Best mobile graphics card on a budget?

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Brandonicas

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Jul 15, 2013
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Hi everyone,
Recently I've been looking to for a quality built laptop for around £1200 to use for 6th form (and the occasional game fest : P), after intensive research I've decided upon the following components,

Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4700MQ
8GB Corsair® Vengeance™ DDR3 1600MHz (2x4GB)
Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SATA 3 6Gb/s Solid-State Drive
Killer™ 1103 Gigabit LAN & Dual Band WiFi

However i'm struggling on which graphics card I want, its between the 770m, the 8970m and the 780m, but since the 780m is way ouside of my budget at £225 more than the 770m. I know its the seemingly unanswerable question of AMD vs Nvidia but Im just after preferences on which card would be best for a casual gamer with some reason to justify so, there's too many biased opinions on forms which state the other is dominant for no apparent reason.For £50 more the 8970m offers about a 20% increase on real word graphical quality and an extra 1gb vram which I presume which will become handy using the Skyrim HD texture mod for example which heavily increases the resolution, but i'm very dubious of the AMD drivers, are they as bad as people make out? I,m okay with the occasional trouble shooting but not every time I run a game. On the other hand the 770m has physx which many people seem to be fond of but is it a strong reason to go with Nvida? as it aony shows in a few games. The 770m also uses less power, which is always handy in a laptop and as stated above is cheaper, I mean I can always upgrade to 780m later with what I presume will be relative ease as the laptop has an access panel on the back, or is it more work than it appears? I've build desktops before but I've been told its a completely different game.

If you have a justifiable preference, or see a problem with the other components I've chosen, I would appreciate the help.
Cheers,
Brandon
 
Solution
Shaun o
It would be relatively nice if you could just swap graphics cards in and out of a laptop.

Sadly it`s not the case.

Because most of the time the cooling solution for the graphics card is made for the card placed in it.

The cooler is customized to the laptop case and graphics card.

Putting a different card in that may output more heat would mean having to change the cooling for the card.

It simply would not fit because it would need more surface area to keep the graphics card cool.

There would be no room in the case.
The thermal design of the cooler would, or may not be enough to cool the graphics card adequately.

You would have to double check with the maker of the laptop to see if it could cope with a faster or higher rated...
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Shaun o

Shaun o

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Oct 7, 2007
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It would be relatively nice if you could just swap graphics cards in and out of a laptop.

Sadly it`s not the case.

Because most of the time the cooling solution for the graphics card is made for the card placed in it.

The cooler is customized to the laptop case and graphics card.

Putting a different card in that may output more heat would mean having to change the cooling for the card.

It simply would not fit because it would need more surface area to keep the graphics card cool.

There would be no room in the case.
The thermal design of the cooler would, or may not be enough to cool the graphics card adequately.

You would have to double check with the maker of the laptop to see if it could cope with a faster or higher rated graphics card in the laptop.
 
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Brandonicas

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Ah I see, but is it still possible? I mean could I pay for a professional to do it at a reasonable price?
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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If you are shopping for laptops, and 1200 is quite a bit, you should be able to look at the higher end gaming laptops. These do indeed have modular video cards using the MXM format. Still quite a pain to switch them out (requires almost complete disassembly), but you can upgrade in the future.

Just go to a retailer like DELL XPS/Alienware, MSI, or one of the workstation class laptops from Lenovo, HP, etc. Find a laptop you like that has video card options, and that will be one that supports MXM video cards, and select the card you want.
 
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Brandonicas

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Okay thanks, so in your opinion is it worth saving up for the 780m to future proof the laptop? because i'm stretching my budget as it is
 
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Shaun o

Shaun o

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To be honest I doubt it, the only way would be to ask the maker of the laptop.

They would know if the cooling solution inside the laptop, and it`s thermal dissipation.

Was enough to keep a higher rated graphics card cool enough to run without over heating. You would have to ask them. What the maximum mobile graphics solution can be fitted into the underside of the laptop.

I dare say they will just tell you one since the wattage of the device will change and like I said the laptop was likely made around a fixed mobile graphics solution model.

You are best off asking, and why not you want it to be right.

Eximo.

Is also right, it`s a pain taking the cooler off as well, as he says you sometimes end up taking most of the laptop apart to get the card out or in.
 
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Brandonicas

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Well damn I never thought of that XD,thanks for the help anyway, you've given me much more to take into consideration making the choice harder for me -_- aha, I might just save for the 780m, seems to be the most viable option to save the hassle of opening my machine up.

 
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Brandonicas

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Im currently looking to order from Utopia Computers, I'm waiting for a reply from one of the staff which should hopefully answer the questions Shaun o bought up, ive looked at the more popular retailers but the prices are much higher than the smaller, independent companies, alienware for instance offers the same spec laptop for almost £600 more, all for a couple of flashing lights and a name XD
 
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Eximo

Eximo

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MXM 3.0 compliant cards usually have a TDP of 75W, they are pretty strict about it, so any MXM 3.0 card should be interchangable in regards to cooling, as long as that standard is around, you should be fine for upgrading a few years down the road.
 
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Brandonicas

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The 770m has a power consumption of 75w, but the 780m has a power consumption of 100w, so would that be a problem?
 
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Brandonicas

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This MXM stuff is all jargon to me :L, and I guess considering the option for a 780m is available the laptop must be compatible, so ill probably go with the 770m and upgrade to the 780m in the future when its cheaper, thanks for the help XD
 
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