New laptop advice - GTX 980M!

[Cakefish]

Hey folks... before I get going, one thing; I know desktops provide much better value for money but I really would like the portability and small form factor of a laptop! Just had to get that out the way first

 

I'm thinking of this laptop: Gigabyte P35X v3. It has the brand new shiny GTX 980M 8GB inside. It comes in 2 different models:

 

One with a 3K screen, an i7-4860HQ, 16GB RAM, 2x128GB SSD storage for £1800. 

 

And another with a 1080p screen, an i7-4710HQ, 8GB RAM, 1x128GB SSD storage for £1600.

 

Which version do you think is best? I mean, the GTX 980M might struggle to run games at the native 3K resolution BUT the 3K edition seems like much better value for money - all the extra internal specs for a mere £200 extra. What do you think?

 

Does this seem like a good choice to you? My only concern is how well the thin chassis will be able to cool the GTX 980M and whether there will be any thermal throttling.

 

Cheers!

[Mr crabcake]

Can't comment on the cooling performance but knowing that the new 900m series GPU's are much less power hungry I'd guess that it will be OK. Normally I'd go for the 1080p version but seeing that the price difference is so small, + extra storage and RAM coupled with a slightly faster CPU, I'd have to suggest the 3K version. And when games are too demanding you could simply switch to 1600 x 900(The true next gen resolution :lol: )  and not suffer from undesireable effects caused by upscaling. Pretty sweet when playing older games

 

E: It isn't everyday that you encounter a Fellow underwater- cake-creature.

[Cakefish]

Xotic PC specifically states that the 3K is glossy while the 1080p is matte. They further say on that website that the 1080p has 72% colour gamut but make no such claim for the 3K display, hmmm...

 

EDIT:

 

Thanks everyone for your input! I've decided to opt for the 1080p version. The 1080p being matte instead of glossy like the 3K really helped sway me in that direction. Also, I cannot stand the thought of gaming below native resolution and yet desire higher framerates than what my 780M can muster - I've realised that 980M just wouldn't be able to manage that feat without seriously sacrificing detail settings. Despite the display 'only' being 1080p, it will still offer slightly higher dpi than my current laptop while also being an IPS panel, so it'll still be an improvement in quality. 

 

I will use the £200 savings to help go towards getting a separate 1TB SSD to replace the default internal 1TB HDD to make up for the loss of one of the mSATA drives. The CPU will likely be running close to its thermal limits in that slim chassis anyway, so I figure that there realistically won't be that much of a leap with the i7-4860HQ anyways so opting for the i7-4710HQ model shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice. The RAM downgrade from 16GB to 8GB is slightly more concerning as it is single channel 1x8 and not dual channel 2x4, which I hear can impact performance. Anyone know if the difference will be that great? 

[Cakefish]

Well, if you're shopping for RAm, you might as well get a dual channel kit since the pricing is similar and can get some more performance, but the difference isn't like HUGE or something so 1x8GB should be fine.

If you have two slots, you could always add an 8GB stick with the same clock speed and CAS latency to get 16GB.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do I think! Get another 8GB stick to bring it up to 16GB. All it needs to be is running at the same frequency and the same type of RAM stick (DDR3L) as the one already inside the notebook, right? They don't need to be the same brand do they?