Decisions...decisions... (Graphics Card choice)

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to put this or not...

I've decided to get a new gaming / performance laptop, and have set my sights on a Clevo P150HM.

So far i've settled on this build:

- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
- Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2720QM (2.20GHz) 6MB Cache
- 8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
- 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
- GIGABIT LAN & INTEL® CENTRINO® ULTIMATE-N 6300 WIRELESS

Everything else is the default / stock components provided by PC Specialist (my chosen Clevo distributor to buy from) for the P150HM (DVD drive, sound card, etc.)

All that I have left is the difficult decision of choosing a Graphics Card...

I've narrowed it down to these 3 :

AMD Radeon HD 6970M
AMD Radeon HD 6990M
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M

In order of power / performance I know its the 6990m, then the 485m, which is closely followed by the 6970m.

I'm looking for a graphics card which is quite powerful, yet stable (temperature wise).

From what I've read on the forum its seems that the 6990m is very good, but some people seem to be getting some concerning temperatures.
The 485m is quite a bit more expensive than either of the AMD cards, only a bit better than the 6970m, and reaching temperatures in the low-to-mid 80°'s (which is reasonable).
And the 6970m looks to be the all-rounder, but I wouldn't mind something a tiny bit more powerful.


Which would you suggest ?

 

From what I was able to find, the 6990m seems to be the best option if your considering performance for your dollar. At the moment that is my current thought. I am planning on getting one soon when the p151hm1 has it available. If you need to do CUDA or want PysX then get the 485M. IMO the 580M is just too expensive and doesn't offer enough of a performance jump over the 485M to be worth the money. As for the 6970M, I wouldn't consider it if you want to just get a great laptop you won't have to touch for 4-5 years.

 

I would take the 485m since the performance is very close and 6990 temp give me pause as well. If you can wait, Sager's new updated heatsink 204 suppose to lower the temp of the 6990. I just purchased my 150hm with 580m instead of the 6990 as I don't want to wait.

 

I was thinking about the same thing as you and I decided to go with 485m. 580m is too expensive for what it can offer, and 6990m has some heat and typical AMD driver issues.

 

Notes---do not install the internet AMD Driver for 6990m yet, keep the stock Clevo driver!!!!

 

I have the 580M, and I voted for the 6990M for the better cost/performance ratio.

 

I can wait a month or 2, but would the new 204 heatsink make that much of a difference ?

My problem with the 485m is that its £75 ($122) more expensive than the 6990m, for less performance (supposedly the 6990m is about 10-15% better than the 485m). Also, I'm not really bothered by Physx or the option of being able to have 3D.

I am surprised that only two people have voted for the 6970m. I thought its performance was only slightly behind the 485m.


Tilting my favour slightly more towards the 6990m, two people over in the AMD 6990M thread, have posted slightly reassuring temps for the P150HM.

 

Basically the 6990m is a GTX 580m (6990m sometimes even better or worse) at great bargain, but indeed does have high temp problems.

As of the moment I would say wait for the 204 heatsinks. One person posted temps with a 204 heatsink and had ~10C lower than average which is about 90C. As to if this is coincidince or truth or something else--we shall see. Malibal is getting them early next week so a lot of benchmarks will be coming out for the 204 heatsink at that time.