Hardware GTX 965M vs GTX 970M?

raystriker

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Worth the price bump? Considering all the specs are same.

Here are the laptops in question-
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7258-clevo-n155rf-eta-jan-29th.html

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8657-clevo-p650re3-p-8677.html

What do you think. I'm not a hardcore gamer, tbh, I've never gamed much in my life except handhelds so yeah, hoping to play some exceptional games I've missed out.

I know the GTX970M offers a 30% improvement but I need a second opinion.
Going to college so I need the base build to be as inexpensive as it can be.
 
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xBleedingSoulx

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Does it need to be a laptop? You can get a desktop with the same specs for around half the price of that. If not, both cards should be able to play every current game on max settings, just the 970 won't be outdated as quickly but even then, the difference is minimal.
 

CuriousTommy

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What do you think. I'm not a hardcore gamer, tbh, I've never gamed much in my life except handhelds so yeah, hoping to play some exceptional games I've missed out.
Does it need to be a laptop? You can get a desktop with the same specs for around half the price of that. If not, both cards should be able to play every current game on max settings, just the 970 won't be outdated as quickly but even then, the difference is minimal.

Or how about this, since raystriker is not a hardcore gamer, why not just get a ultrabook for on the go with thunderbolt 3, and then use thunderbolt 3 with an external GPU when he wants to game. Unless he wants to game on the go?
 

raystriker

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Or how about this, since raystriker is not a hardcore gamer, why not just get a ultrabook for on the go with thunderbolt 3, and then use thunderbolt 3 with an external GPU when he wants to game. Unless he wants to game on the go?
Most ultrabooks have have a sucky ULV processor.
I've always been a hardware fanatic and the reason I became one is because I wanted to game. Since I really didn't have the time/resources then, I couldn't.

I know my shit, but is a 10fps lead really justifiable for 200usd bump?
Also i have to pay a shit load of money for customs to ship it to india
 
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CuriousTommy

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Most ultrabooks have a sucky ULV processor.
But processors are not alway the bottleneck, it is also the GPU. TBH, modern laptop CPUs (I am talking about the high-end ultrabook laptop) seem good enough for gaming.
Also, it really does make a big difference:
(This is with Thunderbolt 2)

Although with the recent announcement on external GPU devices, it seems like the Razer Core is going to cost $499.99. So that probably is not going to work for you, unless you want to invest in the future.
 
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raystriker

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Actually, I decided to go with your idea @CuriousTommy
2 birds, 1 stone.
The Razer Blade Stealth with the Razer Core. Might get a GTX960 for the time being, till i can invest in a better card in the future.

razer_blade_portability_performance.png
 

funnystory

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Does it need to be a laptop? You can get a desktop with the same specs for around half the price of that. If not, both cards should be able to play every current game on max settings, just the 970 won't be outdated as quickly but even then, the difference is minimal.

yes if he wanted a desktop he would have stated so lol.
 

CuriousTommy

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Actually, I decided to go with your idea @CuriousTommy
2 birds, 1 stone.
The Razer Blade Stealth with the Razer Core. Might get a GTX960 for the time being, till I can invest in a better card in the future.

razer_blade_portability_performance.png
Yeah, it would work great with having long battery life for school work and basic gaming on the go while being able to hook up an external GPU and do more "hardcore" gaming. Plus this would increase the lifespan of your laptop (assuming nothing else breaks) since you can just upgrade the GPU.

Also for Nvidia, just be sure to download the 361.75 driver or higher. Also, when you do upgrade from the GTX960 keep an eye out on AMD. They have announced an interesting technology called XConnect. It supposes to give a plug and play feel for AMD GPUs (it could even be expanded to other devices that are not owned by AMD)

On a side note, when you do get this. Tell me how the experience with this device is on Windows. (I actually use Linux, but I am curious to see how well it works on Windows.)
 
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codezer0

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In short, XConnect from what I've researched just means that their driver more natively is able to facilitate external solutions like these, where presently NVIDIA's driver(s) do(es) not.

There is a part of me that would love to see Thunderbolt succeed. But really, even now the best implementation of it is still on the Apple Macintosh side. Unlike on PC motherboards where thunderbolt (if it's even there) is relegated to the chipset's PCI-E lanes, Apple enabled it to use the CPU's allowance of PCI-E lanes, thus consistently enabling better performance and far less latency. But the way the industry has been, and the fact that cables for thunderbolt are stupendously, eye-wateringly expensive ($50 for 3-feet of TB cable? Eff that!), I'm just afraid it's going to be a repeat of Firewire. Even more embarrassing is that unlike USB, Firewire had no problem being consistent in reaching its theoretical speed capabilities entirely because there was a conscious effort in ensuring that firewire controllers didn't suck.
 

CuriousTommy

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There is a part of me that would love to see Thunderbolt succeed. But really, even now the best implementation of it is still on the Apple Macintosh side. Unlike on PC motherboards where thunderbolt (if it's even there) is relegated to the chipset's PCI-E lanes, Apple enabled it to use the CPU's allowance of PCI-E lanes, thus consistently enabling better performance and far less latency.
I actually didn't know that! Do you have an article that talks about that?

But the way the industry has been, and the fact that cables for thunderbolt are stupendously, eye-wateringly expensive ($50 for 3-feet of TB cable? Eff that!), I'm just afraid it's going to be a repeat of Firewire.
Yeah, the cable are sadly going to be expensive; however, I do see hope, or even success, for thunderbolt 3. Unlike thunderbolt 2, manufacturers seem more eager to adopt this. Also, the thunderbolt 3 connector uses USB Type 3 which is widely adopted by many corporations. Plus the whole having an external GPU for your laptop would appeal to a lot of people who need a long lasting laptop on the go, but want to be able to do anything GPU intensive at home. I really don't think it is going to be another FireWire, but we will see I suppose.
 
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raystriker

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I wonder if it makes more sense to buy a cheaper ultrabook with the same specs and thunderbolt 3 support too? Since Razer have said that the Core has no restrictions etc
 

WiiUBricker

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I wonder if it makes more sense to buy a cheaper ultrabook with the same specs and thunderbolt 3 support too? Since Razer have said that the Core has no restrictions etc
Your CPU must be top-notch to fully squeeze the performance of the GPU, else the CPU would be a bottleneck. Ultrabooks have weak U-CPUs. That's the reason why the Alienware 13 sucks,even though it has an i5 non-U CPU. You need an i7 non-U CPU like the popular i7-6700HQ. But then again, if you go for such CPU, you might as well get a laptop with a good GPU as well.
 

codezer0

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I actually didn't know that! Do you have an article that talks about that?
Trying to find it, but at present my Google-Fu is terrible for digging up old news reports on the subject. It was something I recall reading about as far back as original Thunderbolt, and around the time where we first started seeing Thunderbolt being available as an option on (Windows) PC motherboards. Of course, back then, intel was pretty much requiring some kind of iGPU to be able to have Thunderbolt at all, which killed it from being available on any HEDT (X79/X99) platforms, and as a side effect, from being available on any AMD based platforms at all.

Annoyingly, it seems either AMD is not allowed to have Thunderbolt at all, or no motherboard manufacturer is giving the time of day to have a Thunderbolt-enabled AMD system. Even with the advent of AMD itself already making the software available and ready to support such a solution, well ahead of intel (and NVIDIA for that matter).

Yeah, the cable are sadly going to be expensive; however, I do see hope, or even success, for thunderbolt 3. Unlike thunderbolt 2, manufacturers seem more eager to adopt this. Also, the thunderbolt 3 connector uses USB Type 3 which is be widely adopted by many corporations. Plus the whole having an external GPU for your laptop would appeal to a lot of people who need a long lasting laptop on the go, but want to be able to do anything GPU intensive at home. I really don't think it is going to be another FireWire, but we will see I suppose.
Considering the current generation Mac Pro has pretty much all of its expandability based on Thunderbolt 2/3, the only one I really see putting support for it out there in any significant volume, is Apple, just like how it seemed like you could only ever find FireWire products geared toward Apple, even when there were plenty of viable windows based solutions and applications for it.
 

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970M embarrasses the 96*M fully. It is an order of magnitude better both in framerates but in just flat out fluidity.
Are you having in consideration the fact that the GTX 965M is the 2016 version!?

PS: Of Course the GTX 970M is still better, but value for money the GTX 965M (2016) is better, and can run most of the games at 1080P 60 FPS on ultra settings, the most demanding ones still manage to have high settings...!
 
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codezer0

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I would still say you should shoot for a 980M at least... but if it has to be between the two, the 970 is considerably less neutered than the 960M. On Tom's Hardware and Anandtech, review units showed the 970M was still more than 20fps on average faster than the 965M at the same settings, and higher settings increased the gulf even more, especially if the display connected is better than 1080p.
 

raystriker

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Is outdated...

All the reviews on the web are meant to the gtx 965m 2015 edition...!

I know because i have a laptop with the gtx 965m (2016) the gap is much smaller With the gtx 970m.
Exactly!
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-965M-2016-Refresh-N16E-GR-Review.158192.0.html

The 2016 refresh of the GTX965M is almost a 15% improvement over the 2015 version.
In our opinion, the new GeForce GTX 965M could have definitely been called GTX 965M Ti as had been originally envisaged.
 
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