GT 650M - 1GB or 2GB?

im about to order the m14x but dont kno if to go with the 1gb 650m or the 2gb video card soo help me choose?? wats the difference or how big of a difference??
ill be using it for mild game usage like league of legends and regular use of internet and school and such?
and if u feel like it throw in if i should go i5 or i7 for my uses( im goin for i7 but not really sure)

 

Save your money and go with the 1GB version, you will see virtually no performance gain going with the 2GB version.
IVB cpu's are going to be released very,very soon if anything I would wait for those, general figures say IVB cpu's are about 15%-20% better than SB of the same level.

 

oh yeah i kno i am goin for ivb if u order from alienware now it will come with ivb even if it says sandy... confirmed by a dell worker

 

Can you elaborate further?
I think you mean it comes Ivy bridge compatible.

 

Confirmed here http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-m18x-r2-coming-speculation-thread-128.html

 

Are we sure that there are no other differences though? In all of NVIDIA's spec sheets that I've seen, the Kepler parts are listed as having "up to" X core clock, or Y shaders. I'm not saying Dell wouldn't charge $100 for a mere memory upgrade (it's actually cheap by their standards) I just wouldn't bank on that being the only difference.

 

ummm i still dont kno wat to do lol im not very techy soo wouldnt kno the difference

 

They charged 100 for the 1.5gb to the 3gb card..

 

Always go for the lower VRAM card unless you're going dual external monitors.

 

I'm still confused as to what is being confirmed?

Back to the original question though-
If you're going to be playing on a different monitor(s) then I would go with the 2gig but if you're just gaming without a monitor(s) then the 1gig should be fine.
If money's not an issue then go with the 2gig haha.

 

lol i see thanks

and as for wat is confirmed... it says that an unnamed component (ivy bridge) will be delivered with ur system if u purchased it after the new models showed up on the site even if it says that its 2nd gen processors... if u can see that the ET for delivery is late march

all this read in between line and mistery becuz of NDA purposes but its pretty clear in there

 

So what if I want to play on my 23" 1080p external monitor, the 1GB GT 650M would not be powerful enough? Because I only have money for either 2 things: Upgrading the m14x from a 720p (1366x768) screen to 900p (1600x900), or upgrading the 1GB GT 650M to 2GB.

 

I would deffo get the screen upgrade, heard the lower res isnt good atall

 

I would definitely go with the 1600x900 screen, and you should be fine with the 1gig card on a 23' display as that's still a very powerful card. If your thinking about playing on dual monitor's or even 3 then you might run into problems.

 

Aright, I'll go for the screen upgrade instead lol. Thanks for the input.

 

Would a 1GB GT650M be enough to game at 1080p resolution on max settings? I've been looking into it lately, and some people claim that games such as crysis 2, gta iv, skyrim eat up to 1.5GB of video memory. Whereas other people are saying that more than 1GB is just a marketing thing, since it's only useful for multiple displays. I'm just wondering whether I made the right choice by getting the 1GB GT 650M or if I should've paid $100 more for the 2GB one.

 

It should be fine.

650M won't have enough power to run games maxed out with AA turned up (which eats up memory) at 1080p anyways.

 

Go with the 2GB or the highest memory if you going to be dual monitor all or most of the time, else go with the 1GB since the 2GB is nothing different from the 1GB though, the thing with "up to 1.5GB" sometime that is a Virtual Memory, and virtual memory, most of the time it will be double to quadruple the amount of the physical memory.

 

I used to have the 555 and skyrim used to use up to 1.5gb of vram, but that was with a LOT of texture mods.

 

Precisely why I don't feel the urge to upgrade to the R2.

However the R3....

 

I couldn't agree more with this. Having worked in game development for getting on seven years, VRAM usage is dependent largely on one thing - available VRAM. If the game sees it and wants to use it, there's a good chance it will. Hence you should take any "it uses x amount" with a pinch of salt.

At the end of the day, look at what you want to be doing with the system. A good example is pushing your display out to multiple monitors - bound to use a lot of VRAM and the small increase in cost is justifiable. But do some tests first to get some relative data on performance. For me I'll be getting 2GB for the M14xR2, but even then I don't think it will soften the blow too much when I push beyond 1080p resolutions on external displays.

 

Can someone explain to me why the GT650m on XMG A102 with 2GB DDR3 reach 75fps in Deus Ex Human Revolution, ultra setting ?Here is the link:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
That's even better than a GTX675m with 2GB GDDR5!

 

Yeah thats weird and it's not even GDDR5 it's GDDR3 maybe it's a typo.
EDIT: I just googled XMG A102 and it's a notebook 11.6" so maybe thats why, the resolution must be small so more FPS. Still weird but yeah.
EDIT2: The resolution is 1366x768 go here if you want to see what customisation is possible on this notebook: http://www.mysn.de/detail.asp?beste...681F31028&KategorienOrder=010;020;010;010;010

 

I'm just really interested if I'll be able to run Diablo 3 on 1080p with max settings with a 650m.

 

Not sure about max settings on 1080p but pretty sure at least on high, you'll probably be able to run it on max settings on native resolution (1600*900). Anyway we'll see when reviews and benchmarks will show up.

 

Thought I would share, I just wrapped up playing Crysis Warhead for an hour and checked GPU-Z and saw that graphics memory usage exceeded 1GB on my 2GB card. GPU temps maxed at 62 and I was playing at Enthusiast levels overclocked at 880 / 1300.

 

Thanks, Tsukurimashou.I think Notebookcheck should put more detail about resolution, that's very important.

 

Glad I went with the 2GB

Thanks for the info!

 

Damn, I thought it would only use more than 1GB on dual external monitors?

 

Now I'd like to think I'm reading the graph correctly. But if you look at the (Memory Usage) it says @1054 which I presume is the max amount of VRAM that was used on the card. Now, if you look at (GPU load) the bar looks "Maxed". It looks to me that the GPU itself at its (max load) only acheives 1054 at your resolution. It looks to me that the GPU wouldnt allow itself to even go any higher in VRAM consumption due to how much of a load it had. I think I would agree with needing 2gb over the 1gb if the load was maybe 3/4? I could be totally wrong, its just an Idea. Someone with alittle more computer knowledge have any input on my theory?

 

Same question as money , you want $1k or $2k , surely more money is better , if u have choosen 2GB its more future proof.(Don't blame me if m14x-r3 released,lol) If you can't afford just go ahead for 1GB, no harm either.

 

If you use Flight simulators, definatly get the 2gb

X-Plane 10 easily used 1.5gb on high settings

 

I've been doing some reading on the gtx 560m and gt 650m video cards (since their ranked similarly on notebookcheck), and some people are saying that more than 1GB of video ram is useless on the GT 650M since the graphic card itself does not have enough raw power to run games such as battlefield 3 and skyrim on max settings anyways (on a single 1080p screen). Do you guys think this is true? According to benchmarks, the gtx 560m 2GB was unable to run skyrim/battlefield 3 on ultra with playable framerates. Is it safe to assume that even the GT 650M 2GB version will be unable to run these games at max settings?

 

The amount of memory a graphics card has minimal bearing on its performance. A 1GB 650M is going to perform about the same as a 2GB 650M, because all the other components are identical.

Personally I think you should ignore those saying that an application was using greater than 1GB on their 2GB card, because as has been noted on this thread, games are going to use whatever VRAM is available regardless of whether or not it truly needs it.

I also have a gaming desktop that has a 560Ti with a "measly" 1GB of graphics, and I routinely run games maxed out on it.

 

Agreed. 2GB is still a waste of money in my books.

(unless dual-monitors of course)

 

If you are gonna play gta 4 you should get 2gb. I would get the 2gb if its gddr5 as well if it costs only slightly more as some games are on the limit of 1gb already and if you can get 2gb for slightly more it is worth doing. I just checked the cost and its £50 more so it is worgh it considering how much the laptop costs in the first place and the £40 upgrade to 1600x900 is a must for productivity.

I would get the 2gb gddr5 considering it costs £50 more and the laptop costs a lot of money in the forst place and get the 1600x900 £40 upgrade screen. I know gpuz shows memory usage and seen on youtube games are close to the 1gb limit if not exceeding it so it would be better to have more then enough memory for now and maybe a year later the 2gb will become handy in some games.

This is 1gb performance.
Alienware M14X R2 - Battlefield 3 ULTRA Settings No AA - YouTube

 

For Gamer Now, GTX Class Gpu mush be.
If need Multimidia Gpu-GT 650M, Choice cheaper HP multimedia notebook is ok.
Alienware 14 not a game notebook, for year 2012.

 

Looking at the other video you posted on youtube it shows you alt tab out and show cpu and gpu usage and I see it only used about 450mb at med settings so would it be safe to say BF3 doesnt even use even close to the full 1gb at even high or ultra?

 

In any scenario which genuinely requires more than 1GB, the 650M will be too far below 30fps for the extra memory to matter.

6950 1GB vs 2GB. This card is 3x the speed of the 650M, and you can see what settings they had to push, before the 2GB model even mattered. The 650M couldn't hope to run anything at comparable settings.

So why try to justify 2GB? Waste your money if you want to, but don't play it off.

 

Thank you for that link. I had seen it before but couldn't find it for some reason +rep. With triple displays and/or freaky high resolutions, 2GB makes sense. But then you ultimately need a really fast card to take make framerates playable at those resolutions.

 

I may add a second 1080 display via the HDMI port, for desktop extension, game and blu-ray playing on a TV. Will 1GB VRAM be enough, or should I choose 2GB to be safe..?

 

ARMA 2 in december. we can revisit this topic upon release. We (m14x) folks will be lucky if we can run it at all. Interesting to see how we will compare 1GB vs 2GB. Lots of interesting articles lately with decent benchmarks on the whole 1 vs 2 and newer card technology 28nm vs older. You might be surprised. m14xr2 on the way. eta june

oh yeah, forgot: 650 2GB GDDR, i7 3610qm, 720p, SSD and some wifi's

 

I don't think the 1gb of VRAM will cause you have to have an increase of 10-20 frames per second. So no, it's not worth the money.

 

Did you even read the post and the link two before yours?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/660965-gt-650m-1gb-2gb-4.html#post8524893

 

Yes, although I did miss the link. I wasn't concerned about gaming frame rates, I was wondering if I could, for example, output a blu-ray or game to a second monitor via HDMI whilst at the same time still use the laptop's own display, i.e. driving two displays within 1GB..? (Some people mention 3 displays would def require 2GB, but I would only ever use two in total)

 

3 displays gaming would require 2GB. But otherwise desktop is only a couple MB at worst. If you were to game on both displays at the same time then perhaps 2GB may help, but not really because that's a lot of resolution for the GPU to manage. 1920x1080 + 1600x900 = 3513600 pixels. 2560x1600 shown in that comparison is 4096000 pixels and 1GB was still more than enough.

 

Hello guys.

I'm just about to buy the m14xr2 and I was wondering if I should opt for the 1 gb or the 2 gb graphics?

Some other specs are:
Intel Core i7-3610QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.3GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
6144MB (1x2048 + 1x4096) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
14.1in Widescreen High Definition (1600x900) WLED with TrueLife

Thanks in advance!

Edit: The purpose for this laptop is studying and gaming. - I would prefer if it could run any game released in the next 3 years decently - Is it possible at all? Will it even matter if I have 1 or 2 gb?

 

1gb

10 char

 

1gb is enough unless you plan on hooking up more than two external monitors. Not likely with a laptop.

 

i have the 1gb and its great for what I expected it to do, its not top of the line but its one hell of a card.