8170 GTX 470 vs 480 vs ATI 6970

First, I'd like to thank everyone on here for all the information and opionions. You all have successfully made my next laptop purchase much more complicated (In a good way )

Couple of questions regarding video cards, etc.. (might be a tad long)

I was leaning towards a 8130/8150.. but now I'm 100% sold on the 8170.. that being said.. is there really a tonne of difference between the 470 and the 480? I'm having a very hard time finding conclusive benchmarks, (yes even after browsing all the owners threads).. I'm going to bump the CPU to the 27xx series, and will be playing games like Batman AA, Bioshock 2, Bad Company 2, GTA 4, Fallout 3/NV, Dead Space 2, Dirt2, Borderlands, e.g. basically any other games that end up on a Steam sale.. I play them on native resolution, and usually try to get the highest detail possible and shoot for 30fps min.. I hate playing games at less than native res.. the only exception probably being Metro or Crysis... Will the 470 suffice? Or should I go big or go home with the 485?... perhaps the $300 difference will be better spent on the CPU? (but already the 26xx and 27xx seem to smoke the previous gen i7 mobile chips)..

Also, how are the 470 drivers now? I've been reading what seems to be several posts about nVIdia not really updating their drivers for that card, so you end up using laptopvideo2go drivers.. is that still the case?

To further complicate things, where does the new 6970 stand? I keep hearing its between the 470 and 480.. after being an owner of a m17x R1 (4870 CF) and R2 (5870 CF) I got so damn frustrated with ATI's shoddy drivers and Dell's $hit support... hence I'm a bit leery of doing ATI again...

If you've made it this far reading, thank you again.. sorry if it was a big long.

 

It's between a 470m and 485m.

Benchmarks on notebookcheck.net seem to say that it is a pretty strong card.

 

If you're not using crossfire, AMD drivers have few issues.

 

no need 6970m, 6950m already smoke 470 for sure
i play crysis 1920*1080 all very high 0AA delta difficulty with 480 sli(470>=480) runs great still often perform headshot

 

Yes, the GTX 485M is way better. GTX 480M is crap.

Go with the i7-2630QM and spend more money on the GPU. GPU > CPU if your into gaming. The i7-2630QM will outperform most CPUs and will last for 2 years gaming, longer than any GPU. Only spend more money on the CPU when you maxed out the GPU setup. I'd even recommend a SSD before going with a stronger CPU.

Looks like it's very close to the GTX 485M. If you want a 15,6" and have the money, go with the GTX 485M, it's the single most fastest card and has Nvidia benefits (some games are tailored for Nvidia drivers). Or wait for HD 6970M, as the difference seems to be minimal, the money you saved you can put into the HD 7000M series which you should be able to fit into your laptop (it's MXM 3.0b and highly unlikely that Clevo will relase another new model). The 7970M will probably be available in a year and should double gaming performance (40nm -> 28nm + improved architecture), until then the HD 6970M will be good enough to run any game.

If you are ok with 17" laptops, I'd go with either the X7200 or the X8100 refresh and wait for HD 6970M Crossfire, it will crush a single GTX 485M at almost the same price point. Driver and Crossfire support have increased and you should be able to max out any title at native, including Metro 2033 and Crysis. GTX 485M SLi would be best, but way too expensive. Remember, it always makes sense to save money, so you can use it once newer hardware is released (HD 7000M series is going to be MXM 3.0b, GTX 500/600/???M probably as well).

 

So if the 485 is good, and the 480 sucks, where does the 470 stand? In the limited benchmarks I could find, it looks to almost hit 480 numbers..

Thoughts on 460 sli?

 

GTX 470M is faster, cheaper and more efficient than the GTX 480M which is the reason why the latter sucks. Still, the HD 6970M will likely be cheaper than the GTX 470M while being considerably faster, so getting a GTX 470M makes no sense anymore. Either GTX 485M or waiting for HD 6970M.

GTX 460M SLi used to be a good option, but you can have the same performance with a single GTX 485M and single GPU > dual GPU setup, so why bother?

 

1. The 485M destroys the rest of the 400M series. It indeed matches 460M in SLI. That puts it far ahead of the 470M. Say 40%. If you want Nvidia, you have to choose between the 460M and 485M. The 470M is a lame duck, dead in the water.

2. Don't waste money upgrading the CPU. Between the 2630QM and the 2720QM, there's 10%, and to the 2820QM there is about an additional 5% in performance. That 10-15% isn't worth $160 or $360, when you consider the cheaper CPU is still faster than a 940XM. Spend that money on the GPU or an SSD, and wait for the inevitable i7-2740QM refresh.

What are you talking about?

 

Why is the 470M so bad Kevin? I'm only asking because I ordered the P170HM with it and this thread is making me reconsider while I'm waiting for my pre-order.

Edit: I just read Daniels post above

I already pre-ordered with the 470M because of the lower power consumption and the price of the 485M. I would love the 6970M but I've been playing the waiting game for far too long. Despite the fact that the 6970M would be my first choice if I wanted to wait, and I already have my pre-order in, is the 470M still decent?

Thanks guys

 

Well, the way I see things, it's just in an awkward position. The 460M can be overclocked to reach the stock 470M's speed, devaluing the $200 you spend to get the 470M. The 470M can not even almost reach the 485M, at any clocks, raising the value of spending the $295.

Basically, you should be choosing between the 460M and the 485M. Or, barring that, waiting for the 6970M is an infinitely better decision, as it will likely be cheaper than the 470M, while beasting it by 40%.

That's my perspective.

 

OK,

So I'm thinking an 8170, w GTX 485, i7 26xx, dual 750gb HDD (can't afford SSD, sorry). DVDRW, 2 year warranty, 8gb RAM-Might bump to 12.. do a lot of VM work, sound good? I can get it from Reflex for around $2200 and change I think... (In Canada, and don't want to deal with Eurocom)..

Does anyone have a laptop bag for a model this size they love? Non-backpack?


Thanks!

 

Thanks Kevin this helped a lot. Unfortunately I placed my order on 1/10/11 so I would have to assume I would be one of the first in line to get a P170HM when they get in stock. Although I should, I don't want to wait for the 6970, and Xotic has already been kind enough to change my order already. Not sure if i want to ask them to change it again to the 460.

How easy is it to overclock the 460?

On the bright side, I might be one of the few that gets this card so I might be of some use for benchmarking purposes!

 

Download Nvidia System Tools, change clocks, press Apply.

 

Thats not entirely true. According to Intel?s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News you can see pretty high CPU frequency differences.

i7-2720QM i7-2630M
Cores/Threads 4/8 4/8
Base Frequency 2.2GHz 2.0GHz
Max SC Turbo 3.3GHz 2.9GHz
Max DC Turbo 3.2GHz 2.8GHz
Max QC Turbo 3.0GHz 2.6GHz

400MHz difference is very nice, but generaly its better to invest into GPU or SSD upgrade. Its not pointless to upgrade to 2720QM, you will benefit in CPU dependant and multithreaded games but 2820QM IS TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY. Resale value will be also better with 2720QM. I would pick 2630QM myself because its cheaper though.

 

photo notebook check for ya

notice the 6950m cpu is weaker and the driver of 470m is official whql certified while 6950m might not be final release version

compare to old desktop 45nm bloomfield
i7 2630qm=i7 920
i7 2920XM=i7 965
i7 2630qm is strong enough for single gpu

 

2630QM does not support VT-x and VT-d, the virtualization technology.

2720QM does.

Some more differences in the two CPUs.

 

I don't hold any stock in that, mainly because it's coming from Eurocom.

 

Wow, although I was already going for the 2720QM, I still had my doubts. But I had totally overlooked the lack of VT-x support on the 2630QM, which makes it a no-go.

Thanks!

 

Yes, the 2720qm houses significant clock advantages
And has the vt-x and vt-d support,
And also supports 1600 memory.

These are the differences from the 2630qm.

IMO the 2720qm is worth it. I still don't know why I went for the 2820qm tho.. haha.

 

Intel says it has VT-x

Intel® Core? i7-2630QM Processor (6M Cache, 2.00 GHz)with SPEC Code(s)SR02Y

 

In a similar situation here. Dont know what to wait for. I've been playing the waiting game for over a month and a half, and I'm not the one who usually waits. SO far my story

-Need to top out games @ 1920 x 1080
-am a eyecandy wh***
-looking at the p150hm
- Willing to spend upwards of 2.5k
- need something Powerful and don't want to cry myself to sleep in a few months becase something MUCH better came out...

Guys help me...

Edit* was waiting for the m17x r3 to come out with the 6970 and was very disappointed .... Dell stabbed me in the heart with their gu options for the refresh, so now its clevo time

 

6970M is coming around March. If you can't wait that long, the 485M is your only option. The 460M is maxing games at 1080p, and the 485M is as fast as two of them.

 

I would go for an 8170 with 1x 500GB Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive, 1x WD 750Gb HDD and the GTX 485M. That GPU will be maxing out games for ages. The 6970 will be cheaper but when will it be out and how good will the Drivers be?

 

460m sli is still faster than 485m.
Dont look at 2006 numbers, look at vantage p gpu score.
460m sli score 13500 and 485 score 12000 or so.

 

Good point, thanks.
Quick question though, is the 8170 different in any way from the 8150 other than the screen?

 

Its size is bigger which would most likely mean better cooling. Also the motherboard supports overclocking for the 2920XM while the 15 incher does not support overclocking.

 

Other than the points already mentioned, you will be able to install 2 hard drives inside of the 8170 without having to remove your CD drive to do it.

 

to save 295$ and get physx , you should choose 470m

in games 470m is 40% less than the 485m

but if you do not play games veryday , you can choose 470m , like me

I'll get a 940xm(qs) in the next month , and a 485m someday .

so if you have money you should buy a 485m machine.

 

Interesting, so I will not be able to OC any processor on the p150hm (8150)

How about the 485m will I be able to OC that?

also I noticed xotic offers OC service for the p150hm (8150) is that inacurate?

 

Yes you can overclock the gpu, the only reason you can't overclock CPU on the p150hm from what I understand is the chipset is intentionally missing that feature from the bios. As for the Xotic PC thing, yeah I do recall their rep saying that it was a mistake in the P150HM owners lounge.

 

it was out already,check it on dell uk website dude

 

Well, "out", as in available for order. ETA of production and delivery is probably within the same timeframe as Clevo.

 

yeah but at least you know you could have it in 2 or 3 weeks but only for the UK right now...