Should I switch out my 485M to the 6970M?

I just placed an order with XoticPC last night, so I am sure I can change my order slightly without too many issues.

My current configuration:

At this point in time I am really only playing Starcraft II and Rift. Otherwise, I do internet surfing, video streaming, schoolwork, photoshop.

Is it worth saving $200 and switching over to the 6970M?

 

Yes my friend, it is a good idea to switch to the 6970m card, practically same performance and much cheaper, I feel pissed getting the 480m, but my impatience is the only thing to blame, I just can't wait, my own fault, will upgrade to xfire 6970's soon, well done ATI. Nvidia was just getting too greedy, maybe this will bring their prices down

 

Mobile Grafikkarten - Benchmarkliste - Notebookcheck.com Technik/FAQ

if the benchmarks are important to you check this link out.

 

for what you do, it's probably better to go with the 6970 to save money..

honestly you could probably get by with the 460 too, depending on what you expect as far as fps..

 

As hizzaah said, you might even consider the 460M for your needs. But definitely go with the 6970M over 485M.

 

Yeah. It's worth $200... =/

heck at $1554.00 for a 8150 + 6970m, its making me question getting the 8130.

 

If the reseller sell the card + new heatsink for NP8150, i'm willing to buy it because i'm planning to upgrade from 460m to hd6970m

 

Erm, the 460M can barely play SC2 on Ultra...

Not too sure about Rift, but I am sure the FPS would be pretty low on the highest setting on the 460m.

 

Sorry for the double post, but in the end I would probably end up reinvesting the $200 into the laptop. What else would be a worthy upgrade? More RAM or better CPU would be a waste. Can't do any more warranty upgrade. No screen upgrade. In the end, for maximum performance I am going to stick with the 485m I think.

 

The GTX485M is not much faster than the 6970M and in some benchmarks the ATI even seems to pull ahead. My laptop is already in the testing phases but I don't know if I would go for an ATI again due to Driver and poor quality control of the heatsink (ATI 5870).

However, you have to ask yourself whether the 5-10% increase in performance that does not happen all of the time with the GTX 485M makes it worth it.

 

Wait, so it is not a fact that the 485M is superior to the 6970M? (Regardless of price)

If the 6970M is more powerful in some aspects, than it would make it a much easier decision, lol.

 

I've used both ATI and nVidia cards in my desktop. I have never had problems with my nVidia cards but my ATI cards are prone to causing game crashes and freezing while gaming to the point I have to hard restart my PC. I'll never buy ATI again even though the price is right.

 

The issue is that some of the benchmarks were not using the same CPU's and the 6970M were engineering samples. According to Notebookcheck, the GTX 485M outperforms the 6970M by about 12% but I have seen some benchmarks were the 6970M outperformed the GTX 485M by 5 fps or more. Note that some reviews claim they experience 1 hour less battery time in idle with the 6970m. I think with a Sandybridge processor and a retail model of the 6970m, performance would be extremely close, however don't forget the impact Nvidia bias in game programming can have on performance.

 

From what it sounds like, going with the Nvidia will be a safer, probably better choice, for an extra $200.

I have to make up my mind by tomorrow most likely, or cancel my current order and wait it out to hear more about the comparisons between the two.

Right now my order has the 485, but I could pretty easily switch to the ATI one.

Gah, this is a hard decision.

 

I think this is very important, i guess with ATI 6970M and Nvidia 485M anyone can play any game in high quality. But an important point is about to avoid problems. I read many problems with Ati 5870 in asus, and the support wasn't very good. Hope ATI gives a better support to new 6970M and customers dont have such problems as before.

 

ehh.. my thought was if you've got the money, why not go for it? it's faster (even if only by a bit), yields longer battery, and seems to have a decent following here. plus you've got the 3d out thing which could be cool to use every once in a while

 

I have the money for it, but I don't like having the feeling that I am just wasting money for no reason. I think I am just going to stick with the 485M, but the feeling isn't very good at the moment.

 

this is true.. you'll just have to decide if the price diff is worth the things you're gaining (battery [at idle, think they're the same at load], 3D, and reputation/support) (im sure people will come on here saying that the 6970 will have the same/better support or whatever. i'm not a fanboy for either camp, i'm just stating what i've seen..

the 6970 as a card will at first surpass the 485 in supporters, mostly because it's in a completely different price range (for now)..

 

I remember the Mobility HD 5870 never clocked down and idled at around 50C while the GTX 285M clocked down and idled at around 35C. I believe this also had an impact on the battery life (although the battery life on the 8690 was negligible anyway).

 

The question I asked myself was, "what does the extra $250 earn me?" Gaming performance is a wash. Driver support is a wash. So what are you paying extra for, in the end? Paying for intangible differences does not feel like a good idea.

I've never even used an AMD GPU before, but equal performance @ $250 less is deserving of my business, you know? If it was, say $100, I'd go for it. But two-hundred and fifty dollars? Hell no, that's a huge gulf, and Nvidia has no reasonable excuse as to why it's worth paying..

About the battery life, those tests were run on Engineering Samples, thus hold zero weight as an accurate comparison.

 

Any idea on the heat generated between the two?

If I were to go for the 6970M, does anyone have any ideas for the reinvesting the saved $250 into a different component(s) of the computer?

I don't think any other upgrade is worth it at the moment. (As already said above more RAM/CPU is a waste, and those are really the only upgradable things.)

 

blue-ray drive?

and/or buy yourself some games and/or a cooler and/or a mouse and/or movies...

 

Just save it for the future?

 

possible ivy bridge cpu? or next gen gpu?

 

True, you'll be able to sell the 6970M very easily too.

 

Will the NP8150 support next gen GPUs with the BIOS and current heatsink set-up?

Also, has there been anything that may suggest the problems with 5970M (heatsink issues?) still exist on the 6970M?

 

Man, 6970M, 2730Q, 95% NTSC Screen, Blu-Ray = $2.3K ooommmggg...I am just going to buy a netbook.

 

If I didn't have to travel abroad ever so often I'd probably go the desktop + netbook route too

 

No it doesn't. Configure everything you listed, don't waste money on the 2720QM, and it's $1875 with the cash discount.

 

Probably discussed a gazzilian times before but what is the dif. b/w 2630 and 2720?

 

Both are quad-cores, the only difference is their operating frequencies.

2630: 2.0-2.9 Ghz
2720: 2.2-3.3 Ghz

 

that's it? no other "hidden" diff. at all?

 

Apparently the 2720 has extra features in relation to Virtual Computing such as vt-x and vt-d as well as support for 1600MHz RAM. It is said that the i7-2630QM only supports vt-x and cannot support 1600MHz RAM.

Edit: I meant 1600MHz RAM, not 1666 Mhz

 

The price premium between the two is quite steep then just for the added compatbility, do you have a reference regarding virtual computing?

 

Regardless of what speeds whatever processors support, the 8130 and 8150 (not sure about the 8170) only have 2 slots that can support 1600MHz

Mr. Mysterious

 

I read the virtual computing feature details in many reviews and on some intel sites. This review from Notebookcheck mentions it as well as some extra features too.

 

8170 has 4 RAM slots, goes as high as 16GB 1333 Mhz RAM. Is the RAM speed difference really that significant to warrant the additional processor upgrade?

Edit: I don't trust Google translate much since I don't speak and write German up to a native standard. I looked up Wikipedia and the closing thing to virtual computing was the x86 virtualisation technology. I assume it's something else that the i7 Sandy Bridge processors are touting?

 

Aside from the frequency differences between the two, and the (VT-d) technology mentioned above,

the 2720 also offers Intel's My Wifi technology which you can look up on youtube/google. Intel's My Wifi technology is also required for Intel's Wireless Display technology (streaming wirelessly to an external display).

 

The Eurocom Racer review by Anandtech with the equipped 6970m Engineering Sample GPU specifically mentioned that Wi-Di isn't supported on the 81xx Clevo series.

For the Clevo prospective buyers, it really boils down to faster frequency and future faster RAM compatibility.

 

Wow.. didn't know that.

I think I'm going to cancel my order for the NP8170 I just ordered today then.

I hear of all the bad news AFTER I order

1) No switchable graphics
2) No WiDi

Which I assumed were in the NP8170 upon purchase.

 

Does the Asus G73SW-3DE support WiDi??

 

No idea, perhaps asking at the Asus forum would have a better chance of getting an answer.

 

For me, this is one of the factors that has stopped me from changing my order with Xotic PC.

I also plan to do some work with blender and it's like. Supposedly Nvidia cards handle this kind of stuff better than ATI cards.

I've owned an ATI card and had a number of problems with it, while my Nvidia experiences have been relatively pain-free.

Also a small but almost unimportant factor is PhysX. A number of games I want to play support it which is keen. But again not really all that important.

So, Nvidia it is. For me, anyway.

 

I don't think it has much to do with fanboyism because it only takes one really bad experience for some one to lose a lot of trust. Quite a few on this forum have experienced issues with the quality of the ATI 5870 heatsink, overheating and a few fried their GPU's from using methods to offset the poorly connecting heatsinks. Although the vast majority of 5870 users may have been happy, it is a common fact that the few who are unhappy are more likely to post.

I owned both a 5870 and a GTX 285M and had that exact same poorly fitting heatsink problem so of course I am going to be weary. No fanboyism involved.

 

Just go to Intel:

Compare Intel® Products,

2720QM has VT-d and AES new instruction set. VT-d is for directed I/O with virtualization (in other words direct access to your systems I/O) and AES will accelerate encryption.

And then of course the clock speed differences: 2-2.9GHz / 2.2 - 3.3GHz

And 1600MHz memory support with 2720QM only.

IMHO unless you need the added instruction sets in the 2720QM, stick with the 2630QM. Gaming won't really benefit much if at all. I haven't seen my 2720QM CPU run past 3GHz to be honest with you, maybe 3.1GHz once, but at high load it runs 2.7-2.8GHz anyhow.

And if you're going with the 6970m over the 485m and want to use that budget difference for an upgrade, consider the Blu-Ray drive, larger SSD, or better screen.

 

Looks like I can save nearly GBP100 if I go for the 2630 and not see too much of a performance difference, then again with a single GPU there's only so much you can squeeze out of the system compared to the dual-GPU x7200 setup.

Thanks for the link, I'm not too good at going through all of the technical babble on the Intel webpage.

 

I agree with laptopnut.

What you have to understand is that when faced with a decision, someone new on the custom-gaming-laptop scene (like me) will look at the debate with a bit of head-scratching. I have to work with the little knowledge I have. Consider this:
1.MOSt games you play start with an nice voice saying "Nvidaaa". Not that advertising is important. Just the familiarity is a factor is what i'm saying.
1.I've had 3 geforce cards (one on a HP laptop) and I have had no issues.
2.As for my AMD experience, I've had an acer with horrible heat issues with an AMD processor. So, there is one negative experience right there with AMD.

So, when i say i want to go with the 485M, its not loyalty or fanboy-ism talking, its either lack of experience or reluctance to take the road less familiar. Lets face it. Who gives a s**t about loyalty to corporates like Nvidia or AMD. We all want what is most logically the right choice.


EDIT: I don't know if any of you want PhysX based eye-candy when running games like mafia 2 (which i am eager to play) and Arkham Asylum. I think I found out about whether such GPU-based acceleration is possible with AMD cards. See this if your are interested. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/567632-485m-vs-6970m-4.html#post7339477 The article posted here doesn't directly talk about laptop cards or even the HD6970, but one could extrapolate.

 

There are hacks to enable PhysX on ATI cards, though I don't know the current status of the hack:

Hack Released to Enable PhysX on Windows 7 with ATI GPU Present | techPowerUp

As for PhysX, these Youtube videos give a pretty good impression of how games look with and without it:

YouTube - Zogrim's Channel

Some of the extra effects are relatively minor, like extra particles when shooting at walls or blowing up a car. Some, though, especially in Arkhum Asylum, add a lot to the game, like paper that reacts to the environment and fog that's affected as objects pass through them.

 

HI thanks for that great info. I learnt a lot from your links. But that hack seems to be for people with desktops with a primary AMD card who want to use a cheaper Nvidia card as PhysX dedicated: "To the rescue comes a soft-modder's nifty bit of software that overrides this restriction from NVIDIA's drivers, so you can use dedicated GeForce PhysX cards on machines with ATI Radeon primary GPUs again."

Does it sound puerile when i say i want to play mafia like this : YouTube - APEX PhysX in Mafia II: Particles (from zogrim's channel) ??

And does it seem crazy if i feel i should just go with the 485M for the physX eye-candy sake?? I already own mirror's edge, batman AA and MAfia2. I haven't beat any of them except batman (which was not that much of a slideshow thanks to the tech that is UNREAL ENGINE *i worship their optimization since the days of the first unreal*).

I also own crysis and found out that they have their own in-house physics engine; they don't care for outsider tech. So, some games cave-in to PhysX while others don't.

I also plan on getting a projector (second hand) + NVidia 3D kit which is dropping in price (from 200 to 149 recently) later this year. So far i dont know that the 6970M can do 3D out.

PhysX + 3D = buy 485M for me.

 

I had to make a similar decision, whether to get the 6970M Crossfire or the 470M SLI. The 485M SLI was just a little too rich for my blood. Even though the 470M SLI has slightly lower performance than the 6970M Crossfire, what made me swing that way is 3D Vision and PhysX. ATI's 3D offering can be considered non-existent at this point, and PhysX, for the games that implement it, adds quite a bit to the gameplay visuals that I couldn't just pass on it.