AMD 6990M vs AMD 7000M series??

[CPTseabass]

Hey people!! I have a little question about something I was wanting to do but now i a not sure. I have a Sager gaming note book with i7 2630qm CPU/ and AMD 6990M GPU. I want to be able to game on BF3 with good settings and be able to play any games that come out in the near future at good setting and good FPS!
- I was tempted to upgrade to the better amd 6990M and OC it, because I was told that the new AMD 7000M series may not be compatible with the older machine. they said the MXM is likely to be different? ( whats MXM)?? and is this true. If its not i will wait until they come out and then upgrade but if its not true then I am going to get the 6990M. I was also told that its possible if i dont upgrade now that the 6990M may not be available for upgrade later so i could miss out altogether? OK if thats the case what happens if I get the upgrade to the 6990M? and then it breaks or something, now I dont get a replacment or what?? i DK what to think. Help me pleae guys!!!

 

[CPTseabass]

Sorry people I made a mistake, I currently have the AMD 6970M not the 6990M sorry about that. I am wanting to update but dont know if i should wait for 7000M series and will it work?

 

[AbdullahG]

Your current laptop is great. You should be able to play BF3 very well. You cannot upgrade the GPU on laptops unfortunately. You are stuck with 6970m, which is still a great laptop GPU, until you plan on getting a new laptop.

 

[Pyree]

Yes he can on a Sager barebone with MXM. MXM is a mobile gpu connection specification for swapable gpu. We are currently on MXM 3, I am not sure when MXM 4 will be use. But MXM 3 has type A and B. Maybe the 7000 series card will change the type.

Background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_PCI_Express_Module

Also, the bios can be a problem as well since laptop bios are very restricted. They may not release a bios which will allow your current mobo to recognise the 7000 series card. You are safer to get the 6990m and forget about the upgrade until later, after 7000 series is out, contact Sager customer support and ask them on upgrade possibilty.

About the 6990m failing, I wouldn't warry too much about it. They are top end card and you put it in top end mobo in a top end chassis. I think you will be alright. If it fails, you may receive a replacement GTX580m. The stock GTX 580m voltage is low 0.87v, runs at a lower temperature and gives you better headroom for OC. Some people even claim that it can OC to be on par with the clock of a desktop GTX 560 Ti. I am sceptical but the 0.87v is a low voltage.

 

[CPTseabass]

Yea man you can def. upgrade in this machine. But i just dont want to if the MXM will be bale to use the next gen. 7000m series ya know. But if it cant then i will because it will be the best gpu i can get for my machine. =)

 

[Chainzsaw]

Not too sure why you would want to upgrade your GPU in your lappy. They are extremely expensive and usually only about half (or less) the performance of the similar desktop version model number.

You already have a decent laptop. Heck the one I have - older gen mobile core i7 1.6Ghz 8GB Ram Radeon 5870 1GB vcard 120GB SSD still runs most things decently (at 1080P).

I would say save....and if anything wait until the mobile ivy bridge and mobile bulldozer to come out as well as Geforce 6xx and radeon 7xxx (mobile). That would give you a much bigger boost than a GPU upgrade in your current comp.

 

[CPTseabass]

Hey Chain thanks bro for the reply. I think I am going to just forget about it wait. But I dont have a desktop right now. i need to get one really bad beause its going to be easier to up grade things when I have that. Hey man can you PLEASE let me know what type of games you can play on that thing? FPS and stuff like that. I am really worried about my machine not being able to play like BF3. I now I wont be able to play it on ultra but I just hate missing out on really sweet graphics ya know. But I dont even know if my lappy can handle BF3 with the cpr and gpu I have. Are you playing it and what are you getting?

 

[Pyree]

The 6990m performs a bit better than the desktop 6850 and the 6970m performs similarly to the desktop 6770.

Benchmark for Battlefield 3 beta here:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,847209/Battlefield-3-Beta-18-Radeon-and-Geforce-cards-SLI-und-Crossfire-benchmarked/Practice/

So, I think you will be fine if you lower the setting. Definitly can play Battlefield 3. Don't forget this is a beta release without much optimisation.