GTX 560M vs. 6970M

I thought there was a thread on this already, but I did not find anything. So I thought I'd make one.

GTX 560M vs. 6970M, i.e. what is the performance difference?

 

The 6970 is a lot more powerful. Its a good upgrade for the small price.

 

Yeah I think so too, and will upgrade accordingly. I was looking for number, a lot as in 10% 30% 70%?

Anyone any data? I found data but not sure how to read all:
Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech


Thanks for the inputs!

 

look for a desktop gts 450 and a desktop 6850 review, compare the fps. its almost double the performance

 

3dMark Vantage scores gives you an idea of how much faster they will be theoretically. If you want an idea of how they handle specific games, click on the cards themselves in the link that you posted to go to detailed gaming benchmarks of both cards.

 

yeah I am sold definitively need the upgrade

 

Honestly I would get the next better cpu as well. I am super happy with mine. The ram 1600 vs 1333 is no biggy in speed difference. THe better cpu is more futureproof as well as fully supporting the 1600mhz ram in case you find some in the future.

 

The CPU won't make much performance difference though would it? It would be another $160, which would then shoot over the limit.

I could always upgrade the CPU later. For what immediate reason/game would I need the higher one?

 

I can't think of any games that would be bottlenecked by the CPU. Right now, the GPU is always the limiting point for games as it's not directly competitive to desktop models while the CPU is. That said, if you plan to do other tasks like video encoding, virtualization, or anything else that can make use of faster processor cores- that would be good reason to upgrade. For gaming alone though you probably don't need it.

Upgrading yourself is an expensive proposition though. CPU's can cost hundreds of dollars on their own unless you go for an ES model which does not have a warranty and is technically against Intel ToS (though they aren't uncommon)

 

Thanks for clarifying! That is in line as how I understood it. As I won't do heavy encoding, no need to upgrade (the encoding I do I do on my current Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz ;-) )

Thanks for that!

 

Just wanted to add a little bit of info to the thread that might help anyone reading. This is a benchmark of a lot of different GPUs tested on various popular games to give you an idea of what to expect:

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Is there a page where I can compare PC GPU against laptop GPU, or the mobile GPU's equivalent to a PC GPU?

 

That page should do it. Just use these options at the top to select what you want:

This page is similar but also pretty decent:

Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Thanks for the link. It was definitely helpful. The video card is all I'm really having trouble choosing.

 

I was looking at the alienware m18 review not for alienware but for the extra video card they have there.
AnandTech - Alienware's M18x, Part 1: NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M in SLI

From what I can gather the 6970 runs between 1.5x and 2x what the 560 can or it would be that and more if you have the 2760qm/2920xm roughly about the same processor.

If you can go for the 6970m you would not be disappointed, if money is tight then the 560+27/860qm should do very well.
This link shows the 560m with 2630qm so cpu intense games would benefit from the better cpu.

Spending $245 to jump from 560m to the 6990m vs getting a better cpu and medium gpu is something I am still trying to find out, what would give the most bang for the bucks on a tight budget.

 

I'd go for the better GPU over a better CPU, provided you aren't using super CPU intensive programs.