NP8150 GPU decision

Hey guys, I'm looking to pull the trigger on the NP8150 soon and I've pretty much decided on the build except for the GPU. The way I see it I've got three options and I wanted some opinions from current and soon-to-be owners.

1. I can go with the 460m to hold me for now and then in a year or so when the next-gen 500's are out upgrade at that point. My only question with this is will the 460m hold up against the current and future games such as SCII, Civ5, Shogun II, Skyrim, etc.

2. I can go with the 485m which seems to hold GPU crown for now, though I'm not sure it's worth the $500 increase in cost.

3. I can wait for the 6970m as a better cost/value option than the 485m. Maybe the release of this card would drop the price of the 485m to a more palatable level as well.

I don't need a laptop that's going to handle everything you throw at it at Ultra settings but if i'm going to spend $2000 on a laptop I don't want to have to worry about playing games on low settings for the next few years. Games i'll be playing include SCII, Shogun 2, Witcher 2, BF3, Skyrim, etc.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

If you can wait, WAIT!!!

Hell, wait till ivy bridges comes out if you can, and bulldozer. But really, SB laptops are just now being created and sold, so you're best off waiting a couple of weeks until resellers aren't back-ordered, and see if you can get deals on stock they want to clear out (like the 485m, if the case may be).

I'd also suggest the 460M, from the benchmarks I've seen. You will blaze through games, though maybe not at 1080p with Ultra settings. The 500 price is a really really big upgrade, especially since you can configure a decent (2720QM with 8GB ram) system for around 1300...

 

Except that the 2630QM is more than sufficient if the user's main objective is gaming. They will sooner be bottlenecked by their choice of gpu than by cpu, so I am not sure if the comparison between $500 and $160 for gpu vs cpu is a fair one. However, it is correct that one will be able to configure a 2720QM with 8GB ram for ~$1300.



AgapePilot,
If the $500 upgrade cost is a concern for you, you should also note that purchasing a 485m on its own will cost about $700+. So, if you went with option#1, then you should be prepared for the 500m successors of the 460m-485m to cost about the same. That being said, some resellers, such as LPC Digital, will give you a discount on upgrades if you purchase through them.

The 460m is powerful, and will not force you to run very many current, or near future, games to run at low settings.

If you want to and can wait, then I think the 6970m should be the better upgrade option for you, especially if you are concerned about cost.

 

Thanks for the advice, you guys are thinking what I'm thinking. Looks like I'll wait for the 6970m. Just wish I could get some idea of how long that wait is gonna be!

 

Rumours are that it will be out for Clevo/Sagers within the next couple months.

 

As far as the 460's qualifications: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
Pretty much all I can speak on is the games that are already out. Really there's only two that cause it any trouble, and that's Crysis and Metro 2033. But still getting 30 fps at high on both those game is pretty awesome, you can even play with setting to get the best graphics without sacrificing fps, coming from someone who has trouble getting 20 fps avg, even that would be excellent for me =), but It's whatever settings your comfortable playing at.

Crysis 2, BF3, Skyrim may all really push this system, bur still gonna see some awesome graphics, I wouldn't know because np8130 will be my first intro into pc gaming, so any graphics will be nice for me!

Also the 6970m is already out on the Np7280

 

Thanks, I stand corrected.

I think the Malibal rep that mentioned before that for the 81xx line, it won't be for another couple months, and that was in Feb

 

I personally went with the 460m. The 485m was just a little bit more than I was willing to pay at the moment, and I'm hoping that in 2 years there is an upgrade option that isn't gonna break the bank. From what I've read, the 460m holds up just fine. Ultra settings on 90% of current games means in 1 year you should be able to play 90% of games on high.

 

will the new 28nm cards still use the same slot?

 

For your situation, I'd go with a 6970M, since you said you can wait:

1) The 6970M will guarantee you can run most games at 1920 x 1080 this year and likely well into the next. The Anandtech review showed that at 1920x1080 and with AA, the 6970M beats the GTX 485M

2) It's cheaper than the 485M, which you don't want to pay so much for

3) Buying standalone upgrades will cost a lot more than just buying it now as part of your new notebook, and you'll likely get more money back for a 6970M when you do decide to upgrade than a 460M which is one of the most common options for these kinds of notebooks

Just my .02

Probably, but no one can guarantee

 

Just wait for the 6970M.

It offers the best value and performance. Plus, if a refresh comes out before the end of the year the 6970M will hold a very high resale value. it will be near impossible to sell a 460M, as all machines use that as the base GPU anyway, so it's very unlikely to fund a buyer.

You'll be able to sell the 6970M, then upgrade to a faster GPU.

 

Personally, if I had chosen to go 460m, I would have never been looking at Sager/Clevo and waiting nearly 2 months for it to ship in the first place. I couldn't really care about gen1 and gen2 processor differences since gaming is my main reason for buying.

If I wanted a 460m I would have hopped my fat butt in the car and drove down to Best Buy for immediate gratification, and then resold the laptop at half price 6 months later.

I think going the Clevo/Sager route and buying an underpowered/aged gpu is a bad decision all around (for a gamer).

Either pony up for the current crown holder or wait until the price/performance leader has arrived. Also, it might be a sin to point this out on the Sager/Clevo forums, but you can currently configure an AW M17x R3 with 2nd gen SB and 6970m for cheaper than a Sager and have it ship in the same time frame (early April).

 

Add the caveat that the above scenario is only applicable to buyers in the North American region, those from Europe and the rest of the world will probably disagree with the above statement.

 

Oh yeah, well I'm sure lightning will strike for you guys some time soon. You guys get a lot of the other tech first, especially when it comes to cell phones and tablets so I guess it happens both ways. Seems like these "global" corporations could better suit their customers by not alienating geographic portions of the world with skewed release dates. I'm sure there's overarching economical reasons for it though.

 

That used to be true a while ago, but not so true now. I live in the UK, and although my current rig holds on to dear life I've been looking around at what is available now for gaming after this one bites the dust. At present if I was going to buy something it would be either an Sager np8170 or the Alienware R3.

Buying any Alienware in the UK is totally extortionate, however at the current UK pound to US dollar exchange rate, buying from an USA Alienware reseller such as (Hidevolution):

hidevolution.com - Alienware M17x R.3 R3 non-3D Custom Built to Order

This works out to about the same as the Sager 8170 base price. That is including UK tax at 20 % + delivery. An Alienware bonus is that it comes with an international Dell warranty, were as the (USA) Sager does not.

For the config I'm particularly interested in I compared (UK) Kobalt (G170 = np1870) with (USA) Hidevolution (Alienware R3). Kobalt comes out a bit cheaper and does include return to base (2 yrs) in Europe, with a reasonably priced 1 yr extended warranty, which the Dell warranty can't compete with at all. The point is Alienware is now in the same ball park with Sager, as far as cost goes in the UK (Europe?). Although Hidevolution is the only Alienware reseller with R3s I come across so far.

 

this

shows difference between 15fps, 30fps, and 60fps. if you notice it, and it bothers you, you might want to pay more to get the higher fps

 

The R3 is only cheaper, when comparing a 6970M build to one containing the 485M.

Once the 6970M is announced for the NP8170, the clevo becomes hundreds of dollars cheaper.

Then factor in that Dell charges for 1080p and overcharges for Wifi, the Sager/Clevo is the much more economic buy.

 

As a note, the 6970 may be available in the 8150/8170 as soon as April 1st, so it might not be much of a wait.

Source:
Untitled Document
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&sourc...78CPEbydw&sig2=oiFeTiRFr7MMmaZ4JzvA0Q&cad=rja
Eurocom Racer: Why the Radeon HD 6970M Rocks - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Basic config with 6970 starting at $1675 CAD, and Eurocom is known for higher prices then other resellers.

 

You sir continue to earn the rep I hand out. For every thread I read, I can be sure that Kevin_Jack advice will tend to be the best and most reliable.

 

However you have to factor in that in at least in my experience, there is more room to haggle with Dell and they do international in home support, reducing downtime significantly. Also they have night and weekend support onsite...

 

This true.. Ive been fairly happy with my Dell tech support. They may not be the most knowledgeable people, but you can just call back and talk with someone else if the first one doesn't do what you want

Then again, I'm pretty sure the warranty through myth was that they'd sent me any repair parts I'm comfortable replacing, so I can fix it myself.. Correct me if I'm wrong MYTHLOGIC? I think that would be better then having to schedule time for a tech to come from Dell (the one that services the Lubbock area only does mon-fri from like 9-5) since it's not always convenient fir my schedule

 

Dell "haggling" really only seems to apply for US-based consumers, you won't get that in Asia at all.

Buying an Alienware in the mainland isn't exactly worth it because the specs seem to be slightly behind the US and the EU.

 

I think you can get any model anywhere just by arguing. Also if your referring to Mainland China... (assuming that even with the Japanese) you can haggle for anything, but its always going to be more expensive to import... Try to get one right from Foxconn...

For my area, (Queens NY) Dell offers appointments within 2 days so its not so bad. Also you apparently can negotiate to do the repairs yourself.

That said, this system is easy enough to take apart that I can probably do any repair on it if I had parts. Dell is probably more liberal with replacing every possible part than a smaller company like Myth though...

 

I don't know if you're giving this advice based on your US experience, but personal experience and reading around tells me you haven't done it before...

On an additional note, manufacturers like Foxconn and Flextronics don't sell directly to consumers.

 

This is correct, although you cant reliably quote a price that doesn't exist yet. The only thing to compare to the M17x R3 right now is in fact a 485m in a Clevo, so your point is moot for the time being.

 

I wasn't talking about getting one officially I used to pick up tech for cheap when I went to China every year (haven't been in 2-3 years), officially its always more expensive for computers than the US but chop shops will get you the parts for cheaper and they'll support it for low enough in labor costs that unless the configuration you are trying to get is very unstable, its actually not that expensive to maintain. No warranty, but in theory insurance (warranty) is a losing proposition most likely.

 

We know the exact prices of both GPUs, which makes the math straightforward.

Past precedence shows that price differences have carried over to the customization screen, pretty accurately.

 

That's fine. Making economic decisions on speculative evidence for something that doesn't yet exist in the market is probably par for the course for those that continue to search for their "great white buffalo" of technology. For those that live in the now, you can currently buy an Alienware M17x R3 with everything you are looking for (if you're looking for a 6970m) with a decent price and feel no regrets as long as you don't mind having your gaming laptop look like a gaming laptop.

If you want to wait, there's literally always a reason to. There will never be a time when there isn't something better or more economical around the corner. If I had waited I would have bought the M17x R3 myself, but I'm glad I made a decision and put my money on the table.

 

I agree with you, when waiting for what's "around the corner" is an amount of time. Example: Ivy Bridge.

But the 6970M is confirmed to be a short span of weeks. It's okay, by me, to advertise short-term gains. This is different, from something like the GTX 570M, which is at this point a phantom.