Am i to late tot he game on the np9370?

I am on the edge of ordering a pretty maxed out 9370. I play two games, COD2 online with old clan buddies from years ago and BF3. It seems BF3 is already taxing the 9370 pretty hard with dual 680's. I guess I am concerned about BF4 being right around the corner and what havoc it will have on the system. I now since Alienware days the video cards to "upgradeable" but form the experience they never really are because the new cards require more power etc etc etc. So It is pretty much inclusive when purchased. I over analyze.... I know this...

I am a big proponent of living in the now and not the future and get what I need now. But jeez 3800 for a laptop is a big chunk of change to be outdated in 6 months. Which leads me to believe I am late coming to the game with this model and might just force myself to hold off for the next revision.

 

The GTX 7XX series likely won't be a huge improvement because they aren't shrinking the die size, it will likely be like the gtx 480 to the gtx 580.

Theres no die shrink or BIG architecture change.

 

BF3 does not tax dual 680Ms... A single 680M handles BF3 on Ultra settings fine. BF4 will be no different, BF4 will just be another FB2 game. BF4 will be like how Blops 2 was for Blops 1. It's a game for suckers.

 

Consider going with 2x7970M in the 9370. If BF3 is the main game you plan on playing the AMD cards do show to be a little faster. Plus you wont run into the Enduro issues as this model doesn't use it. And the price is going to be much lower with those vs 2x680M

 

Hey thanks Hutsady! I have actually been emailing and chatting with Josh about my system. I was under the impression the mobile AMD cards seem to have driver issues a lot??

 

Thanks everyone else for there input as well. I am in the very familiar place of want vs need. Ugh...

 

For 3800 you could get a P170EM now and the next gen when it comes out. My 2 cents.

 

For some reason this thread caught my eye, so hopefully I say something helpful.

I would rethink your choices. Not that they are necessarily wrong for you if you want to spend $3800 that way.

When I saw this thread, my 1st reaction was "...more like really early". If you don't want to get something out of date in 6 months, wait ~6 months. I really don't think nvidia's side will move much because they are already using the GTX 670 and soon GTX 680 [685m]. On ATI's end it is a different story. AMD doesn't use the top end enthusiast 7900s chips, but the performance 7800s chips instead. The 8970m will most likely be a desktop HD 8870, crossfire'em.

AMD Sea Islands HD 8850 and 8870 Specifications Leaked | PC Perspective


Second, if that is 3800 because of a i7-3940XM, the 3840 is a much better choice price : performance wise


Lastly... just because you're throwing around that kind of money. If I had nearly $4k, I'd let it turn into a little more than $4k while I wait for the 8970m to launch and CF them with a 3930k

Nine X570SE - MALIBAL

 

I disagree with all of the above.

1. Avoid Malibal like the plague.
2. You only need a 3630QM if you are worried about gaming. This will not bottleneck even the CF 8970M.
3. Don't bother with CFX or SLI. Go with the P170EM and get the single 680M. That will be able to play BF4 fine. Then you can upgrade again later from the money you saved on the next monster single GPU. That will outperform your SLI 680M or nearly the same, but without all the hassle. I personally would rather have a mid-range single card not even the 680M and be able to upgrade frequently than dump $3K on a SLI/CFX system that will be outdated anyway in a few years.

 

Thanks for the advice. I will let it all soak in...

 

My advice would be again in favor of the new-gen hardware.

There are 2 ways Ive found to buy a new laptop:
1.) buy it when both GPU and CPU new generation models come out
2.) buy when the "last refresh" comes out (by that I mean the Intel CPU refresh, which happens ~6 months after a new launch)

If you chose option (1) then you will have a nice machine with powerful specs, from the latest hardware.
If you chose option (2) then you get even better prices, a more recent BIOS pre-installed, more stable drivers, tons of reviews to read before purchase, EVEN BETTER processor (yes, my 3740QM outperforms a 3820QM) and many other benefits.
There is NO OPTION (3). It would be to buy nothing at all. Because its better not to buy anything, than buy old-generation laptop hardware.

So, I chose option (2) both times when I got my Clevos (P150HM and my current W370ET). I bought them and I knew ALL about them before I received them, on both occasions.
And thats good, because I hate bad surprises. If you are well-informed about your purchase, you will be perfectly prepared to face "the nitpicks" of the new purchase, because you will know everything about them in advance.

But, for option (2) to work, you will need lots of patience and time invested in reading reviews. Well, since I get tons of fun from that, this is what works for me best. And both my Clevos were absolutely perfect.

 

The driver issues are with Enduro which the 9370 doesnt have so you dont get that problem.

Good to hear Josh has been helping you out!

 

hulawafu77 is right, get a P170EM with a 680M/3630 (or a 3740 if you don't like the 3630 )

The 680 will likely be able to play BF4 at high settings even, just turn off AA. Upgrading to 685m/780m will run you about 800$ for only the card yes but it's worth it and will out perform your current setup I believe. Keep in mind you can overclock the 680m quite a bit (27%) so you might not even need a new card next year.

 

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I think I am 99% sure of my config now. Now the hard part, push my self just over the edge to order it

I recently built a pretty decent desktop (well 4 months ago). I am wanting the laptop to use while in the dining room and on the couch and to take to my office on occasion and sometimes on trips.

 

Well after all that advice at least let us know what you are getting ^_^

 

My gut tells me we are getting a tweaked silicon with nvidia with maybe the 780M being a fully unlocked 1536 shader chip paired with low voltage memory still but maybe slightly faster chips.

 

Well I have to go against the suggestion of AMD, never cared for ATI cards personally. After reading around about drivers, sager might have it worked out. However it seems AMD is very slow at releasing drivers. I just dont want to spend time tweaking issues and fixing junk. I dont want to add a card later when it might be needed. So weighing all the advice and opinions I have decided to max out to my budget allowed for this. I scaled back the cpu from the i7-3840 tot he i7-3740. The cost difference from 2.7 to 2.8 allowed me to upgrade to the 3d screen. Even though i wot be playing 3d games much I dont think I like the idea of 2d gaming at 120hz when permitted.

Between my recent desktop build and this laptop I hope to be set for atleast 2 years. Anyway here is the build I came up with. Will probably pull the trigger sunday night and hope to get the ball rolling by tuesday.
I decided to just let them handle the better paste for now. I dont feel like dealing with it.

Please advise if I might have missed anything...


- 17.3" FHD Sager (16:9) 120Hz 3D "MatteType" 72% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (w/ 2 Pair of NVIDIA 3D Glasses) (SKU - S1R555)
- Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3740QM (2.7GHz - 3.7GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU - S2R202)
- - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- SLi ENABLED DUAL (2) 4096MB PCI-Express nVIDIA GTX 680M's (8192MB Total) w/ GDDR5 DX11 Video Cards [User Upgradeable] (SKU - S3R708)
- 16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4S822AP)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Laptop Finish
- 256GB Crucial M4 mSATA SSD - Preconfigured as an OS Drive ( Operating System – Drive C: )
- 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - S5T306)
- 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] (SKU - S5R305)
- Raid 0 Stripe Enabled (Requires 2 or 3 Hard Drives. Combines Hard Drives for performance) (Sager)
- 6x Blu-Ray Burner/Reader / 8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (SKU - S7R556)
- Sager - Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (Caddy Only) Used For Installing Your Own Hard Drive (Optical Drive Bay remains as selected)
- Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Sager - Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3) (SKU - S8R056)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- ~Windows 7 Professional Premium 64-Bit (64&32-Bit CD Included) + MS Office Starter 2010 -[ Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (Directly through Microsoft) ]
- Sager 2 Year Parts & LIFETIME Ltd Labor Warranty w/ Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Customer Support (SKU - S9R219)

 

That may not be true. A lot of sources are saying bF4 is being developed for the Xbox 720, which means there may be a very large graphics leap, seeing as the 720 will have 8GB of ram a quad core processor, and a graphics card that "decent", even by today's pc standards. more than 8 times the power of the 360.

 

the're still using the frostbite 2 engine, so the leap in graphics wise wont be great, so you should be quite fine.

6 times the power i thought, and would only have max of 6 gigs ram.Graphics wise, its containing a 6670, a mediocre card. but yet, still all speculations.

 

Considering how little we have heard about the new XBOX is it even going to be this year? I though it was a 2014-2015 thing.

 

rumors say that its the end of this year or maybe early 2014. On the onther hand, the ps3 is a 2014/2015 thing.

But you're right, very little has been said about it.

 

A press release recently said there would be a full reveal in November of 2013. I imagine the product release would occur soon after. Especially if Apple is really intent on launching a TV (if rumors are to be believed). MS will want to use the 720 as a buffer to keep apple out of peoples living rooms.

 

I would not expect wonders regardless, they will be trying to save costs as much as possible which always leads to cutbacks on system ram and Vram limiting high resolution potential.