Mobile performance

Antowns · 9 Nov 2012 at 16:16

Hi all,

Now I've been a fan of Apple laptops for a long time, I've got two 17 inch 2010 Macbook Pros and I've loved them. I'd like to treat myself to a new laptop next year but looking at how expensive and proprietary the Apple laptops are getting I'm looking to get something else.

I've been looking at these 'gaming laptops', how well do they perform? I'd like to get one that plays games like Battlefield 3, Company of Heroes and a few other RTS games.

I've seen some around here with ATI 7970M in them, how do they compare to their desktop counterparts?

Ant

MasterPlan1 · 9 Nov 2012 at 16:23

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html - is your best bet for working these kinda things out, I have a GTX 660M in my uber laptop and I don't notice any gain\loss from my 5850, it might even perform slightly better, I'm not a benchmark junkie - I just go by eye.

Antowns · 9 Nov 2012 at 17:32

I don't fully understand those benchmarks which is a shame, It would be nice to see these tested on games and the FPS reported back, though I suppose there's a lot more to consider such as the CPU within the laptop.

random_matt · 10 Nov 2012 at 13:19

7970m is a 7870 almost, the clocks are slightly lower. Therefore, check out 7850 and 7870 benchmarks and average them out to give you a picture. Alternatively check out the 7970m benches at http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970M.72675.0.html
It will do high/max settings on every game at 1080p

Buy the GX60 if you want to save some money, it is what I have and love my purchase.

Antowns · 15 Nov 2012 at 12:48

random_matt said:
7970m is a 7870 almost, the clocks are slightly lower. Therefore, check out 7850 and 7870 benchmarks and average them out to give you a picture. Alternatively check out the 7970m benches at http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970M.72675.0.html
It will do high/max settings on every game at 1080p

Buy the GX60 if you want to save some money, it is what I have and love my purchase.

Cool! How does this perform in games like Battlefield 3 on your system, I'd definitely look to getting one.

iv-tecman · 15 Nov 2012 at 14:08

To be honest I've used both AMD 5650M and 6990M and both of these GPU's have done well for what they are but neither have been able to handle Witcher 2 or Metro 2033 all that well...

I've just got myself a AMD 7970M based M17x r4 and just going on benchmarks alone you can clearly see the gap between high /top end desktop to top end laptop has got so much closer, its quite amazing a Laptop MXM style GPU can pack as much punch as the full size desktop counterparts...

Taking the 7970M is almost a Desktop 7870 and when you compare the power draw and size between these two, AMD have done a cracking job with the 7970M as long as you apply the now released enduro hotfixes..

Very impressive and yes buy something with a 7970M and you'll be getting good performance for gaming.

random_matt · 16 Nov 2012 at 18:31

Antowns said:
Cool! How does this perform in games like Battlefield 3 on your system, I'd definitely look to getting one.

I only play rpg's, kitguru have a review on the laptop.