steviejones133 Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hi guys, probably been done to death, this one...but I could do with some info. I am looking for as much info as possible as to which of the above two configurations is the more superior.Ive been on a few reviews etc but cant seem to find a DIRECT comparison of them side by side that is not biased in any way.I have checked the info on notebookcheck for both set ups and whislt NBC have it listed above the 5870's , with a little bit more digging into the setups they used whilst "testing" the both, seems that although the figures show that the sli is better, the rigs used are vastly different and provide incomparable results.5870's [X] HellMachine (HD 5870 Crossfire) Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire (700MHz), 2x 1024MB (1000MHz) GDDR5, 8.753.0.0 (10.10) 4096MB RAM460m's [X] XMG U700 ULTRA Intel Core i7 (Desktop) 950 3.1GHz GeForce GTX 460M SLI (675MHz), 2x 1536MB (625MHz) Shadertakt: 1350 MHz, GDDR5, ForceWare 259.51 12288MB RAMObviously, there is a huge advantage for the 460m's in this test as the rig has a desktop 950 vs a 720qm....and also 12gb Ram vs 4gb Ram.Based on the figures I looked at for Metro 2033 on Ultra, they both come out at 18 to 18.5fps.....So, on that conclusion, seeing as how Metro 2033 is a very cpu dependant title, it seems apparant to me that its an extremely unfair advantage to provide these results using such vastly different cpu's.Im just trying to get it straight - I have 5870's now and IF someone offered me a system with gtx460m Sli, I personally, would consider that to be a backwards step.If anyone can give me some feedback on this, that would be great...any links for additional comparisons greatly appreciated.I wonder how the 460's would compare to the 5870's if they were tested on an identical rig? - anyone??TIA Stevie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted May 8, 2011 Founder Share Posted May 8, 2011 You're not going to have much luck finding a direct apples-to-apples comparison since 460M SLi was not readily available in any system besides the X7200 which uses a desktop processor. The best you can hope for is to compare synthetic GPU scores between the 5870M Xfire and 460M SLi and try to draw a conclusion. But overall, based on single 460M vs single 5870M benchmarks, one can extrapolate the data and assume they are nearly equal with both trading blows in games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Hey, welcome at T|I Stevie! Nice to see you here. It's going to be hard finding good numbers... just as Brian said. I did some googling and wasn't successful... I'd just go ahead and try to convince the rep politely that 460m SLI is beneath the 5870cf and get a 6970m in your M18x Don't worry to much, I think some single GPU numbers will convince the rep as well. Some people even say that CF scales better than SLI (I heard this a lot in 485m/6970m discussions...). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviejones133 Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 Cheers guys.Yeah, finding apples to apples was proving impossible for mobile versions of the cards. I think I will just have to go along the lines of single card comparisons and maybe use the notebookcheck crappy info that shows the two providing fairly similar results but one with a f-ing desktop cpu and masses more ram.Who knows, I may not even get the offer of one....knowing my luck, they will offer me a Dell Streak..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted May 8, 2011 Founder Share Posted May 8, 2011 lol they might offer you an outlet R2, be careful! More than likely if they offer a different system, it will be the M17x-R3, for some reason they don't readily offer M18x because it's considered a separate line of AW (M18x vs M17x). One of our mods here successfully convinced them to do it but he had a huge sum of money invested in the system (around $5000+). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviejones133 Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 (edited) lol they might offer you an outlet R2, be careful! More than likely if they offer a different system, it will be the M17x-R3, for some reason they don't readily offer M18x because it's considered a separate line of AW (M18x vs M17x). One of our mods here successfully convinced them to do it but he had a huge sum of money invested in the system (around $5000+).Dunno how they can compare an R3 to an R2....its nowhere close being a single gpu setup...plastic fantastic to boot. Does a single 6970m considerably wail on the 5870xf? - I dont think so! - My impression about replacements was like for like....in each area. If not possible, then the next best thing, but not a downgrade...which is exaclty what going from a dual gpu rig to a single gpu rig would be if im not mistaken?Also, wether i was offered an R3 or M18x, I would be losing out on the rgbled I currently have....surely to god that should count for something!Heck, my system at time of purchase was £3500gbp retail....thats over $5k........ Edited May 8, 2011 by steviejones133 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted May 9, 2011 Founder Share Posted May 9, 2011 Dunno how they can compare an R3 to an R2....its nowhere close being a single gpu setup...plastic fantastic to boot. Does a single 6970m considerably wail on the 5870xf? - I dont think so! - My impression about replacements was like for like....in each area. If not possible, then the next best thing, but not a downgrade...which is exaclty what going from a dual gpu rig to a single gpu rig would be if im not mistaken?Also, wether i was offered an R3 or M18x, I would be losing out on the rgbled I currently have....surely to god that should count for something!Heck, my system at time of purchase was £3500gbp retail....thats over $5k........Logically one would assume that a dual card system should be replaced with a similar dual card one. However, the way Dell handles it is convoluted: If you have a model that is discontinued (e.g. M15x) they have the option of giving you an M17x as a replacement as a step up. If you have an M17x-R2, they have the M17x-R3 as the newer revision even though the system is obviously NOT the real successor to R2. The M18x is considered a separate more premium model and you have to fight tooth and nail with Dell to convince them to give you that option. It can be done so fight them on it until you get your way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviejones133 Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Logically one would assume that a dual card system should be replaced with a similar dual card one. However, the way Dell handles it is convoluted: If you have a model that is discontinued (e.g. M15x) they have the option of giving you an M17x as a replacement as a step up. If you have an M17x-R2, they have the M17x-R3 as the newer revision even though the system is obviously NOT the real successor to R2. The M18x is considered a separate more premium model and you have to fight tooth and nail with Dell to convince them to give you that option. It can be done so fight them on it until you get your way.Oh I will fight with Dell, thats for sure. Done enough of that already LOL, seasoned pro here!There is no way on earth that Im gonna accept an R3 for my "vastly more powerful" R2 .... its easy to see that c/f 5870 beats a single 460m or 6970m quite handsomely....obvioulsy, due to the "makeup" of the R3, it cant have another card "added" to make it more powerful (not that I know of anyway) so that really only leaves the option of another R2 or an M18x.We will see how it goes.....will keep you posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted May 9, 2011 Founder Share Posted May 9, 2011 Keep in mind stevie that from my own tests, the single 6970M comes quite close to matching the 5870M xfire setup in games. In benchmarks it gets snuffed but actual games show maybe a 10-15% margin in 5870m xfire's favor. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Yes tooth and nail, you will be on the phone for hours with everyone telling you the same thing... that the R3 is better than the R2... but it can be argued that the maxed out setup up of R2 is not equivalent of a single gpu R3. You will rip out your hair and profess your deep hatred towards the lack of knowledgeable reps telling you the same nonsense over but after a couple hours they are going to want to get rid of you. You may even be hung up on in which case they'll say you must have just lose the connection... its a battle... good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichime Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 At one point, I wanted to try two GTX 460Ms in the R2 to see how well SLi would scale on it. I had two 460Ms in my possession (bought from Eurocom) but the idiots at Dell kept sending me the wrong Sli cable (I needed the SLi cable from an R1 or an R2). I even lied to them and told them that I had an R1 instead of an R2 and they kept sending me desktop SLi bridges.I did test a single GTX 460M in my system and compared it to when I ran a single 5870 on the same system. In most of the games I had, the 5870M was significantly faster but the 460M ran much cooler; it didn't even reach 80 degrees despite the fan control not working. I could only speculate how two GTX 460Ms in SLi in a R2 would have compared to 5870s in CF (boy I really wanted to do this), but considering how improved Crossfire scaling is getting with the latest drivers, you'd probably see a similar margin as a single GPU setup. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 nice insight on that Ichime! It's a shame dell does that stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetFound Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Keep in mind stevie that from my own tests, the single 6970M comes quite close to matching the 5870M xfire setup in games. In benchmarks it gets snuffed but actual games show maybe a 10-15% margin in 5870m xfire's favor.Are you comparing the same procs in these gaming comparisons? Because we know sandy gives a huge advantage. I could go to a 2870qm and 4870m's and probably see a performance improvement (or at least hold steady) because of the proc boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 Very true GetFound. The latest avx instructions and other various chipset improvement lend a hand at improving performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefule Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) At one point, I wanted to try two GTX 460Ms in the R2 to see how well SLi would scale on it. I had two 460Ms in my possession (bought from Eurocom) but the idiots at Dell kept sending me the wrong Sli cable (I needed the SLi cable from an R1 or an R2). I even lied to them and told them that I had an R1 instead of an R2 and they kept sending me desktop SLi bridges.I did test a single GTX 460M in my system and compared it to when I ran a single 5870 on the same system. In most of the games I had, the 5870M was significantly faster but the 460M ran much cooler; it didn't even reach 80 degrees despite the fan control not working. I could only speculate how two GTX 460Ms in SLi in a R2 would have compared to 5870s in CF (boy I really wanted to do this), but considering how improved Crossfire scaling is getting with the latest drivers, you'd probably see a similar margin as a single GPU setup. It's too bad I didn't read or see your posts back then. I would have lent you my SLi Cable from my R1. If you ever need it again please feel free to ask me. I also have quite a few other PC parts just laying around not doing much lol. So lazy to sell them. Cheers. Alienware M17x R1, Nebula Red Base, Intel Quad Core Q9000, 8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz ram, GTX 260m SLi. Alienware M17x R2, Nebula Red Base, Intel Core i7 840QM, 8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz ram, Crossfire Dual 5870s Alienware M17x R2, Nebula Red Base, Intel Core i7 920XM, 8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz ram, Crossfire Dual 5870s http://www.rage3d.com/cap/ Edited May 22, 2011 by chiefule 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I know what you mean, I've got boxes of old bits EVERYWHERE. Anyone want half a tube of ten year old thermal grease? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlashX Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Or on that note, anybody want anybody want two GTX 460M and a 940XM for peanuts to test in that R1/R2? Sorry for going off-topic...but I couldn't resist it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 If I had my R2 I would of jumped on that. I loved my 920XM... they are almost the same overclocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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