GeForce GTX 460M SLI: Mobile Gaming Value From AVADirect?
Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 480M may hold the mobile performance crown, but GF100 is certainly not the most practical solution when it comes to power and heat. Today we see how its newer, smaller sibling stands up to the same tasks, aided by SLI support.
A Little More “Less Is More”
Power and heat have long been the biggest obstacles to achieving smoking-fast performance on a portable device, as the larger enclosures needed to support high-performance hardware often leaves them less than mobile. It’s no small wonder that we had big concerns when Nvidia re-purposed its power-hungry GF100 GPU as a notebook component.
The fastest “portable” GPU ever produced, the GeForce GTX 480M was already beaten by a CrossFire'd pair of Mobility Radeon HD 5870 modules when it was launched. Most extra-large notebooks couldn’t support an SLI'd pair of GeForce GTX 480M modules, and the one notebook that does support these still has some power problems in such a demanding configuration. Price was another barrier for many customers, since big pieces of silicon cost big money.
A bit of additional refinement on its desktop 400-series allowed Nvidia to re-evaluate its portfolio in an effort to find a new, more energy-efficient Radeon HD 5870-killer.
That new product, the GeForce GTX 460M, should fit into the majority of chassis that formerly hosted such big-ticket parts as its competitor’s flagship, as well as its previous mobile performance star, the GTX 285M, in dual-GPU configurations.
Before we go into the new GPU’s specifics, let’s take a quick look at the system we received to host Nvidia’s latest SLI-capable modules.
AVADirect X7200 Component List | |
---|---|
Platform | Intel LGA 1366, X58 Express/ICH10R, MXM-III Discrete Graphics |
CPU | Intel Core i7-950 (Bloomfield), Four Cores, 3.06-3.33 GHz, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache, 45 nm, 130 W |
RAM | Kingston 6 GB (3x 2GB) DDR3-1066 SODIMM, CL7, 1.5 V, Non-ECC |
Graphics | Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M, 675 MHz, 1.5 GB GDDR5-2500, in SLI |
Display | 17.3" Glossy LED Back-lit TFT, 1920x1080 |
Webcam | 3.0 Megapixel |
Audio | Integrated HD Audio |
Security | Built-in Fingerprint Reader |
Storage | |
Hard Drive 1 | Crucial C300 CTFDDAC256MAG 256 GB SSD, MLC, SATA 3Gb/s |
Hard Drive 2 | Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500 GB, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 RPM |
Optical Drive | Lite-On DS-4E1S 4x Blu-ray Reader/8x DVD Writer Combo Drive |
Media Drive | 9-in-1 Flash Media Interface |
Networking | |
Wireless LAN | Intel Ultimate-N 6300, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, 11/54/450 Mb/s |
Wireless PAN | Optional (not installed) |
Gigabit Network | JMicron PCIe 10/100/1000 Mb/s Ethernet |
IEEE-1394 | Texas Instruments PCIe IEEE-1394 (400 Mb/s) |
Telephony | Not Available |
Peripheral Interfaces | |
USB | 3 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0 |
Expansion Card | Not Available |
HDD | 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s |
Audio | Headphone, Microphone, Line-In, Digital Out Jacks |
Video | 1 x Dual-Link DVI-I w/VGA Adapter, 1x HDMI |
Power & Weight | |
AC Adapter | 300 W Power Brick, 100-240 V AC to 15 V DC |
Battery | 14.8 V, 5300 mAh (78.44 Wh) Single |
Weight | Notebook 13.4 lbs, AC Adapter 3.6 lbs, Total 17.0 pounds |
Software | |
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM |
Service | |
Warranty | 1-Year Full (Add $140 for 2-years, $274.40 for 3-years) |
Price | $3,142 |
While the desktop-based CPU in AVADirect’s X7200 build left us with a few questions about which of our previously-tested notebooks might make this a fair comparison, its $3142 price will at least allow a performance-per-dollar analysis.
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silversurfernhs last gaming laptop i'll ever own was the HDX20 8800m series... google it - thats why. It lasted me a few generations - and the wifey uses it now, still games well(for the games she plays anyway).Reply
All these "gaming" laptops are on 17" screens... i'd just as well plug it into an external monitor - which defeats the purpose a bit - might as well have a small fragbox for the price...
I wish some company would rejuvinate the spirit of HP's HDX Dragon line... -
nebun it's so funny that the mid range sli setup destroys the top of the like ati crossfire setup, lol. nvidia for life..Reply -
Maziar Thanks for the article;however,I hoped you compare it with 2 GTX 480Ms as wellReply
BTW,you can find this laptop(with the same config as the review) much cheaper from other sites such as XoticPC.(Starts from $2100)
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7280-custom-laptop-built-the-clevo-x7200-p-2881.html -
jomofro39 True value will hit when the cpus with the integrated graphics come out, hopefully. That is their purpose, right? I hardly find 3,100 or 2,100 dollars a value. Gaming on the go is a privilege, not a need. Value on a privilege needs to be steeper than this.Reply -
Crashman MaziarThanks for the article;however,I hoped you compare it with 2 GTX 480Ms as wellYes, well, the X8100 didn't support two of them due to power issues (most HUGE notebooks won't) and the other X7200 (the one with the 980X installed) had already been sent back.Reply
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theholylancer soo umm i7 950 DESKTOP vs i7 920 XM MOBILE?Reply
did someone forgot to mention that the AMD cards were paired with mobile procs, while 460Ms got the destkop stuff?
It did not made any sense when I saw that crysis high AMD gets slaughtered, and then V High is evenish. Then I looked back and saw that AMD gets a mobile CPU that could have been the bottleneck given the gfx power...