Last Minute Decisions

Well... school is starting soon and I really would like to get my laptop before school starts. Basically, I need to order it tomorrow.. I only have one decision left, what to do for a graphics card and the money or lack there of that results from that decision.

I have several options:
Go with the 7970M

Go with the 675M and pocket an extra $100

Go with the 675M and get the 6x blueray reader

The above option + the intel 6235 network chip

Go with the 675M and get the no dead pixel warranty

Go with the 675M and get the Killer 1202 network card


I will be using the laptop at school which has a wireless network made up of a ton of wireless routers, so I don't want problems while switching routers. However, I don't want a bad graphics card. Plus, blueray is a nice future proofing guarantee. I will be using the computer for CAD, and some basic gaming. However, all of my games are 2 years old +

Also, with the mail in rebate thing the MSI GT70 with almost the exact same specs is cheaper... should I leave clevo/sager? I don't really want to, but if MSI is better in things besides sound... (It is chunkier, and it looks like a fireworks show but I can live with that)

Any feedback/ideas/suggestions?

 

i would say Go with the 675M and get the Killer 1202 network card

in the long run you will and WILL play high end gaming... friends will tell u to play that and that and that lol. i dont know if blu ray is that much worth it...

 

If your priority is gaming and you want to future proof then get the 7970m without a doubt.

Yes it has a few driver issues, but the worst case scenario is that some games perform at 675m levels or higher.
I cannot stress this enough : the majority games will be much much faster on the 7970m.
The 7970m is roughly twice as powerful as the 675m. The best case scenario is that AMD release a new driver and fix the problems and you get a 680m-level GPU for a great price.

I had the 7970m and swapped for a 680m, but I had no set budget so I just went with the easy option. However the majority of games I played on the 7970m were maxed at 1080p easily - you will not get the same performance from a 675m.

Let me put it this way, when I was exchanging my GPU, if my only choice was the 7970m or 675m, there is no way I would have downgraded.

 

I had read stuff about screen tearing... is that worse than on the 675?

 

I didn't have any screen tearing problems when I had vsync enabled in-game. And I would notice because I hate tearing

I think the problem some people saw was when enabling vsync in the AMD control panel it didn't always work, but you could fix it by enabling vsync in the intel graphics control panel (the graphics data passes through the intel chip even when the AMD/NVIDIA card is running your games).

So basically nothing to worry about, it can be fixed either by enabling vsync in game, or enabling the intel vsync setting.

 

hmmm..... interesting. I just am not sure I even need the power offered by the 675. I just got a 550 Ti for my desktop, and it maxes out everything I use comfortably.

 

I would still go for the 7970M. The 12.8 driver set seems to have fixed everything that needed fixing...so it seems.

However if there was another option to pick from, I'd go for the 675M with the BluRay player. It comes in handy a LOT.

 

Atm I wouldn't recommend the 7970m. I would have put up with the Enduro problems in some games. But I was getting BSODs caused by the video drivers. Put in the 680m last night and all is well so far. If I couldn't afford the 680m i'd go for the 675m. Theres no telling how long it will take AMD to fix the issue.

 

Haven't had a single BSODs with my 7970m. It seems to be a very small minority who have this problem (problem might not be in the card or the drivers specifically).

 

Honestly, I would recommend you to think about why you want a laptop. If you are a gamer, the faster speed of VGA card will help you. If you love to do video editing, but not gaming, you can consider 670M or 675M.

 

Totaled up (Based upon my experience with a desktop last year this is what I will be using it for (Most to least):

1. Gaming 30% of the time
2. Word Processing 20% of the time
3. CAD 19% of the time
4. Internet, forums, etc. 16% of the time
5. Video Editing/Photoshop/adobe programs in general 15% of the time

I am not sure what would best fit my needs as it is a bit of a try it to find out scenario.

 

I'd say 675M + Killer N1202, since you said the desktop 550Ti is enough for your needs and 550Ti is actually slower than a GTX670M, also Killer N1202 has better ping management plus it comes with a bandwidth control software, this is where the Intel 6300 is weak at.

If you don't feel there's enough juice on the GPU power you can always upgrade the GPU later.

Also 675M is cheap compared to the old 580M and offers the same GPU power .

 

Thanks very much! I was kind of wondering how the 675 compared to the 550 Ti, hence why I mentioned it. I just hope to get a little more input without this becoming another AMD vs. Nvidia war thread

 

Is the Killer all that much of an improvement? I do have problems with ping spikes and I will be using a multiple router network shared by several hundred computers... so any way to hoard the resources for myself is much appreciated.

 

The biggest changes the Wifi card's official ability can do is only restricted to what is available to the card itself, like the bandwidth control to the available bandwidth . Beyond that you are going to need admin access to the routers.

 

I'd say save your money on the Killer and get the Intel 6300 unless you need bluetooth then get the 6235. Since you didn't put blu-ray video viewing in your time used, then ditch that extra expense. Then perhaps you have enough for the no dead pixel warranty. The other question is what resolution screen were you using on your desktop with the 550ti.