[Ailos]

Originally Posted by Vancha

Wut?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970/26.html

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5261/a...hd-7970-review

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ra...d-7970-review/

AMD either win comfortably, or it's within 5 watts/degrees (for HD6000s as well. I just used 7970 reviews because they're the most up to date), but the temps are irrelevant anyway as who's going to buy a dedicated card with a stock cooler?

Still, I don't keep up with laptops at all, so I was actually surprised to see laptops getting results that good now.

If you understand the intricacy associated with swapping out a GPU fan with an after-market cooling solution (such as a water cooler), this isn't for you.

Stock GPU fans are adequate unless you plan on overclocking, in which case, again, this post is not for you.

I would expect anyone that's making the transition from the pre-assembled computer to a custom one to buy a card and keep it stock cooler. It's a poor idea to make your first venture into custom computing a very complicated one. I'm also a big follower of the KISS principle: KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!

Originally Posted by Mutant

Ailos

I totally agree with you that the most cost effective way to truly enjoy today's AAA PC games is on the desktop.

I personal have ditched the laptop entirely and just have a decent smart phone and a nice desktop at home and a workstation at work.


While i agree the GTX570 and HD6970 are about the performance at low AA 1080x1920 (at higher res/AA the 6970 pulls away in performance) and price (newegg has atm $305 for 6970 $310 for 570) the ATI card is by a small margin the more power efficient

bit-tech
system Idle: HD6970 141W vs GTX 570 150W
system Load: HD6970 306W vs GTX 570 330W

guru3d HD6970 GTX 570
system Idle: HD6970 174W vs GTX 570 181W
system Load: HD6970 361W vs GTX 570 369W

Well I guess I stand corrected here. In any case, the choice between ATI and AMD is currently somewhat arbitrary.

Originally Posted by BloodySoul

So, I have an ASUS G74 SX... do you think this laptop will be good enough? Because I blew a lot of cash on it..

I'm not going to sugar coat it: No

Asus laptops are generally not a recommended buy at any level. And I've already established my dislike for laptops in this price range.

The 560M Has a 775 HMz core (OK), up to 3 GB 1250 MHz GDDR5 (also good), 192 shaders (not really that good) and 192-bit memory interface, and 1.17 billion transistors (mediocre) which look impressive on the shelf at Best Buy. But let's look at that card's desktop brother, the GTX 560:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814134137
Listed here for a rather reasonable $180.
Right off the bat, we're looking at an 810 MHz core clock, with 336 shaders, a 256-bit memory interface communicating (lol "just") 1GB of GDDR5 memory at effective 4000 MHz. And this isn't even a top shelf item.

Suffice it to say, you got ripped off on this one. The only way you'll get all the promised performance from this is if you keep it on a flat surface (such as a desk) and put a fan or two to help it stay cool, making it a desktop.