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560m SLI or Single 7970m

smexymage

By smexymage
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smexymage

smexymage

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Hi Guys,

 

Need some advice please. I am buying myself an Alienware laptop and find myself with a decision to make. I was going to purchase an M17x R4 with an AMD 7970M GPU but I can purchase a refurbished M18x for a few hundred pounds cheaper which is configured with 2 560m cards in SLi.

 

I wanted to know if two of these cards in SLi would be better than a single 7970M? The M17x is newer so has the newest ivy Bridge CPU and chipset wheras the older system doesnt. So I was just wondering if anyone had any opinions on what would be the better buy?

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spiralthe

spiralthe

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I'm 99% sure my brother has the one with the 2 graphics cards(one gpu he fried by spilling a drink over the laptop:D).

 

He was running swtor/skyrim on the highest settings with 2 gpus,with 1 card he suffered a fps loss of about 20-30 fps(i think he had about 70 fps in swtor with 2 cards).

 

Will ask him on the phone to be sure as he is on a business trip right now.

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smexymage

smexymage

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I'm 99% sure my brother has the one with the 2 graphics cards(one gpu he fried by spilling a drink over the laptop:D).

 

He was running swtor/skyrim on the highest settings with 2 gpus,with 1 card he suffered a fps loss of about 20-30 fps(i think he had about 70 fps in swtor with 2 cards).

 

Will ask him on the phone to be sure as he is on a business trip right now.

 

Thanks dude, appreciate it.

 

My advice: Don't buy Alienware. They are not what they used to be. You can get a better laptop or desktop for half the price.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to reply but please don't tell me what to buy and not to buy, it is my money and I have decided this is the type of system I want. I have looked at others and this is the one that is drawing me.

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claxdog

claxdog

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I have two alienwares a m17x r2 with dual 4870s and a aurora r4 desktop with dual 7950s the warranty and support you get from alienware is the best on the planet my r4 was a replacement for a 2 year old dell xps m1730 you will not be disappointed.
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Katsuragisama

Katsuragisama

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Thanks dude, appreciate it.

 

 

 

I appreciate you taking the time to reply but please don't tell me what to buy and not to buy, it is my money and I have decided this is the type of system I want. I have looked at others and this is the one that is drawing me.

 

He/she wasnt yelling at you to not buy AlienWare, he was just giving you his advice because of past issues he/she may have had with the company. I have a Sager myself. Like AlienWare, built off the Clevo brand. However, Sager has the same specs like that of an AlienWare, but no where near the cost. Not yelling at you to not buy AlienWare, we both know it's you're money, but that's just my 2 cents.

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morfius

morfius

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Hi Guys,

 

Need some advice please. I am buying myself an Alienware laptop and find myself with a decision to make. I was going to purchase an M17x R4 with an AMD 7970M GPU but I can purchase a refurbished M18x for a few hundred pounds cheaper which is configured with 2 560m cards in SLi.

 

I wanted to know if two of these cards in SLi would be better than a single 7970M? The M17x is newer so has the newest ivy Bridge CPU and chipset wheras the older system doesnt. So I was just wondering if anyone had any opinions on what would be the better buy?

 

7970 all the way.

Single card that could outrun those 560 SLI, lower power and heat consumption (speaking of laptop aren't we), no SLI to stutter from.

Newest CPU (get most powerful you can - MMO rely on CPU) is always better.

 

About Alienware itself I have no idea (those are heavily overpriced in my area) is there issues in m17 or m18 to keep in mind.

But general in current case - take new one.

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mitrikzoltan

mitrikzoltan

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My advice: Don't buy Alienware. They are not what they used to be. You can get a better laptop or desktop for half the price.

 

This. Check out Toshiba Qosmio high end laptops. Way, way cheaper for the same rigs, with awsome Customer and technical Support. Alienware is horrible, with a CS thats lying and cheats you out of your money. And if anything goes wrong you will be without a laptop for long long months.

 

Google their CS.

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Malastare

Malastare

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Okay, I'm not going to push any more than this: The reason why enthusiasts don't like Alienware is due to the high price and the lack of quality hardware to match it. There are alternatives that provide better hardware for a much lower price. Done. That said: It's your money and you should buy a computer that makes you happy.

 

Next: Although loads of people are going to hate me for saying this, most serious system builders advocate using the best single-card solution you can afford whenever possible. You should only switch to multi-card setups when no single-card setup can support your system. Today, that pretty much means that unless you're running multiple monitors, you should stick to a single card. Even then, you can probably run SWTOR on dual monitors with a single, high-end card. For three monitors, you'll definitely want to consider SLI/Crossfire.

 

What's better about single-card setups?

 

  • Easier heat management
  • Better power efficiency
  • Much better driver support
  • Much fewer compatibility problems with games

 

More practically speaking: How many times has a patch to SWTOR introduced issues for users of SLI/Crossfire, while single-card users were unaffected? How many driver updates from nVidia/AMD have introduced issues for SLI/Crossfire users while single-card users were unaffected. I can think of a half dozen off the top of my head. Now, how many times were single-card users affected while SLI/Crossfire users were not? I haven't heard of any.

 

That is the general way of things. Multi-card setups give you some extra capabilities that you don't have with a single card, but you pay for that with an inherently greater chance for stumbling across game and driver bugs. SLI/Crossfire have come a long way in the last five years, but not far enough that it's worth it in cases where you would get perfectly acceptable performance out of a single card.

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Anti_Bodies

Anti_Bodies

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1. single graphics is better because sometimes games won't use all, or take full advantage of multiple cards.

 

2. I understand Alienwares are cool, however I highly recommend looking elsewhere. Alienware is sort of like Apple. Their is a ridiculous and unnecessary premium on the computer, and you can get a better bang for your buck by going through other gaming laptop companies. Just google it, and compare the specs and prices. And you can get gaming latops with backlit multi-color keyboards as well. The gaming laptop I'm using is from Malibal. they have 15 and 17 in models.

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smexymage

smexymage

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He/she wasnt yelling at you to not buy AlienWare, he was just giving you his advice because of past issues he/she may have had with the company. I have a Sager myself. Like AlienWare, built off the Clevo brand. However, Sager has the same specs like that of an AlienWare, but no where near the cost. Not yelling at you to not buy AlienWare, we both know it's you're money, but that's just my 2 cents.

 

My apologies if I was forward then but I was not asking on opinions on Alienware, the main query was unanswered. If you dislike Alienware then that is fine but that is not what I am asking for here.

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smexymage

smexymage

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Okay, I'm not going to push any more than this: The reason why enthusiasts don't like Alienware is due to the high price and the lack of quality hardware to match it. There are alternatives that provide better hardware for a much lower price. Done. That said: It's your money and you should buy a computer that makes you happy.

 

Next: Although loads of people are going to hate me for saying this, most serious system builders advocate using the best single-card solution you can afford whenever possible. You should only switch to multi-card setups when no single-card setup can support your system. Today, that pretty much means that unless you're running multiple monitors, you should stick to a single card. Even then, you can probably run SWTOR on dual monitors with a single, high-end card. For three monitors, you'll definitely want to consider SLI/Crossfire.

 

What's better about single-card setups?

 

  • Easier heat management
  • Better power efficiency
  • Much better driver support
  • Much fewer compatibility problems with games

 

More practically speaking: How many times has a patch to SWTOR introduced issues for users of SLI/Crossfire, while single-card users were unaffected? How many driver updates from nVidia/AMD have introduced issues for SLI/Crossfire users while single-card users were unaffected. I can think of a half dozen off the top of my head. Now, how many times were single-card users affected while SLI/Crossfire users were not? I haven't heard of any.

 

That is the general way of things. Multi-card setups give you some extra capabilities that you don't have with a single card, but you pay for that with an inherently greater chance for stumbling across game and driver bugs. SLI/Crossfire have come a long way in the last five years, but not far enough that it's worth it in cases where you would get perfectly acceptable performance out of a single card.

 

I appreciate this info Malastare, thank you. I dont plan to play on multiple monitors so I think I will stick with a single card. 7970 is the best I can afford atm so will go with that.

 

I understand that Alienware are expensive, I am under no illusions that they are more expensive than other laptops of the same spec but I love the look of them, I think they look amazing. Most other laptops I have seen use the the Clevo chassis type which tbh I don't like. I know that the look of the system itself should not be as important but I cant help how I feel and I simply wouldn't be as happy with another machine of that looks like the Clevo designs.

 

If anyone has any suggestions of makers whose systems look unique and ship to the UK then I will definitely have a look and see if anything else takes my fancy but to date I have not found any(apart from Origin but dont want to pay the import tax for one of them).

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Malastare

Malastare

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I understand that Alienware are expensive, I am under no illusions that they are more expensive than other laptops of the same spec but I love the look of them, I think they look amazing.

 

By all means, you should buy a laptop that you like. While a lot of us think that Alienware is overpriced, that is a value judgement, and it's just as wasteful to spend money on a laptop you don't like (thus increasing the chance that you'll replace it before you would actually need to).

 

The other side of this is just this: Remember that your Alienware laptop is just a Dell laptop and the price you're paying isn't giving you higher quality parts or greater reliability. You're going to want to keep a close eye on the amount of heat generated and how the laptop is handling it. I would strongly recommend installing some heat monitoring apps and watching the behavior over the first few weeks of operation. Also, run some RAM tests and try to some stress testing over long periods of time (12-18 hours) to make sure that you haven't been given crappy RAM or a defective motherboard/power supply. While Alienware is marketed to gamers, the parts in them are not tested to the levels that gamers normally look for. If there is a problem, you want to find it before the warranty period passes.

 

If anyone has any suggestions of makers whose systems look unique and ship to the UK then I will definitely have a look and see if anything else takes my fancy...

 

My wife is quite fond of her ASUS G75. Strong points are the heat management system (strong, but relatively quiet fans that blow out the back, not the side or bottom), a high quality motherboard, and a drastically reduced price tag. She plays SWTOR on it regularly, with high detail, and gets 50-60fps.

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spiralthe

spiralthe

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Just asked my brother,he has m17x r2 with 2 ati 5xxx series cards.

 

Says he played swtor on almost all high settings for graphics except he put grass and trees at 50%.

 

He is very happy with the performance in all games,only problems he had were due to known crossfire issues in some games but even those were not that big of a deal.

 

He recommends you get a laptop cooling pad(make sure the pad's fans blow in the intake vents for the cards,that they are positioned on the pad so they can) as he noticed with his past 3 alienware laptops they do get hot when gaming graphics intensive games.

 

Anyway enjoy your new laptop of choice! ;)

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