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Worth upgrading to 980M from 680M?


menko2

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Hi.

I'm looking into this card for my P170EM. It's 800€ for the card so it's something to consider. My cpu is the 3740QM and I hope it will give enouth juice for the 980m. Te rest of specs is SSD SAMSUNG 840 PRO, 16GB RAM, WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM, GTX 680M OVERCLOCKED 925MH CORE.

Should I wait a bit and buy a whole new system when Windows 10 (directx 12) and new SSD Nvme 2.M arrive or it worth to upgrade?

Thank you

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Hi menko2,

if you wanna compare them i would recommend the website:

PassMark Software - Video Card (GPU) Benchmark Charts

And there you can see:

GTX 680m (3449)

PassMark - GeForce GTX 680M - Price performance comparison

GTX 980m (6573)

PassMark - GeForce GTX 980M - Price performance comparison

The GTX 980 is almost twice as good.

The system is a good one! High-End CPU, enough RAM and a good SSD.

HeAdHuNtErGER

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Thank you for the links.

Yeah definitely the 980m is much better. I just cannot find a direct comparison cause the 680m is a few generations behind.

It's 800€ care but might worth as laptops with the 980m are around 2000€.

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I've found the best direct comparison would be to look at the benchmarks here:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

and

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

Just compare the way games perform on each card and you'll get a rough idea of how much more powerful one card is over the other. It's what I did when I compared my 670M to my new 870M and found it gives roughly twice the FPS in all games.

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Thank you so much.

It's hard to decide when the 970m cost much less...but what an amazing card the 980M. I'm impressed.

Last two questions :

1) Do you know if my cpu 3740QM will be enouth for the 980M?

2) Can I overclock with the power adaptor that comes with the P170EM?

3) Should I get a 1080p monitor or a 2K/4K with Gsync for the 980M? Native resolution is always best and maybe 2K/4K is too much for the 980m.

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The price to performace between the 970 and 980 is not too much of a difference to justify the money required to buy the 980 as it does cost quite a bit more, if you were to buy a 980 I'd recommend the 970 but back to answering your question.

Yes, it is worth the upgrade. BUT that comes at other factors as well. What is your monitor setup? 4k = upgrade, 1080P = Dont, or do. This depends alot on other factors such as 1. Is the performance enough for you right now? 2. Are you able to maz out the settings that you have? 3. Earlier said, What monitor setup do you have? 4. What games do you plan on playing?

These factors are somewhat vague and you can talk alot about other things as well but this is a good start

There is quite a big difference between the 680 and 980 so if I were to give advice to a friend it would be sure, upgrade if you have they budget.

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Im going to buy a monitor for the laptop. The laptop is 1080p but with the new graphic card i want to get a good one 1080p ir 2K or 4K with Gsync.

Recomend me one please if u can.

I play all diferent kind of games buy specially RPG like Dragon Age, Skyrim modded...etc.

I rather just put the settings to the max and not having to cut settings as i have to now.

Not easy to buy the 980m in europe. Only found one store in EBay...

Any help with this?

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Thank you so much.

It's hard to decide when the 970m cost much less...but what an amazing card the 980M. I'm impressed.

Last two questions :

1) Do you know if my cpu 3740QM will be enouth for the 980M?

2) Can I overclock with the power adaptor that comes with the P170EM?

3) Should I get a 1080p monitor or a 2K/4K with Gsync for the 980M? Native resolution is always best and maybe 2K/4K is too much for the 980m.

I've got a P370EM with the same processor and a 980M installed running a stock 300 watt power brick. Not had any problems with over clocking processor and GFX.

Not sure if you can run a Gsync monitor with Clevo's.

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Hi,

I bought my 970m from EUROCOM: they've got full upgrade kits, Vbios already flashed (normally from Prema) and you can pay taxes at the time of purchase; cards received within 5days (location France). In Europe, you also have CEG: i'm waiting a P150em case from them so i will tell you if they are serious sellers.

For your 3740m, if it's not already done, grab the bios mod from Prema and flash: do a nice overclock and your CPU will definitly not be a problem. P170em cases have a 230W power brick, if i'm not mistaking, so you should be able to overclock your system (as P150sm are coming with only 180W)

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Will I have enouth with the PSU I have with 220W for the 3740QM and GTX 980M?

The mobile GPUs still dont support Adaptive Sync? I wanted to buy a GSYNC monitor.

You may get away 220w - only way to tell is to try. Every machine acts differently (esp when overclocking). Other wise just get a 300/330w supply.

As for Gsync on Clevo, we don't know (props not).

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Thank you.

I just went to EUROCOM website and when I'm in the Payment I can't find the proper way to pay the taxes (europe comes like at 0% taxes...like TAX free).

Which option should I mark to pay the taxes in the website and how much was your total price for the card, taxes and shipment?

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Glad to see you have found one.

Regarding the monitor, i never play with external screen: so i will honestly be no help for you. I've just found a little comparison here, it seems that 980m can handle 4k gaming if you don't max the settings.

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Thank you. It wasn't easy to find it in Europe and also they are expensive (it will last me like the 680M wich is good).

I'm going for a 1440P monitor as 4K won't last long with the 980m.

I'm looking for a good monitor with that resolution.

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menko2, did you buy a new Notebook or do the upgrade?

I'm from across the pond so not familiar with some of the brands you listed.

If you did upgrade the 680M to the 980M, you will find it does use a bit more power (about 24 watts idle and 57 watts under load more) than the 680M. But it's performance is almost 88% faster than the 680M. The 900 series are throttled down heavily, so expect some heat if some games are demanding. Consider a cooling pad if so.

The CPU from your system 3740QM @ 2.70GHz is actually faster than the 4710HQ. The forth generation offers greater performance on the integrated video for Notebooks and higher clocks for the Desktop version.

You should be able to buy a bigger power block for your Notebook. It's no different than upgrading a desktop power supply so you can add greater hardware. Just make sure the mobo (Motherboard) can handle the power requirements.

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menko2, did you buy a new Notebook or do the upgrade?

I'm from across the pond so not familiar with some of the brands you listed.

If you did upgrade the 680M to the 980M, you will find it does use a bit more power (about 24 watts idle and 57 watts under load more) than the 680M. But it's performance is almost 88% faster than the 680M. The 900 series are throttled down heavily, so expect some heat if some games are demanding. Consider a cooling pad if so.

The CPU from your system 3740QM @ 2.70GHz is actually faster than the 4710HQ. The forth generation offers greater performance on the integrated video for Notebooks and higher clocks for the Desktop version.

You should be able to buy a bigger power block for your Notebook. It's no different than upgrading a desktop power supply so you can add greater hardware. Just make sure the mobo (Motherboard) can handle the power requirements.

Not sure how you came by those numbers. I've been running a 980m in a P370EM with no issues on a 220 watt psu. Have done a bit of testing today with the 680m and the 980m installed with the power supply connected to a load meter. And with the 980m card idle it uses about the as the 680m, much the same story at 100% load the 980m uses about the as the 680m. Even running the 3rd gen i7 and the 980m at 100% load the wattage was on 2 watts more than 680m. The system never hit any more than 170 watts (in total) running either the 980m or 680m.

Update: Just run the total load test again this time with 980m in SLI on a 330 watt psu, total wattage at 100% cpu/gpus was 248 watts. And 680m in SLi was 247 watts.

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Sounds good then.

I have the card here in the box, but I can't install it as I'm waiting for the thermal pads...

I should do it tomorrow.

Do you guys out thermal pads in the back of the PCS for the Vram? In stock they don't use pads for that area.

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That's some critical info re: wattage, thanks!

So without overclocking it looks like 980m is no problem and if you're using 680m (like me) then it's very similar in usage. My eventual setup will be 3920xm and 980m. Should just about scrap by with the 180watt power-supply. Clevo should make a better 240watt minimum power-supply for p150em. I'm not liking the cable-ends swapping method. Has anyone found a source for these for modding power supply?

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That's some critical info re: wattage, thanks!

So without overclocking it looks like 980m is no problem and if you're using 680m (like me) then it's very similar in usage. My eventual setup will be 3920xm and 980m. Should just about scrap by with the 180watt power-supply. Clevo should make a better 240watt minimum power-supply for p150em. I'm not liking the cable-ends swapping method. Has anyone found a source for these for modding power supply?

The tests i did are over the top, after all your not going to be running your system cpu/gpu's at 100% load all the time.

Under normal usage you should be fine on a 180watt.

The 3920xm will use a bit more (rated at 55watt) which maybe just a bit to much for the 180 watt (remember things like 180/200/240/300 watt psu's are rated on peak output, meaning they should only be run at 180/200/240 etc watts for a short very period of time. Prolonged use at max output will kill them).

So when you upgrade your cpu and gfx, do think about getting a better psu esp if your going overclock either of them.

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