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    Radeon Moblity HD5870 upgrade from HD4830, worth $300?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Radiating, Jul 19, 2010.

  1. Radiating

    Radiating Notebook Geek

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    I'm curious if there is a reasonable benefit in power consumption or in performance to justify paying $300? Would you do the switch?
     
    Radiating, Jul 19, 2010
    #1
  2. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    Outside of knowing what kind of machine it will be running in and what kind of software will be running on it, no way to tell for sure.

    But $300? Seriously. No.
     
    newsposter, Jul 19, 2010
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  3. MaxGeek

    MaxGeek Notebook Evangelist

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    If your a gamer, it could be worth the upgrade to a 5870 if you machine isn't limited in other areas like CPU.
     
    MaxGeek, Jul 19, 2010
    #3
  4. MrSpock2002

    MrSpock2002 Notebook Evangelist

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    Gamer? damn right it's worth it. I'd guess a machine with a HD5870 won't be in a machine with a crappy processor.

    DX 11, Direct Compute, OpenCL, much better and I mean MUCH better gaming performance or video editing performance over the aging HD4830.
     
    MrSpock2002, Jul 19, 2010
    #4
  5. sean473

    sean473 Notebook Prophet

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    $300 is certainly worth it.. a 5870 is about 2-3 times better than a 4830 which much better performance overall...
     
    sean473, Jul 20, 2010
    #5
  6. ernstig01

    ernstig01 Notebook Evangelist

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    2-3 times better performance.
    Less power consumption (= less heat production).

    If you play games a lot, you should consider it.
    Just be shure your CPU can handle this and will not be the bottleneck.
    I think it's a decent upgrade for $300,-.
     
    ernstig01, Jul 20, 2010
    #6
  7. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The power consumption will definitely be a lot higher with the HD 5870...
     
    sgogeta4, Jul 20, 2010
    #7
  8. Thaenatos

    Thaenatos Zero Cool

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    Yes more then worth it.
     
    Thaenatos, Jul 20, 2010
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  9. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    Worth it for what? Running Office? The OP still hasn't told us what they want/need to run.
     
    newsposter, Jul 20, 2010
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  10. Radiating

    Radiating Notebook Geek

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    Well I was just looking for general discussion and to find the facts, yes I am a gamer. From the benchmarks I've seen both make about the same scores, but that's not a good real world analysis.

    How much lower is the power consumption. Do you actually see a 100% boost in frame rate?
     
    Radiating, Jul 20, 2010
    #10
  11. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    What benchmarks did you look at? From everything I've seen, the 5870 destroys the 4830. Check out the 3dmark06 scores:

    HD 4830: Score 8380: Notebookcheck: AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830

    HD 5870: Score 12634: Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870

    As for wattage/battery life: HD 5870 is 50 Watt. The 4830 is around 40 watt. Probably 1/2 hour at most.

    Thats OVER 30% faster, not the same.
     
    Nick, Jul 20, 2010
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  12. Radiating

    Radiating Notebook Geek

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    Wait what you said indicates the 5870 has 20% more power consumption but a 30% higher frame rate. Is the 5870 more power hungry than the 4830?

    The HD4830 is definitely a 40 watt as I can find that information online, so it would appear so.

    Also I forgot to mention the other system specs, (planned, not actual):

    Intel i7 960XM procssor
    16GB Ram
    SSD
     
    Radiating, Jul 21, 2010
    #12
  13. cloudbyday

    cloudbyday Notebook Deity

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    Woah, hold on. Do you even have the laptop? If not, why not get a laptop that already has a Radeon 5870 in it. WHY in the world do you want 16 GB in your system? You should be thinking in terms of 4 GB, maybe 6, not 16. There is no i7 960XM. If you have that sort of money, consider the alienware MX17 with dual 5870s.
     
    cloudbyday, Jul 21, 2010
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  14. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    TDP is NOT a measure of power consumption. Most people don't game on battery, so idle power consumption is very low, while on max load the power consumption can vary (check out desktop GPUs for more in depth power consumption figures and compare those to their TDPs).
     
    sgogeta4, Jul 21, 2010
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  15. ernstig01

    ernstig01 Notebook Evangelist

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    Usual when gaming you use the power supply. Not the battery. So power consumption is not an issue then.
    While surfing or using office on battery I thought the HD5870 is using less power, cause of the better powerconsumption management. Correct me if I'm wrong.
    In my desktop pc I changed my GPU from HD4870 to HD5870 and it runs significantly more quiet/cool when idle.
     
    ernstig01, Jul 21, 2010
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  16. Purlpo

    Purlpo Notebook Evangelist

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    Are you talking about an upgrade offered at a website or just buying a card and replacing your current one? If that is the case, I bet you could sell the 4830 for 150$ at least.
     
    Purlpo, Jul 21, 2010
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  17. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    If you get one with a 940XM, battery life won't be above 1:45 anyway.
     
    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
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  18. Radiating

    Radiating Notebook Geek

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    The video card is an option, but it would be slightly cheaper to buy it and swap it.

    I tend to use software and content development programs which can use 12gb easily, the 16gb isn't for gaming, gaming is an afterthought. Besides that I can't consider any other laptop due to other reasons. Also you're right the processor is a 940XM not 960XM.
     
    Radiating, Jul 21, 2010
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  19. Radiating

    Radiating Notebook Geek

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    How much worse will it be than the 840QM which can be turbo boosted to similar speeds? If we're talking 45 minutes more that may be worth it, assuming internet browsing and the like on the battery.
     
    Radiating, Jul 21, 2010
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  20. CarlosGFK

    CarlosGFK Notebook Evangelist

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    You definitely won't see a 45 minute increase, maybe 10-15 minutes but even that i doubt.
     
    CarlosGFK, Jul 21, 2010
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  21. Radiating

    Radiating Notebook Geek

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    Anyone else have a suggestion? Thanks so far.
     
    Radiating, Jul 25, 2010
    #21