What is the difference between the gtx 860m and the gtx 870m for the GS60 GHOST?

I am looking into getting a new laptop but since I am switching from a mac I am a hardcore newbie. Is there that big of a difference between the two? Which do you guys recommend I get? I read that somewhere that the 870 may cause heating issues but I am not sure if that is true or not.

thanks
-Matt

 

Looks to about 10-20% performance difference.

GeForce GTX 870M vs 860M

What you may want is a 970m based GS60. It is more powerful than an 870m but more importantly, it uses less power, so it runs cooler and the battery will last longer.

GeForce GTX 970M vs 860M

You can find it here, and it's still cheaper than a Macbook Pro.

XOTIC PC | MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 4K-079 - NVIDIA Maxwell GTX 970M w/ 4K Screen

 

Thanks! Will there be a problem with the 4k screen and game scaling? I know that some people with the y50 4k experienced a black bar around some games or the games would't take up the whole screen.

 

Don't look at the 4K ... 3K is better for gaming with 970M and it is not that bad in scalling also what i've seen in the showroom.

 

If you're asking if you can play games at 4K the answer is no. Even SLI desktop systems are challenged by 4K gaming.
If you're asking if you can play games at lower resolutions on a 4K screen the answer is yes.

The resolution is 3480 x 2160 which is a 16:9 aspect ratio. Changing your desktop or games to lower 16:9 resolutions like 1920 x 1080,1600, ×, 900 and 1280x720 should work well.

4K resolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It sounds like maybe those Y50 users were doing something weird like using a 4:3 resolution and setting the graphics card to preserve the aspect ratio rather than distort the screen.