New laptop, a few questions
By
Call Me Awesome,
Posted on: 2011-03-01 24:14 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
The i7-970 is also a hex core. Six cores/12 threads, that's the reason for the extra cache. Since you also plan to use it with video editing then there may be a good reason to get those extra cores.
Wait, you said laptop. A laptop with desktop CPUs? Okay, more of a portable computer than one you would run off of batteries for more than an hour at most. Life would be so much easier with portable ARC reactors but I digress.
Yes the 485m does indeed look awesome. Performance similar to a desktop GTX 460 768MB. Can't really get much better in a laptop without going SLi or Crossfire solution.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
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Quote:
Yeah, my current editing laptop has a battery life of about 90 minutes; I'd expect roughly the same out of a new one in that category. For pure personal use I've an Alienware MX11 that's good for about 6 hours on battery... it's adequate for CoH but the 11" screen is a little tough to game on.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
The i7-970 is also a hex core. Six cores/12 threads, that's the reason for the extra cache. Since you also plan to use it with video editing then there may be a good reason to get those extra cores.
Wait, you said laptop. A laptop with desktop CPUs? Okay, more of a portable computer than one you would run off of batteries for more than an hour at most. Life would be so much easier with portable ARC reactors but I digress. Yes the 485m does indeed look awesome. Performance similar to a desktop GTX 460 768MB. Can't really get much better in a laptop without going SLi or Crossfire solution. |
The thing will be heavy, I fully anticipate it weighing in around 18 lbs including the 5 lb power supply like my old machine does. Since I need a portable machine to do light video editing on the road that means something pretty potent... unfortunately that also translates into "heavy". My alternative is to build a rackmount desktop with a fold out monitor and KB... yeah it would be cheaper but it'll also be much larger and heavier.
It sounds like I'll be having to make the choice on the vid card... as a comparison the 7950GTX in my current laptop can handle the display tasks in Premiere; obviously the 460m is faster but is the 485 enough faster than the base 460GTXm to justify almost a $500 premium? I can't really justify it strictly for CoH; it's a business machine I'll be using occasionally to game with on the road.
My current laptop has a dual core Intel CPU, a generation prior to the Core2Duo running around 2.4GHz (don't have the machine in front of me) and it can handle editing but it's really slow in rendering effects and encoding DVD's. At the time I bought it it was top of the line; I've dumped 4GB of RAM, a SSD and Win7 64 into it.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
Quote:
Performance delta is around 20% to 40% depending on the game according to notebookcheck.net|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
It sounds like I'll be having to make the choice on the vid card... as a comparison the 7950GTX in my current laptop can handle the display tasks in Premiere; obviously the 460m is faster but is the 485 enough faster than the base 460GTXm to justify almost a $500 premium? I can't really justify it strictly for CoH; it's a business machine I'll be using occasionally to game with on the road.
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http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.42883.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.33612.0.html
EDIT: 60% with 3dmark 11
Well, it finally seems to be time to think about retiring my old video editing laptop (that I also play COH on), I just lost the wireless card in it and other things are getting a bit unstable not to mention it's approaching 3 years old. I have some thoughts on replacements but I'm unsure about a few options. The last laptop gave good service until one of my um, less than dexterous crew dropped it (AGAIN) and killed the wireless card and severely cracked the case. The thing survived 3 years of being tossed around and rough handling, not to mention the tender ministrations of the Airline industry until it took one too many tumbles. I've been impressed with the durability of the Sager units.
On the replacement front I'm inclined to stick with something similar but obviously up to date technology.
First, looking at vid cards I seem to have a choice of a 460GTX or a 485GTX for <whew> $500 more. As the primary application for the machine is video work using Adobe Premiere CS4 and Photoshop CS4 is there any benefit to the 485 over the 460? Since I can get acceptable performance in CoH out of my old laptop with a 7950GTX (albeit at 1650x1080... the new laptop is 1920x1080) I'm not as worried on that aspect. It offers the option of dual cards in SLI but I'm leaning away from that.
Second, the CPU. I have a choice of:
Intel® Core i7-960 Processor (3.2GHz) 8MB L3 Cache standard
Intel® Core i7-970 Processor (3.2GHz) 12MB L3 Cache add $330.00
Intel® Core i7-990X Processor Extreme Edition (3.46~3.73GHz) 12MB Intel® Smart Cache - 6 Cores-12 Threads add $790.00
I'm leaning toward the 970 for the greater L3; is there any reason to consider the 990 at that price premium? The extra cores are attractive for the machine's "real job" of video editing but is it enough to justify the expense?
Thirdly, is the Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 Wireless Card worth getting over a basic a/g/n card? It's only a $35 upgrade but I've no clue what it offers over the standard card.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed, I'm probably going to be replacing the old machine in the next month or so... I'm hoping to limp it along until after our next event. Obviously I'm not extremely budget limited but I don't want to throw money away either. Both the new unit I'm looking at and my old one have 3 internal HD bays and I'm moving my SSD and 750GB drive from the older one into the new one.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes