Is the 970m worth the extra $300+?

[Scruffy90]

After much searching I have narrowed down my choices to two similarly speced laptops with the exception of the GPU. One has a 960m and the other has a 970m. Is the 970m worth the extra money?

I will be gaming and editing video on the go.

[PlayStation 2]

I would personally say hell fucking no, but ehhhhh....

[Mohenjo]

hmmm, maybe. are there not cheaper 970m laptops? 

[jcw150]

I would say so if you intend to use it for many years.

 

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970M-vs-GeForce-GTX-960M

[Adreyu]

It definitely has more performance by quite a bit but its really up to you. ifyou dont want to spend more money and you are okay with the power the 960m has just stick with that

[Enderman]

the 960m is worse than the 965m i assume

[PlayStation 2]

I would say so if you intend to use it for many years.

 

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970M-vs-GeForce-GTX-960M

gpuboss is a fucking joke

[Sam Z Man]

I would say so if you intend to use it for many years.

 

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970M-vs-GeForce-GTX-960M

Wow what a troll post.

GPU Boss

[79 Potatoes]

Give context: What are the prices of the laptops?

The 970M has double the cores, so in compute performace it'd be double or more performance(given the factor that it has higher clockspeed, wider memory bus, etc...) so it might be worth... if the laptop price is considerable

[jcw150]

Down the bottom there are normally some good benchmarks to show general performance but you should ignore there scoring and comparisons

[Scruffy90]

hmmm, maybe. are there not cheaper 970m laptops? 

 

Seems like I am already as low as I could get without going refurbished. ~$1100 for a 15" MSI with the 970m and a bunch of $800 15" notebooks with a 960m.

 

the 960m is worse than the 965m i assume

The 965 uses a similar chipset to the 970 and 980 iirc. I am going to assume that the 960m will perform worse than the 965 and up.

 

Give context: What are the prices of the laptops?

The 970M has double the cores, so in compute performace it'd be double or more performance(given the factor that it has higher clockspeed, wider memory bus, etc...) so it might be worth... if the laptop price is considerable

Outside of refurbished units, I found an MSI 15" for ~$1100 with a 970m and a bunch of $800 15" notebooks with the 960m. I would've hopped on a deal I just stumbled upon that expired yesterday that had a refurb MSI 15" with a 970m for under $900, but I just found out about it a few mins ago.

[79 Potatoes]

Seems like I am already as low as I could get without going refurbished. ~$1100 for a 15" MSI with the 970m and a bunch of $800 15" notebooks with a 960m.

 

The 965 uses a similar chipset to the 970 and 980 iirc. I am going to assume that the 960m will perform worse than the 965 and up.

 

Outside of refurbished units, I found an MSI 15" for ~$1100 with a 970m and a bunch of $800 15" notebooks with the 960m. I would've hopped on a deal I just stumbled upon that expired yesterday that had a refurb MSI 15" with a 970m for under $900, but I just found out about it a few mins ago.

If the CPU isn't a low power one (U series) I'd take the 970m

[Scruffy90]

If the CPU isn't a low power one (U series) I'd take the 970m

With the exception of one of the 960m laptops, all of them have i7 6700hq's

[79 Potatoes]

With the exception of one of the 960m laptops, all of them have i7 6700hq's

Then take the one with the 970M, it'll be a noticeable leap in gaming performance

[Scruffy90]

Then take the one with the 970M, it'll be a noticeable leap in gaming performance

Thats always a plus. Any improvements on the editing front (mostly use Adobe products)?

[79 Potatoes]

Thats always a plus. Any improvements on the editing front (mostly use Adobe products)?

I can't help you in that part, but logically anything that uses CUDA processing will benefit too

[Universal_Cereal_Bus]

Generally, a laptop with a 970M will try to have better cooling than the 960M- i mean it HAS to, but I would say those $300 dollars pay for a tiny bit more in many cases- better quality build, (for example HP doesn't even mess with SKUs with that high TDP- their designs are too cost oriented to accommodate REAL performance).

 

Ok that was biased- but here's the "lowdown"- Get the 970 if you plan on gaming on an external monitor or else if the Laptop screen res is higher than 1080p. I mean, a 960 will be able to play the most demanding games at 1080p *30-40 fps high not ultra settings. So if you're playing league or SC2 or WoW, you will be pleased. Heres a good website- scroll halfway down to game benchmarks:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-960M.138006.0.html

 

So in the end: if your screen res is below 1080p- on the monitor you plan to game on- 960M hands down.

 

If you plan on doing QHD (2k) or 3D or League of legends 4k- 970M is a MUST.

 

If you want basically 60 FPS (and beyond for less demanding games) across the board on a 1080p monitor - 970M.

 

Remember future games will be more demanding- so it depends on what you want to do with it. Keep in mind that heat production will be higher- even with excellent cooling.

 

970m is basically slightly less powerful than a desktop 960.

More powerful than desktop 680

 

960m is basically slightly less powerful than a desktop 480 or 570.

more powerful than desktop 560 ti

 

Remember- less OC and thremal limits on mobile cards are brutal limiters- so there are many a gtx 960 desktop that are wayyy more powerful than reference.

 

This is really not an exact comparison- just aprox- take it as such.