Final decision before purchasing 8150 (gpu)

hey guys, after quite a bit of research on various setups, I've come down to choosing sager/clevo 8150. The only thing I cant decide, which is probably the most important, is the graphics card. I'm looking for a powerful, yet decently efficient battery-powered setup, as I must sit through 2-3 hour lectures daily. The gtx 560m seems like the clear choice as far as battery life is concerned, however the performance falls far behind the radeon 6790 and most of all, the 6990; I also feel like it will become obsolete in the next year or so, as I'm looking for something future-proof for the next 2+ years. I'm not even looking at the gtx 580m because of the drastic price increase. How much more power do the radeons use compared to the 560m? If it's not an exponential amount, I'm definitely going to choose either of them instead of the 560m. I'm looking at either a $1500 setup + the 2 discounts, or an 8130 setup of around $1150 with the 560m. My main concern is balancing the battery life with performance, leading me to believe the 6790 would be the best choice, but I'm fairly new to constructing "gaming" rigs, so all your help is appreciated.


Alex

 

The GTX 560m has a 75w tdp and the 6990M and 580M are 100w tdp. You will get slightly better battery life with the 560M but I would not base your decision on that as the difference will only be a few minutes. Battery time is going to be more dependent on what you're doing and your power scheme.

With the price of the 6990M its the best option to go with if you want gaming performance. The benefit it gives will out weigh the lower battery time.

If you're set on getting the most battery possible the GTX 560M is your best bet. If you go that way consider the NP8130 as it will cost you less for the same configuration and the only noticeable difference will be the chassis.

 

The 6990m is the best choice you can get between all of them at the moment. It's the fastest card out there, tied with the 580m. The power difference between the 560m and the 6990m is not as significant as you'd expect though. All of the card options in these models are 100w TDP except for the 560m which is 75w. Running on battery, all of the cards will automatically down clock pretty heavily which negates most of the differences in terms of power. The AMD cards have shorter battery life than their Nvidia counterparts, but only because they don't automatically go as low. You can manually lower the clocks further though.

In the end though, we're talking a difference of a few minutes between cards on battery. Also, don't expect to be gaming at full performance on battery. It just does not have the power to run the cards at full voltage, so you get reduced performance over AC. If you're looking for battery life while gaming, you'd be in the realm of 20-40 minutes at best.

In general, you shouldn't be able to expect more than 2-2.5 hours at best out of any of the cards. Two hours is about the average battery life.

 

The 6990M is the card for you then but like others have said don't expect the great performance it delivers running solely on battery. It really shines when plugged into a power source.