of the m17x r2 or r3 laptops have nvidia cards which is messing me up. I would fine a AMD Radeon 6870 in a m17x r3 once in a while but the crossfire 5870 beats that radeon card in performance as well.

Ok I will request to move this post to alienware m17x section

 

Gaming titles I play are:
Need for speed hot pursuit, world online, undercover
Starcraft 2
Crysis
Left for dead 1 and 2

These are the main games I play if that helps

 

a single 5870m is slightly faster than the 460m.

the scaling of the 5870m is actually pretty good, its the same for the 460m as well, around 80-90%

a 6870m is a rebranded 5870m

 

Yes thats what I was thinking so I didnt go for the 6870

 

if you can afford it...get a 6990m. that's a single card that performs about on par with 5870 xfire....6990m will blow away the 460m and its only a little more expensive.

Oh and forget 3d. A laptop doesn't really have enough hp to run it properly. In 3d, the frame has to be rendered twice which cuts your fps in half. So if you're gaming a modern first person shooter @ 1080p @ a solid 30 fps, put 3d on, and you'll be at 15 fps. You are going to get killed a lot.

if you are playing the newer games like Crysis 2, you are going to need horsepower

 

@sickdude - no i cannot afford the m17x r3 with hd 6990 radeon video card, its too expensive and I cant find anyone selling in a 900-1400 dollar price range. I found lots of powerful crossfire 5870 laptops however within the price range which i am going for because that is the best at the moment. I cant find anyone selling a gtx 560m from nvidia which i would go for if I can find. Also thanks for the explaination on 3D settings. I wont worry about it anymore since it effects performance that much.

 

What about another brand then Alienware? Maybe Sager or something? I have no idea really.. But just something else, or does it have to be one of either R2 or R3?

 

the np8150 can usually be found with the 6990m for 1400