Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 107591 2010-02-23 01:40:00 New Laptop Recommendations BeShakey (15626) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
860786 2010-02-23 01:40:00 I'm looking at getting a new laptop. I want one that will be capable of playing games, not necessarily at max settings, but something that will be able to handle mid-settings for the next few years. I'm looking at spending no more than $2500. At the moment pretty much everything seems to have the Nvidia 230M. Does anyone have any experience with this card? Alternatively does anyone have any recommendations for a laptop with a better card within this price range? BeShakey (15626)
860787 2010-02-23 06:28:00 Asus N61JQ i7-720QM 1.6GHz 500GB 4GB 16" Windows 7 Professional
Price per Unit (piece): $2,574.00 inc GST

16" Frameless Colourshine LED Full HD(1080p), Intel Quad Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz, turbo up to 2.8GHz, 6MB L8 Cashe),
2*2GB DDR3 1066 RAM, 500GB/5400RPM HDD, ATI HD5730M 1GMB DDR3 VRAM, Windows 7 Professional 64 bit,
DVD-SMD, 802.11b/g/n, 10/100/1000LAN, 1.3MP Webcam, 65W Adaptor, 6cell 5600mAh,
Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, HDMI, ESATA, Express Gate+
pctek (84)
860788 2010-02-23 06:30:00 Asus N61JQ i7-720QM 1.6GHz 500GB 4GB 16" Windows 7 Professional
Price per Unit (piece): $2,574.00 inc GST

16" Frameless Colourshine LED Full HD(1080p), Intel Quad Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz, turbo up to 2.8GHz, 6MB L8 Cashe),
2*2GB DDR3 1066 RAM, 500GB/5400RPM HDD, ATI HD5730M 1GMB DDR3 VRAM, Windows 7 Professional 64 bit,
DVD-SMD, 802.11b/g/n, 10/100/1000LAN, 1.3MP Webcam, 65W Adaptor, 6cell 5600mAh,
Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, HDMI, ESATA, Express Gate+

I just brought one of these and very happy with it.
You could do a lot worse.
DeSade (984)
860789 2010-02-23 07:36:00 PCTek's one looks perfect, you can get so much power for so little these days... Blam (54)
860790 2010-02-23 08:41:00 Thanks. How would this card compare with the GT330M and the GTX260M? I've had a look around and can only find some pretty limited info. BeShakey (15626)
860791 2010-02-23 08:43:00 I don't know a heap about ATI but I have installed Dragon Age and Mass Effect2 on the laptop and it has no issues with either. DeSade (984)
860792 2010-02-23 09:03:00 Thanks. How would this card compare with the GT330M and the GTX260M? I've had a look around and can only find some pretty limited info.

From the Nvidia website.
GT 330M
www.nvidia.com

GPU Engine Specs:
CUDA Cores 48
Gigaflops 182
Processor Clock (MHz) Up to 1265 MHz

Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz) Up to 1066 (DDR3), Up to 800 (GDDR3)
Memory Interface Width 128-bit

GTX 260M
www.nvidia.com

GPU Engine Specs:
CUDA Cores 112
Gigaflops 462
Processor Clock (MHz) 1375 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) 31
Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz) Up to 950
Standard Memory Config 1 GB GDDR3
Memory Interface Width 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 61
MXM Type MXM 3.0 Type-B
The GTX 260M does seem to be a lot more powerful than the GT 330M, hence the X I guess.

Edit: Woops forgot you were comparing the nvidia ones to the HD 5730

From the ATI website
www.amd.com


Speeds & Feeds

* Engine clock speed: 650 MHz
* Processing power (single precision): 520 GigaFLOPS
* Polygon throughput: 650M polygons/sec
* Data fetch rate (32-bit): 52 billion fetches/sec
* Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 13 Gigatexels/sec
* Pixel fill rate: 5.2 Gigapixels/sec
* Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 20.8 Gigasamples/sec
* Memory clock speed: 800 MHz DDR3/GDDR3
* Memory data rate: 3.2 Gbps DDR3/GDDR3
* Memory bandwidth: 25.6 GB/sec
* TDP: 26 Watts


So overall I guess the GTX 260M is the fastest one although it's hard to tell just from the specs. Also more specs at the links, didn't want to make the post too long.

Update:
Found some 3D mark benchmarks
HD 5730
www.notebookcheck.net
GT 330M
www.notebookcheck.net
GTX 260M
www.notebookcheck.net
This also confirms that the GTX 260M is the fastest card as well as the GT 330M beating the HD 5730 as well.
narutophantom (12610)
1