Laptop Graphics Card Help!

spankmaster2000

Hi folks,

Can anyone shed any light / opinion / experience on the best choice between the two setups below?

(a) A single Nvidia GTX 480M 2GB. (SLI'd)
(b) Dual Mobility Radeon HD 5870's, 1GB each. (Crossfire'd)

To be honest; I prefer ATI, but that's not based on any knowledge of the above cards.

And better still...am I better off waiting for ATI's Mobility HD 6xxx series?

Cheers!

stuff.hunter

option b mate

Voodu Child

You say a single GTX480M and then you say SLI'd. Which?

A single GTX480M is slightly faster than a single mobility Radeon 5870. It draws significantly more power though, and hence puts out more heat and eats more battery.

The ATI mobile cards are much better value lately.

In Crossfire or SLI, either of them are going to beat a single one of the other by quite a margin. That is assuming the drivers are working properly (see below).

Nvidia have very good mobile driver support. Unfortunately ATI have pretty crappy mobile driver support. Several high profile crossfire-equipped gaming laptops that should have been monsters ended up as failures because of non-working drivers.

x in the city

spankmaster2000 wrote: »

Hi folks,

Can anyone shed any light / opinion / experience on the best choice between the two setups below?

(a) A single Nvidia GTX 480M 2GB. (SLI'd)
(b) Dual Mobility Radeon HD 5870's, 1GB each. (Crossfire'd)

To be honest; I prefer ATI, but that's not based on any knowledge of the above cards.

And better still...am I better off waiting for ATI's Mobility HD 6xxx series?

Cheers!

That nvidia is as good as they get nowadays, what notebook is it? the ati might have better speed, marginally. but the nvidia has better support as mentioned.

smack on any game and what does it say.?

the way its meant to be played....!

spankmaster2000

Voodu Child wrote: »

You say a single GTX480M and then you say SLI'd. Which?

My apologies; that's my fault - I should have proof-read what I wrote!
I didn't mean to include the SLI part.
It is indeed a single Nvidia vs Dual ATI I was wondering about.

And to answer x in the city's question; here's an example laptop showing my query...

http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/acatalog/g890.html

TWO HD 5870's are actually 500 Euro cheaper than a single 480M!

Voodu Child

spankmaster2000 wrote: »

My apologies; that's my fault - I should have proof-read what I wrote!
I didn't mean to include the SLI part.
It is indeed a single Nvidia vs Dual ATI I was wondering about.

In that case, Mobility 5870 x2 (ie in Crossfire) is miles faster than a single GTX480. Again, if the drivers are good and crossfire is scaling properly.

Those Kobalt laptops are made by Clevo so you will find more information here

spankmaster2000

Cheers Voodu Child; that link explains a bit more for me about the Clevo's.

But; it raises another question!

Why on earth would anyone buy an Alienware?!
(Or maybe I've missed something...)

Kobalt Computers

G890
Chassis - :: Kobalt G890
Screen - :: 18.4" Full HD 1920x1080 X-Glass
Processor - :: Intel® Core i7 940XM Quad Core with HT 2.13GHz - 3033GHz 8MB Cache (+ £554.00)
Video Card - :: 2x ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 DX11 with Crossfire Technology
Memory 1 - :: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz CAS9 2x 4GB DIMMs (+ £172.00)
Hard Drive - :: 500GB Western Digital 7,200rpm with 16MB Cache - Free Upgrade!
Hard Drive 2 - :: None Selected
Hard Drive 3 - :: None Selected
Hard Drive Config 1 - :: No RAID
Operating system 1 - :: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (+30.00)
Optical Device 1 - :: Blu-Ray ROM / DVD±R/W
WIFI - :: Intel 6300 Ultimate-N WIFI module
Bluetooth - :: Bluetooth V2.0 Module
Keyboard - :: English UK
7 in 1 card reader - :: 7 in 1 card reader
Soundcard - :: Integrated High Definition Audio
Headsets - :: None Selected
External Keyboard - :: None Selected
Mouse - :: None Selected
Mouse Mats - :: None Selected
Power Cable - :: UK
Extra Battery - :: None Selected
2nd AC Adapter - :: None Selected
Warranty - :: 2 Year - European Collect & Return
Business Software - :: None selected
System Recovery - :: None Selected
System Recovery - External Image - :: None Selected
Carry Case - :: Standard Black Nylon Carrying Case
Subtotal £2,274.95
Shipping (System Shipping - TNT 1-2 Day) £60.00
VAT £408.62
Total £2,743.57

€3202 Euro Incl Vat & delivery

Dell / Alienware

m17x
COLOUR CHOICE Alienware M17x MLK Gaming Laptop - Space Black
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 940XM (2.13 Ghz, 8MB, 4C)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit, English
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 2Yr Next Day Hardware Support
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Antivirus Software
GRAPHICS CARD CrossFire™ Dual 1GB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870
MEMORY 8192MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x4096]
HARD DRIVE 500GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
LCD 43cm (17") Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED
OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) Slot Load Drive
WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY Intel® Wireless LAN 6300 3x3 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module - Europe
PRIMARY BATTERY 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery

€4580 Euro Incl Vat and Delivery

€1378 difference?!

I definitely must have missed something in those specs to justify that difference?!

Any ideas?

hare05

RGBLED screens cost a bit more to produce than the ones used by Kobalt, which are still very good, but not as good as RGBLED / HP Radiance / Macbook in terms of color and brightness.

That could account for about €200~

As for the rest, it's just Dell's mark up on component choices. Kobalt price their upgrades at close to market price for the component, so if a processor costs €50 more than the default on the market, it'll cost you between €50 and €60 to get it into your Kobalt. Dell add a significantly higher chunk to every upgrade, so that processor choice might knock you back €150 instead, especially if the default processor was worse than the one in the Kobalt to begin with.

They add up lol.

spankmaster2000

Is RGBLED the same as LED?

The Alienware:
"LCD 43cm (17") Wide UXGA (1920x1200) - Beyond HD (1200p) RGBLED"

The Kobalt:
"18.4" 1920 x 1080 LED Backlit X-Glass"

hare05

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