560m

I work in 3D Graphical Design, I also do a ton of video editing personally so I assure you that having a faster CPU and RAM is highly beneficial, not once did I mention in my post above that I was interested solely in gaming and doubt that other fella is either you dont use a laptop solely for gaming or at least most dont hence why your argument that a faster CPU and RAM make no difference is totally wrong.

If anything I disagree with you claiming the Hybrid HDD makes a difference because they are poor in comparison to an SSD, they take numerous attempts at accessing the same data to bring the NAND into effect and make minimal difference to a overall speed of the drive and boot time compared to an SSD.

I am fully against the OP choosing a 560M and recommended several times he should go for a 6990M but to say that 2.2-3.1ghz against 2.4-3.5ghz makes 0 difference is wrong because you only have to benchmark to show it does. Also in CPU demanding games SC2/Skyrim/Civ 5 to name a few it also does make a difference.

 

Rawr!!! I think the guy was referring to my cpu not yours yiddo!


Also who gives a dang anymore I'm getting the 560m and I'll see you in sc2 and all the other game you mentioned playing em just as happily as you albeit on lower settings but idc

 

Should I be insulted! I buy my own crap too! This bad boy was 1.5 weeks pay but I'm not married and have few other expenses except trying to keep the girl happy rent and car insurance haha no kids ftw.

 

No don't be please.. I have no clue about those things. Just that I could not buy for the sexy factor.

 

I know I am just kidding a 'lil I wasn't insulted. Most peeps prob think I'm a high schooler (I admit sometimes I act it), but alas I graduated Uni last year and actually work for a pretty well known software company

No... not that well known, I wish Google

 

I am very hands on with the Nvidia lineup and how it plays with SC 2. On a 560m you will get "AVERAGE" fps around 35, but that means your going to run into scenes and situations in game etc where the frame rate will stutter bad and drop into the single digits. It does happen and with intense action does it often. A 560m at 1080p runs best on SC 2 at 1080p with Textures set to ultra and graphics quality set to medium or custom(with mostly medium settings), Regardless of which i7 processor used. When you set graphics quality to high the framerate starts to take a significant hit in heavy scenes.

SC 2 to run really smooth at ALL TIMES at max settings takes a serious video card. For the mobile platform I can only think of a few capable, but the inexpensive Radeon 6970m and 6990m are 2 of them.

 

See I am good with no max settings,some highs and mediums are fine.

 

Graphical design and heavy video editing is not what I consider a typical normal everyday app that 99.99% of the users out there use.

Your not gonna notice any difference between an i7 2630QM and an i7 2670QM or 1333/1600mhz ddr3 ram when your ripping a cd on itunes, while yapping away on Yahoo IM while watching the latest youtube video........catch my angle? Hell you wont even notice a difference while you bring up the latest photos to crop of little Billy standing on the fence with scissors in his hands, while doing a research paper on Office.

 

We are the 99%?

 

Thats your problem your too busy making assumptions that people dont need certain upgrades without knowing what they have them for, if the OP wants a slightly faster CPU and RAM and slower GPU fine it may suit his needs better or he may just like the fact that his CPU goes over the 3ghz mark on the Turbo guage who cares? if we all took your view that upgrades are a waste of time we would all still have an Amstrad with a green screen and a tape deck playing Roland on the Ropes and Fruit Machine.

Comparing the 2630QM to my 2760QM which I have the difference is practically the jump from the 2630QM to the older 2920XM in which case upgrading the CPU is worth it, maybe not so much in the OP's case but you saying having a faster CPU and RAM make no difference is misguided and wrong.

 

Medium settings or custom(using medium settings but with movie quality on high and reflections on)you can do OK with the 560m, but you arent gonna be doing any high settings unless you don't mind the occasional stutter and big frame drop from time to time. I personally can't stand it when that happens. If the fps arent running in the 60-70fps under normal play, you will run into that alot. On SC2 if your "normal" play nets you 30-40fps then your overextending your video cards abilities and the settings way to high IMO for troublefree smooth gameplay.

 

I think my "assumptions" were spot on here. The first few posts on this thread by Garand that this machine is not being used by someone who does CAD or heavy "video editing". Just the threads title alone and first few posts kind of points to that as well, LOL!

PS: BTW, the OP has a 2670QM, not a 2760QM. The difference between a 2630 and 2670 in performance for everyday real world tasks is insignificant. A normal gamer/user/housewife/dad etc would never be able to tell the difference between the 2. Even the difference between the 2630 and 2760 which you have isnt a huge upgrade. Still same processor and core with a 20% higher clock. Again, not a big difference at all, and again under normal tasks your not going to see any big noticeable differences for the $250 premium. Rather put that money into a better video card, or a SSD.

 

see I still don't get this because I played all high settings with maybe 1 or two things on medium I am sure of it on a 8800MGTX at 1650x1080 and I never remember any chop in single player at the least and some of those SP scenes are pretty intense....unless the jump to 1920x1020 makes that big a difference?? Which case I just lower resolution in-game right? Maybe I just had a beast 8800MGTX??! lol... I guess its all moot we'll find out for sure in a few days, Ill intall SC2 and give you guys the low down asap.

 

Quite honestly best thing to do is take a video and post it. Ive seen so many people claiming smooth gameplay and then post a vid that shows alot of game stutter and chop.
In all honesty you probably went sideways in terms of graphics performance. That 8800M's performance on a 1650x1080 screen is without question going to be very comparable to the 560m on the FHD screeen you picked up. Not sure what your old main CPU and RAM config was, but your probably going to see a marginal upgrade at best for SC 2 gameplay video performance. It sure won't be a night and day difference.

 

except I couldn't even play BF3 on low with my old system, and I know the 560m can run BF3 well enough on good settings, according the video's the Malibal guy posted early. So its more like a upward and to the side upgrade?

fyi oriignal setup was Sager 5792, Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz Processor, 8800MGTX, 4 gigs ram, 200GB 7,200RPM HD, was $2,300 when i bought it and considered top of the line, compared to my new one being around $1,300 and such....Amazing technology keeps on rolling

 

You will get a noticeable difference probably with the i7 processer and RAM/MB upgrade, so that alone in combination with the video card with an extra gig of fast memory will give you a good performance boost. But if you were able to swap in the 8800 for the 560m the performance would be on par with each other for the most part. That 8800 has the performance roughly of a GT 550 or thereabouts video card. So yeah you can say its an upward and to the side "upgrade" without question. Any 2nd gen. i7 processor and basic RAM/MB combo with the 560m will give you that.

 

The 8800M GTX @ 1680x1050 is not comparable to the GTX 560M, even with the latter gaming @ 1920x1080.

 

So many conflicting comments in this thread it hurts. I vote 560m is vastly superior

 

Elaborate I beg of thee!

 

The 8800M you had falls in between a GT 550 and GT 555 video card for performance. So vastly superior to a 560m it is not. Its a mild upgrade in reality.

Specs on your 8800M:


Manufacturer

NVIDIA



GeForce 8800M Series


GeForce 8800M GTX SLI 192@500MHz

GeForce 8800M GTX 96@500MHz

GeForce 8800M GTS 64@500MHz



Codename

NB8E-GTX



Pipelines

96 - unified



Core Speed *

500 MHz



Shader Speed *

1250 MHz



Memory Speed *

800 MHz



Memory Bus Width

256 Bit



Memory Type

GDDR3



Max. Amount of Memory

512 MB



Shared Memory

no




DirectX

DirectX 10, Shader 4.0



Current Consumption

65 Watt



Transistors

754 Million



technology

65 nm

Specs on your new 560m:


Codename

GF116



Pipelines

192 - unified



Core Speed *

775 MHz



Shader Speed *

1550 MHz



Memory Speed *

1250 MHz



Memory Bus Width

192 Bit



Memory Type

GDDR5



Max. Amount of Memory

1536 MB



Shared Memory

no




DirectX

DirectX 11, Shader 5.0



Transistors

1170 Million



technology

40 nm


Its an upgrade, just not a big one.

 

So what your saying is the 560m is only a small upgrade despite
1. 100% more pipelines (arguably most importante?)
2. 55% more core clock
3. 25% more shader clock
4. 56% more memory clock
5. DDR5 Memory vs. DDR3 Memory
6. 200% more physical memory
7. DX11, and Shader Model 5 vs. DX10 and SM3
8. 55% more transistors
9. A smaller die size for lower heat/power consumption.

Only thing 560 loses out on is the Memory Bus width, which I'll admit I don't know how important that is.

Furthermore, it's my understanding that pipelines, and # of transistors has a non-linear impact on performance meaning more Pipelines, and Transistors even if by % increase is not that much (and in this case they are) the performance gain would be significant. Followed by physical memory amount, and then lastly the actual clock speeds....hence why even the 580/other more powerful cards aren't clocked THAT much higher % wise, but had more Transistors/pipelines and in the case of nVidia CUDA CORES, which was omitted from this comparison, does 8800MGTX even have CUDA cores? Unless CUDA cores is just what they call pipelines now, and I think it may be....

So IDK still seems like a faily big improvement, just average the raw % increases its 81% which I know is fairly meaningless but again more transistors more pipelines I've always understood to the most important over clock speeds for perf. gain + smaller die for lower heat/power use, and then its got 3x the physical memory, and DDR5 vs. DDR3 which has to count for something.

response GO!

 

Going from the 8800m GTX to the 560m will be nearly double the performance.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX - Notebookcheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

You can look at the game benchmarks and the 3Dmark results to see that that's the case

 

oooo even more than 81%! See I always considered double anything to be pretty vast... can you imagine double mount Everest! Double the lifespan? Or a doubled yearly salary? Double the trouble, or double or nothing! It just seems good

 

I have no idea what ntrain is on about.

You're going from this:



To this:



And we haven't factored in the impressive overclocking headroom possessed by the 560M yet.

 

+1 for going to the effort of pulling out the GPU-z information before I had a chance.

Why are people using Notebookcheck to condone that cards are not much more powerful when the 8 Series architecture is totally different to the new 5 series architecture from Nvidia and GDDR3 vs GDDR5 is double the performance in bandwidth terms for a start.

@OP You have a good card the people using this card on my old Asus forum have only one choice with the newest model and with their overclocks they are happily gaming away at 1080p, it remains that if you are a hardcore gamer the 6990M is a very good choice but if you are an Nvidia lover the 560/570M are your only real choice IMO at this moment in time because the 580M is far too expensive.

 

Yiddo any idea what I should look to
overclock to if/when needed?

I'll use that software program everyone mentions from msi forget the name

 

MSI Afterburner.. There are a few threads with people posting stable overclocks. These will vary between cards though so it is best to just increase slowly and test for yourself.

 

As mentioned above MSI is a great program I like Trixx for my ATI I dont know how that works with Nvidia but its the best I have found.

Try to stabalise the Core/shader for your card first and then work on the memory. If its crashes or locks up drop it by 5mhz and retest with Furmark, the memory will normally artifact (random colours normally yellow flickering or flashing on screen these can vary in appearance but will continue the higher the memory overclock until it becomes unstable and locks up). When you find your most stable just to make sure drop it down to the next rounded off amount for instance I use 850/1125 but it can handle 854/1127. OCD in effect there