AMD 8970m/290x vs 870m

Hi,

I'm about to place an order for the following:
Metabox Pro P150SM $1,579.00
Display 15.6 FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Matte 95 Gamut $49.00
Graphics Radeon 8970M 4GB GDDR5 Graphics $219.00
Processor i7-4700MQ Processor (6MB Cache up to 3.40 GHz) $0.00
Delivery DHL Express Insured Air Delivery $30.00
Memory 8GB DDR3 1600MHZ $-44.00
mSATA Plextor mSATA 128GB SATA 3 SSD $99.00
mSATA 2 (Not Installed) $0.00
Hard Drive Plextor M5S 256GB SATA 3 SSD $139.00
Hard Drive 3 (Not Installed) $0.00
WiFi 802.11ABGN / Bluetooth $0.00
Optical DVD +- R/RW DL $0.00
Windows No Operating System $0.00
Warranty 1 Year Platinum + 2 Year Extended Premium Care $89.00

Just wondering would it be worth waiting for the 870m? Would it offer better performance than the 8970m? I understand the 290x is just a rebadge of the 8970m so if the AMD does offer better performance there would be no point in waiting for the Nvidia. I wouldn't be able to afford the 880M so that is out of the question.

Edit: Going by this: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-8970M-vs-GeForce-GTX-870M it would appear the 870M is a better performer?

Help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

I believe the GTX 870M is similar in performance to the GTX 680M, based on the same K104 chip but with a boosted core clock. You can therefore expect the 870M to perform similarly to your 8970M but probably overclock better than the AMD. Similar performance and if you dont' have a favourite between red team and green team then pick the cheapest?

 

So it looks like its just a toss up between the two. I don't have a favourite and at the moment since the 870m has not been released I don't know which is cheapest.

 

EDIT: Sorry I forgot you're configuring a new laptop. Perhaps wait till 870M is released? Or do you need it ASAP? Performance gap will be quite small between 8970M and 870M unless they aggressively OC 870M.

 

The 8970m is the same card as the 7970, just with higher stock clocks. The new R9 card is the same thing with a new vBIOS. The 680m was right on par with the 7970m. With the 870m supposed to be being on par with the 680m, I think you'll be in good shape sticking with the 870m.

 

Thanks for your replies. I noticed the new GPU's are out on your website - it will probably take some time for Australia re-sellers to offer the new GPU's

Does it matter that the AMD card is 256 bit vs 192 bit of the 870m? Will that make much of a difference?

Edit: I just came across this NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M - NotebookCheck.net Tech which states "Presumably, the 870M is just slightly slower than the GTX 680MX and the Radeon R9 M290X"

 

The 290x is a little stronger though it really comes down to whose drivers you like better.

 

870M is a 192bit version of 680M, Given 7970M/8970M/M290X and 680M usually have similar performance, the 870M will be slower than both if you ignore factory stock clocks.

 

Clock for clock the 870m is weaker than the 680m but it comes stock at a much higher clock and is equipped with much faster mem.

 

Thanks for your reply guys. Guess I'll just hold off for the moment and wait for reviews to be published in order to get a better idea of the performance of these two cards. Shouldn't be too long a wait.

 

Yeah, I do agree with earlier opinions regarding holding off the purchase for now.
I'd prefer the 256bit card meself however if maxwell/nvidia cards are anything to go by the optimisation of hardware can yield better performance on something as mainstream as a 128bit card as well.
but since most of the power cards (above the 860m) are rebranded keplers I don't see why waiting a while would not be beneficial

 

Looks like the review for the 870m is out: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

A bit hard to determine which card wins in performance as the 8970m/m290x was tested with a i7-4700MQ cpu whereas the 870M was tested with a i7-4800MQ cpu but it seems that they are fairly on par.

price for both cards in Australia from AL is identical.

Perhaps it's time to flip a coin..

 

Yep the 870m is a little nicer to tweak but they are pretty similar.