i7 950 and GTX 460M vs GTX 470M

My main activity would revolve around gaming.

What would perform better with an i7-950, a GTX 460M 1.5GB GDDR5 SLI or a single GTX 470M 1.5GB?

The single GTX 470M costs 100 dollars more.

What is the difference in performance between a single GTX 460M and a GTX 470M?

 

The 470M has 96 more shader and 16 more TMU than the 460M but has lower standard core clocks. Overall there will probably be at most 20% difference but it all depends on the resolutions/quality you are playing at.

Also the i7-950 is a desktop 1366 processor...?

 

I assume he's talking about the Clevo X7200, which has a desktop chipset.

 

hmmm Having 460 SLI seems to have more advantage but then again, will the programs u use support SLI? the 470 is a more powerful card, single card solution and u may also get another 470 in the future to make it SLI. so it all depends on are u going to upgrade in the future? or just buying it as it is now.

 

If you get the single 470m, you should be able to add a second down the road. Plus, you don't need to deal with SLi profiles and such if you go with one card. That would be my choice.

 

$100 isnt that much. I would get the gtx 470m

Edit: oooh I see sli 460 vs single 470 mmm hard to say...

 

But with SLI 460s you get twice the heat, versus 1 470 which you could SLI later on anyway. All up to you.

 

Hmm I'm leaning more towards a single GTX 470m now... seems that SLI 460s only give about a 20% increase over a single 460 any way...

 

Sli 460M only gives you 20% increase over a single 460M??? That's unheard of, it should give you at least 70-80% performance bonus over a single 460M. I would grab the 460M SLI immediately, it will be WAY more powerful than a single 470M, yeah, you will have more heat emissions, but performance matters more, right? I suppose the x7200 you are looking at should have adequate cooling to cool down the dual 460M cards.

 

I'd definitely go with the cheaper, more-powerful option here, the 460M's in SLI.

 

Well also SLI only shines in ultra high resolution gaming. If played under 1680x1050 SLI actually has a decrease in performance, some Tom's Hardware article had a chart. Optimum was 2560x1600 but notebooks don't offer that resolution.

 

I suppose users won't be using low resolution with such a GPU powerhouse? There would be little point to play at low resolution with SLI 460M, 1080p gaming all the way.

 

The 460Ms in SLI scale ridiculously well, just like their desktop counterparts.

You can check the notebookcheck comparison of graphics cards. The dual GTX 460Ms have more performance than even the HD5870 CrossfireX'd!

 

Notebooks still do offer 1920X1080 so really shouldn't be much a problem. I suggest 460M SLI too..

Panther214

 

Will an i7-950, 8MB L3 Cache, 3.06GHz and a dual GTX460m be able to provide good frame rate for Stereoscopic 3d vision mode on Crysis on High settings?

I'm trying to decide weather to spend 2.2k on a laptop with the above settings or 2k on a desktop with a GTX 580 and AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Six-Core CPU.

I know that the Desktop will be much more powerful, still I enjoy having a portable powerhouse rather than a heavy desktop when I travel. What would be a good estimate in performance difference between the two setups for 1080p gaming?

 

If you are planning to run crysis(or any demanding games) with 3d vision, forget about 460M SLI or any gaming notebooks(they are not powerful enough), build a powerful desktop like you mentioned with gtx580 and Phenom IIX6 with a quality monitor, you will have a MUCH BETTER visual experience than running on any notebook. A gtx580 will beat 460M SLI into oblivion.

 

This is true, however if OP wants a portable gaming solution then a desktop is not the way to go
Also why the 580? U can find two 480's for 500-550ish now days.

 

Hi,

I'm interested in this as well, though my needs are a bit more specific. Pretty much the only game I play is WoW. I'm looking at the Sager NP7280 Laptop (built on the Clevo X7200). It has the i7 950, and the option of dual GTX 460M's or single GTX 470M. When at home (about half the time), I'll be running it through a 23" monitor, and will use 1920x1080. I have heard conflicting reports of whether WoW: Cataclysm actually uses the SLI fully, so am completely confused. Any thoughts?

Cheers

p.s. I would like to run on Ultra settings, though I can back the shadows off a notch if necessary.

 

Doesn't really take an uber gaming computer to play WoW...unless you want max settings at crazy resolutions. Most bottleneck is the actual WoW servers (ever been in Dalaran and not have it lag?)

 

Probably should have clarified a bit. I'd like to run it on Ultra (though I can drop down shadows a notch or two). I was originally looking at the Asus G73JW, but I'm afraid it won't be able to run 1920x1080 on a 23" monitor without dropping the graphics settings a fair bit.

 

Even maxing out WoW with 1080p res and everything on high, it still doesn't take that much power to pull it off. That's not to say that you'd be able to do it with an IGP but for a reasonable dedicated card it's not really much of a hassle.

 

I run WoW at 1920x1200 on a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo and 8800GT 1gb. I can't max settings or it gets down to 20fps. So to max it out, yeah you need decent power.

 

I ran WoW fine with a Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz and a GTX 260 and a 4870 max settings at 1920x1080 no lag whatsoever.

 

460m sli benching...not bad

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

I've been trying to find blue posts (official answers) as to if and how WoW: Cataclysm supports sli, but I can't. Does anyone know where I can find benchmarking comparisons between 460M, SLI 460M's, and 470M on Cataclysm? If you can point me in the right direction, I will reward you by NOT posting cute kitty pictures.

 

May not be specific to SLI performance in WoW, but I think it's pretty mandatory to read this if you're playing WoW - Cataclysm:

World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm--Tom's Performance Guide : Welcome To The World...Of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Take into account that those are Desktop CPUs/GPUs, but probably you can find here some "correlations" with mobile ones.

 

So I'm thinking of going the Self Built Desktop route. Here are the parts that I have picked out.

Thermaltake V5 Black Edition Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis With Embedded Handle

ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W ATX 12V v2.3, EPS 12V v2.91 CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Kingston HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor

EVGA 015-P3-1583-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Black Ops Edition 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

Corsair Force CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

2 X Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

LITE-ON 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner with 3D PlaybackiHBS212 LightScribe

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD 24-bit 96KHz Sound Card

VisionTek Bigfoot Killer 2100 Gaming Network Card

Won't need a monitor as I will be using my HDTV through HDMI.

 

I would go to a better motherboard. Look at the GA-890FX-UD5 for ~170

Not a big fan of Thermaltake stuff, get a Corsair power supply, and Cooler Master case (912 or 922M if you don't want a massive case). Also look at the Corsair H50 cooler. Does amazing stuff for your CPU.

 

This is definately not worth the money, just go with the integrated one imo

 

i play WoW Cataclysm at 1920x1080 with full details all at ultra
multisampling 8x and texture filtering 8x just the shadow quality reduced it from
ultra 2 high and water quality from ultra 2 good ( there is no high )
and i get between 80---90 fps
am using sager 7280 with i7-950 and gtx 460m sli