Question about a build I'm considering

Hey NBR,

I'm looking to get a new laptop in the next few weeks, and I've decided on a Sager for sure (can't decide between the P150 or P170, but that's a different question). My main concern is about which video card to get. I've been reading through just about every thread that's come up regarding the 7970m/675m debate and I understand that the 7970 is most definitely the card to get in terms of power/performance right now. That is, in Windows.

I tend to use Linux a lot (unless I'm playing a game without a Linux version); I like the UI a lot more than Windows, and I have to use it a lot for work. Everyone knows that Nvidia has better driver support than AMD (and I understand that is changing to some degree), but on Linux, the difference is ridiculous. What's more, word on the street is that Steam is on the way to Linux meaning it may become a legitimate platform for gaming.

My understanding is that if you have an Nvidia card in your laptop originally, it is much easier to upgrade to another Nvidia card in the future (and same with AMD). Given these circumstances, would it make sense for me to get a 675m over the 7970m?

Thanks for reading and for any insight you may offer.

 

On my point of view, the ideal solution is a dual boot system. Get windoes for gaming and linux for your work.

yeah, Valve is making a push towards linux, but third party publishers aren't, so you'll be stuck with a small catalog of games.

I believe that on the linux side nvidia has the edge for driver support. For windows, that's entirely subjective.

If you're planning to game hard, get the hd 7970M, no questions asked.

 

Upgrading the GPU is same in both cases one is not specially built over another however you should make a note that if you get an nvidia card you have to stick with it for the duration of the notebooks life, cross gpu upgrading isn't possible.

 

Really? Since when? Seeing as the P170EM has both ATI and NVIDIA options, once the BIOS comes out it's all the same. MXM3. I really don't get where this assumption comes from. As long as the laptop is normally upgradable to either card, you can fairly easily upgrade yourself.

 

Confused too. Why would having say a 580m prevent you from changing to AMD. As long as the bios supports it. It's just an MXM card.

 

Exactly. You can basically do whatever you want with a Clevo. Besides, changing the GPU is easy work, and one day AMD might be the eating the mobile GPU ways

 

Aha, one thing that comes to mind with that is the heatsinks. At least in the D900F the story was that you needed a different heatsink package to fit an ATI instead of the NVIDIA 280M etc. That's something quite interesting, is the 675M heatsink going to fit the AMD.

 

I'm not targeting Simply nvidia I'm stating for either cases with ATI or Nvidia if you decide to get Either GPU, I remember somewhere in the owners thread a reseller mentioning that you cannot upgrade an ATI to nvidia and vice versa, I'm not exactly sure why that was.

If I'm wrong about this I apologize but that's what I remember reading.

 

Thanks for the input, guys!

I think I will go with the 7970m since I've got to do a dual boot setup anyway, and going into a new laptop planning on upgrading will probably just give me the itch to upgrade and an empty wallet.