np 8150 or np 8180

well i'm looking at two different laptops here

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=category_browse&selected_cat=11


i'm thinking of getting either the np8180 or np8150. they both have their advantages, the np8150 weighs less, the np8180 has a bigger screen and option for dual cards and blah blah blah. i can get the np 8180 with dual 560 for around the same price as the 8150 with the 6990. i'm just kind of curious, and forgive me because i'm a newb with these kinds of things, but would two 560m's be faster than one 6990? i can't really go any higher in price or i'd just get dual 6990's. thank you for any help!

 

Two 560's would just barely beat a single 6990. There are pro's and con's to both though. The 6990 would avoid the whole issue of dual cards, which can sometimes cause incompatibilities or driver related limitations. On the other hand, Nvidia tends to have better driver support overall. Here are benchmarks for both options:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M SLI - Notebookcheck.net Tech
AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

Nvidia might usually have better drivers, but AMD hasn't had any serious driver sets that feature any serious problems. Not since the whole 10.XX set of fail... >.<

I would go with a single card solution. You can overclock the 6990M pretty well too.

 

I would say the single card...
but the 8180 looks so boss and the screen is so much bigger, lol

 

Id take the 8150. Its smaller, more portable, the 6990m is almost as powerful as sli 560m and with a single card youll run into much less problems. Thats just my oppinion though. If you want a bigger machine and as much power as you can get 8180 or the x7200 might be more suited to you, but sli/cfx sometimes dont work or have problems with certain games.

 

I can tell you that I have both laptops and I love them both. I use my P150HM mostly at the office, but I do game quite a bit there. I bought my P180HM before they offered dual 6990's, so I added my second later on. Despite what benchmarks tell you, one 6990m is better than sli 560m's. You draw less power, don't have to worry about micro-stutter, and don't have to worry as much about drivers. If you can spend a little more and don't care about size, the P180HM is a great choice with a single or dual 6970/6990. Plus you get 3 HDD bays .

 

Go with the single card laptop, even nVidia has some quirks when it comes to SLi.

 

8150 external 1080p monitor 6990M.

 

That. Buy a 50" HDTV for it .

 

8150. A single 6990M will obviously draw less power and come with less heat and quieter fan noise compare to sli 560M. Also, 8150 has better display options I believe.

 

thanks guys gonna go with the 8150 since theres not much of a difference between the 6990 and 560m sli

 

oh one more thing if i get a laptop with 6970m crossfire, how much better would that be than just the one 6990m?

 

Go for the NP8150.

:GEEK:

 

The 6970m in crossfire will be 60% or so better than just a single 6990m. It brings back the same multi card issues though, which can be drivers, microstuttering, and game support, etc.

AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire - Notebookcheck.net Tech
AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

The 6970m card basically has the same performance as the 6990m. There is no noticeable difference in real world performance to the eye.

As for microstuttering. Here is my take: It really is way overblown, and you would think it is a major issue the way some people talk it up. It is not. Microstuttering happens at framerates BELOW 30fps. So lets be real here. You shouldnt be trying to play a game at the 30fps range anyway. If a game is so demanding that its dropping your framerate down that low, then in all honesty you should be turning settings DOWN to bring your fps up period. Your AVERAGE target framerate should be around 60fps for silky smooth gameplay. Smooth gameplay TRUMPS a few extra features of eye candy turned on or up any day of the week.

As for driver stability, I agree, there probably are some small issues here and there, but many of the issues come from people updating to newer drivers that may not need to be updated in the first place, or that work perfectly fine as is. But this gets into the tweakers/OCing area IMO. I used to be in that crowd. But now I prefer stability and smooth running performance vs. OCing or constantly trying new drivers just to get a small performance increase is not my bag anymore. THe only time I find the need to update driver software, is if there are known issues with a current driver that is directly affecting MY usage and programs I run assuming it rectifies the issues I run across personally. If it doesn't, then don't fix what isn't broke.

My take regardless of my rambling is go with the dual 6970m's in crossfire. I did. Scored my P180hm with a pair of 6970m's and an i7 2670QM for $1400 shipped to my door(no RAM or HD though which I preferred anyway so I could ad my own). IMO if you want TRUE desktop gaming performance in a laptop, you need at the very minimum a laptop that supports 2 mobile video cards. A single 6990m or Nvidia GTX 580m IMO are already somewhat dated in terms of how well they play a number of the more demanding games currently out. There are more than a few where they already stuggle to even hit 30fps with all the settings turned up. At least with a pair of 6970m's or a pair of cards with similiar performance your going to have a longer useful life being able to play the more graphically demanding games that are out now or nearing release over the next few years.

 

You dont want to go with AMD and CF! thats just pushing it!!! for the drivers!