*HP dv6t & dv7t (70XX / 71XX series) IVY BRIDGE Owners Lounge*

[SInC]

I don't mean to downplay anyone's decisions. $50 is certainly minor, and an extra GB of vRAM is nice to have and can be helpful in some situations.
However, I do want to clear up this misconception that there will be a significant difference in gaming:

The dv6 isn't offered with anything higher than 1080p. A lot of people like to hook their computers up to higher resolution screens. If you're getting 40 playable fps on bf3 with this card at 1gb you will be unable to play on any resolution higher than 1080p. Why don't you people see this as being worth 50$? I for one got the 2gb card as I will be hooking my shiny new dv6 up to my big screen, enjoy gaming on your native display forever.

The benchmarks make it very clear that most video games, including BF3 on high @2560x1600, do not benefit from an extra gigabyte. This means that BF3, high resolution textures and all, does not use more than 1GB of vRAM. Yes, there are video games at certain settings that use more than 1gb (most notably triple monitor setups or high MSAA settings), but those games at those particularly high settings are far too GPU-intensive for the GT 650M to handle. BF3 on high @1080p is already borderline unplayable on the GT 650M, and given the 2560x1600 benchmarks, it's obvious that BF3 won't be pushing vRAM usage beyond 1gb. At playable settings for the GT 650M, no existing game will use above 1gb of vRAM.

You're right, but looking at most of the graphs they don't apply to the performance of mid range notebook gpus with 1 or 2 gb of DDR5. I would say they are irrelevant.

Others and I drew the comparison to the HD 6950, because it's a GPU that can handle much higher settings than the GT 650M and has 1gb and 2gb variants.

[demonedge]

Anyone find any more video reviews online? Why didn't that guy on youtube put the battery in and kick on the laptop and actually run some tests? Lol.

[ForeverZen]

I don't mean to downplay anyone's decisions. $50 is certainly minor, and an extra GB of vRAM is nice to have and can be helpful in some situations.
However, I do want to clear up this misconception that there will be a significant difference in gaming:


The benchmarks make it very clear that most video games, including BF3 on high @2560x1600, do not benefit from an extra gigabyte. This means that BF3, high resolution textures and all, does not use more than 1GB of vRAM. Yes, there are video games at certain settings that use more than 1gb (most notably triple monitor setups or high MSAA settings), but those games at those particularly high settings are far too GPU-intensive for the GT 650M to handle. BF3 on high @1080p is already borderline unplayable on the GT 650M, and given the 2560x1600 benchmarks, it's obvious that BF3 won't be pushing vRAM usage beyond 1gb. At playable settings for the GT 650M, no existing game will use above 1gb of vRAM.



Others and I drew the comparison to the HD 6950, because it's a GPU that can handle much higher settings than the GT 650M and has 1gb and 2gb variants.

Comparing a overpowered desktop card to an under powered laptop card is not a valid comparison.

[demonedge]

Comparing a overpowered desktop card to an under powered laptop card is not a valid comparison.

If there is no difference on a HIGH end card, what makes you think there would be a difference on the lower end laptop card?

Personally I got the 2gb 650m because it was the only option on the DV7. Otherwise I probably would have gotten the 1gb

[ForeverZen]

If there is no difference on a HIGH end card, what makes you think there would be a difference on the lower end laptop card?

Personally I got the 2gb but not because I had a choice. It was the only option on the DV7

Faster cards use memory more efficiently.

[woolfman72]

I am still learning things .. I am not totally trying to replace my desktop but there are times that the wife whines about me being in the the computer room too much. I generally play WOW and will be playing D3. How well will this compare to my desktop ?


Desktop is

Processor, Q9550, 2.83, 12MB Yorkfield, E0
Module, Dual In-line Memory Module, 4GB, 4X1GB, 800, CL6 Dimension
750g hard drive
gtx 470


compare to

laptop


dv6t Quad Ed
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 memory [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection



Am i going to be disappointed?

Also sorry ahead of time if this should have been posted in another area.

[wraith64]

What is it with all the BF3 comparisons? BF3 is a horrible EA DRM ladden game and runs like crap even on the best of desktops, pick something decent like The Witcher 2

2gb vs 1gb, who cares, if it satisfies you, then go ahead and buy/don't buy it, that simple. Jeez, thank goodness this model has a backlight keyboard otherwise we'd be getting people whining about that too. If this is offensive to people then I'm sorry but this is getting ridiculous.

[xAnimal]

I am still learning things .. I am not totally trying to replace my desktop but there are times that the wife whines about me being in the the computer room too much. I generally play WOW and will be playing D3. How well will this compare to my desktop ?


Desktop is

Processor, Q9550, 2.83, 12MB Yorkfield, E0
Module, Dual In-line Memory Module, 4GB, 4X1GB, 800, CL6 Dimension
750g hard drive
gtx 470


compare to

laptop


dv6t Quad Ed
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 memory [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE Upgrade to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection



Am i going to be disappointed?

Also sorry ahead of time if this should have been posted in another area.

Your Computer's CPU benchmark score is 4294 vs the 8330 that the i7-3610 scored. Will this reflect in usage? Definitely if you're multitasking and it will be extremely cool, as windows 7 will only utilize about 1% of it even when moderately multitasking.

The extra 4gb of RAM won't be really noticeable when comparing the two because laptops need more RAM than desktops to run smoothly.

As for your GPU, the 650m isn't as good, but it's pretty close. It might get 10-20 fps less than what your GTX 470 gets in most games, however that is To Be Determined, as the only reviewer is Notebookcheck and their reviews should be taken with a grain of salt.

This laptop should suit your needs even if you will be gaming, I owned the 7690m XT model and it here's what I found:
-Metro 2033 ran at 30fps at 720p, High Textures
-Skyrim ran at default Ultra 1080p with 4x AA and 8x MSAA at 30 fps
-Fable 3 ran at maxed out, 4x AA at around 40 fps
-Mass Effect 2 and 3 ran at 40-60 fps at Maxed out settings, 4x AA

I didn't test any other games before I returned it for this Ivy Bridge, but the Geforce 650m should easily pull about 50% better when AA is on because it was designed to get good performance in DX11 games.

[SInC]

I am still learning things .. I am not totally trying to replace my desktop but there are times that the wife whines about me being in the the computer room too much. I generally play WOW and will be playing D3. How well will this compare to my desktop ?
Am i going to be disappointed?

For WoW and D3, you'll be fine. You should be able to play on max (or close to max) settings on 1080p and definitely on 768p if you got the lower res screen.
The GTX 470 is considerably faster than the GT 650M, but you'll be getting >60fps on less demanding games like WoW and D3 anyway. For more demanding games like the Witcher 2, Metro 2033, etc, you might be a bit disappointed, but you'll probably be happy with what your laptop can handle. Here's a benchmark comparison between the GTS 450 and the GTX 470. The GT 650M is comparable to the GTS 450.
The i7-3610QM is some 30~50% faster than the Q9550, so that won't be a concern in games. It might even help in WoW, which is known to be taxing on the CPU.

Overall, I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you got the 1080p screen, you'll probably be impressed by how games look with a high pixel density.

[woolfman72]

For WoW and D3, you'll be fine. You should be able to play on max (or close to max) settings on 1080p and definitely on 768p if you got the lower res screen.
The GTX 470 is considerably faster than the GT 650M, but you'll be getting >60fps on less demanding games like WoW and D3 anyway. For more demanding games like the Witcher 2, Metro 2033, etc, you might be a bit disappointed, but you'll probably be happy with what your laptop can handle. Here's a benchmark comparison between the GTS 450 and the GTX 470. The GT 650M is comparable to the GTS 450.
The i7-3610QM is some 30~50% faster than the Q9550, so that won't be a concern in games. It might even help in WoW, which is known to be taxing on the CPU.

Overall, I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you got the 1080p screen, you'll probably be impressed by how games look with a high pixel density.

I did get the 1080p screen . Thank you both that replied to me for the info . I was a little worried after all this talk about the gpu's going on in this thread.