ATI 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 vs GeForce® Go 8700M GT – SLI

paddy086

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hi getting a new laptop from alienware getting stuck with what graphis cards to get

frist is
Dual 512MB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 – CrossFireX™ Enabled! -------now this is 2 graphics cards on 2 diffrent boards not just one with 2 chips on it.

Dual 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8700M GT – SLI Enabled

dose any one have any benchmarking tests on these 2 cards

i can find bench tests on 512mb ati mobile radeon hd 3870 x2 ---------witch is one graphics card and 2 chips on it
but not the one i looking for with cross fire

or dose any one know what one is better and why

thanks
 

L1qu1d

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9800M GT sli is stronger

8700M GT sli ( is just 2 8600M GTs oced ( 2 underclocked 8600 GT desktops)

While the 9800M GT is almost a 8800 GT ...which is alot better.

2 8700m GTs barely keep up with 1 9700M GTS:p
 

paddy086

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cool but with alienware laptops if i go with the nivida i can only do core 2 duo

but with the ati one i can do quad core

so is it better to have a strong processor as well as a good card or am i wrong


two laptops are alienware M17 AND M17X
 

L1qu1d

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cpu matters more when it comes to resolution, if u play at 1920x1200, u benefit from gpu, and 1024 cpu just as exampes.

Personally I think games are more gpu dependant and would benefit more from a stronger gpu.
 

paddy086

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cool thanks one more question do you know if you can upgrade the gpu at a later stage i heared that the gpu are not built onto the motherboard so you could swop them later
 

MrCommunistGen

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The GPUs are in a standardized slot, usually some form of MXM (I, II, or III) but in general upgrading graphics is difficult because of lack of availability and extreme cost.

-mcg
 


Yes, but not 2 X 9800M GTS cards, which are a little castrated.

BTW, Funny thing is if you look on nV's mobile site to see their specs (which I have to do to figure out the crippling and which is higher GT or GTS [opposite of the desktop D'oie !! :heink: ]), they have the specs in the chart incorrect for the GTX putting it with the GTS at 64 SPUs not 112 that it is;

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/6769/nvmchartzgd9.jpg

nvmchartzgd9.jpg


http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_m_series.html
 

L1qu1d

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yes but if tradition keeps it up even 2 9800 GTs out do 2 3870s if we follow the desktop GPU counter parts:)

A regular 9600 GT outshines a 3870 which has 64 SPs. So I would think that a 96 sp downclocked 9600 GSO or 8800 GSO can take on 1 3870:)
 

prince0926

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guys, which one is better..


- Dual 512MB ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 – CrossFireX Enabled or 1GB Ddr3 Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTX Graphics?


- Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M Graphics with 512MB DDR3 or 512MB ATI® Mobility Radeon HD 3870?


or which one is at the top among these four GPU?

Thanks!!
 



Yes but my point, and which Maziar knew I'm sure, and wasn't correcting him so much as pointing it out to others, two GF9800GTSs would struggle more. SO people need to focus on the being two GT cards/chips not two GTS cards/chips.

Just making sure people knew the difference, because actually the HD3870 Xfire setup will win more often than not against those 2 GTS, but lose against the 2 GT.
 


Depends on the game/apps/situations.
In general the GF9800M GTX will beat two MHD3870 in Xfire, also especially for laptops multi-GPU solutions are terribly tricky, especially since you won't be able ot download official ATi drivers, patches and fixes as often (ATi doesn't supply them directly, unlike nV) which are the lifeblood of that type of solution.

- Nvidia Quadro FX 2700M Graphics with 512MB DDR3 or 512MB ATI® Mobility Radeon HD 3870?

HD3870 would be better performing in general, once again with back-forth, the FX2700 is essentially a GF9700M.
 

prince0926

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Depends on the game/apps/situations.
In general the GF9800M GTX will beat two MHD3870 in Xfire, also especially for laptops multi-GPU solutions are terribly tricky, especially since you won't be able ot download official ATi drivers, patches and fixes as often (ATi doesn't supply them directly, unlike nV) which are the lifeblood of that type of solution.

Thanks for the information. So technically GF 9800M GTX is good in mobile GPU since theres available fix like software downloads.

BTW, will it works on high specs of game like assassins creed, crysis, devil may cry 4, nfs without lag you think?

I have tried nvidia quadro but it is a power hog GPU right?
 
The GF980M GTX is currently the best mobile graphics card available (but the high-end HD4K are coming soon [launching/previewing at CES]), and that nV is providing their mobility drivers directly from their site that's a HUGE advantage IMO over ATi if you don't want the hassle of having to mod drivers for your laptop which I hate having to do for my Vista (& W7) Partitions.
 

L1qu1d

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^AGreed I have a toshiba, and it was pain. I called them and bitched that I paid over 1500$ for a laptop thats meant for gaming and no driver updates:p. Now I get slight frames increases with the Nvidia drivers over the old ones:D

Too bad that there are no Windows 7 drivers for my laptop yet:p Windows 7 looks soo plain haha
 
Yeah for me it's about stability and the ability to use all the features.

If it were up to either ATi or Fujitsu, I'd still be stuck with a laptop with 1080i macro-blocking and black screen issues (and my bedroom TV is a 30" 1080i CRT) and the st00pid lack of full-screen flash suppot (no full screen YouTube! [:thegreatgrapeape:5] ).

I can't believe that ATi still thinks people buying gaming or multimedia laptops would be happy without essentially driver updates !! At least finally nV got it after years of being equally ignorant and arrogant about it. They both used to say 'too bad, go moan at your laptop vendor', which is ridiculous I bought it for X CPU and Y graphics chip more than Z paint job and Logo!
 

OmegaStalker

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lol ive always stayed away from laptops (expect my brothers alienware i accidently broke a year ago and blamed the cat =P...) desktop all the way