Is the GTX 660m in Lenovo Y580 an actual reference design GTX 660m?

[Pyree]

OK, ASUS G55 are selling for about $1500. But the Lenovo Y580 with similar spec is selling for about $1000. What is the catch?

Knowing Lenovo sold OC GT 550m as GT 555m, do you think the GTX 660m in Lenovo Y580 could be an OC Fermi GTX 560m, or actually a GT 650m DDR3 OC (well, I am happy to take GT650m GDDR5 OC to match the core/shader/memory clock of GTX 660m as a real GTX 660m if it's cheap).

I am expecting at least Maziar and WR2 to join the conversation.

 

[twocorns]

OK, ASUS G55 are selling for about $1500. But the Lenovo Y580 with similar spec is selling for about $1000. What is the catch?

Knowing Lenovo sold OC GT 550m as GT 555m, do you think the GTX 660m in Lenovo Y580 could be an OC Fermi GTX 560m, or actually a GT 650m DDR3 OC (well, I am happy to take GT650m GDDR5 OC to match the core/shader/memory clock of GTX 660m as a real GTX 660m if it's cheap).

I am expecting at least Maziar and WR2 to join the conversation.

If you look closely, it's states the the Lenovo Y580 CAN be configured with the GTX 660m. So the $1,000 price is probably for the laptop, but with a GT 630m video card. The GTX 660m upgrade would probably be a few hundred to upgrade when customized on Lenovo's site.

 

[WR2]

With the Y480 having the GT 640M LE or something resembling that (if you read certain rumors) I'm not going to even guess at this point.


Geforce GT 640M

 

[jaguarskx]

I suppose Lenovo decided to cut corners with the Y480 since it was originally suppose to have a GT 650M and an option to upgrade to the GT 660M which is clearly stated on their product page. Even their the Y480 PDF spec sheet states the GT 650M.

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/y-series/y480/

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/y-series/y480/Y480_Datasheet.pdf

I guess they were just too lazy to update. Also, all individual models list the GT 640M instead of the GT 640M LE. Oh well, I guess Lenovo decided to castrate their own performance oriented laptops.

 

[jaguarskx]

Too early to tell if the GT 660m used in the Y580 is the real thing or an OC'ed GT 650m.

 

[WR2]

There's just a chance that Lenovo is renaming some GT 555M as GT 640M till the 'real' GT 640s become available.

 

[jaguarskx]

Well, in any case Lenovo has not listed the Y580 yet on their website.

 

[Pyree]

There was some bench suggesting the higher clock GT 650m DDR3 running games at native 1366x768 do more fps than the lower clock GTX 660m GDDR5 in native 1920x1080.

 

[dalauder]

Necro: Well native 1366x768 is half the pixels of 1080p, so I wouldn't be surprised that a weaker, but still competent card, could keep pace.

More importantly, does anyone have an update on what the core of a GT 660M LE is? These things are popping up on Lenovo Outlet now and I'd like to know what's in them.

 

[airanp]

I know this is an old thread, but the Y580 ships with a GTX 660m, not an OC'd older mobile GPU. Just as the original Y480 shippe with a gt 640m LE but the newer model of the y480 is shipping with a full fledged gt 650m GDDR5 GPU. I can personally confirm the y480 as I received mine a couple of weeks ago with that card but I can only confirm the Y580 through other sources.

 

[kyleis]

Is there any consensus on what will be needed to run the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online? I'm days away from pruchasing a slightly older modle Y580, (doesn't come with blue ray.. )

If I buy this thing, a little higher than my budget and heavier than I'd like, and it does't play ESO... I'll be royally po'ed!!!

Thanks for any guesses!

 

[edit1754]

Also keep in mind that game performance would not be a good reason to choose a 15.6" 1366x768 display instead of a 15.6" 1920x1080 display. The basis of this misconception is underconsideration of all necessary factors.

For one thing, if your framerates are suffering while running in 1920x1080, you can always step your resolution down to 1366x768 inside the game settings. With a 15.6" 1366x768 display, you cannot make up for the limited screen space that's going to affect everything else you do.

But the resolution itself isn't all: 15.6" 1366x768 displays tend to be low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast, whereas 15.6" 1920x1080 displays tend to have great contrast and quality. What this means is that despite the blur you get when running games in a non-native resolution, you'll likely find that games look better running in a non-native resolution on a 15.6" 1920x1080 display, than even in native resolution on a 15.6" 1366x768 display. So you really aren't gaining anything by getting a lower-resolution and poorer-quality display to run your games on. And of course, quality differences are there outside of gaming too, so by going with a 15.6" 1366x768 display you're not only killing the usability of your computer in terms of the resolution not letting you fit much onscreen, you're also killing image quality in everything you do.

Game performance with the GTX 660M on 1920x1080 is not terrible anyway; the GTX 660M is more than powerful enough to run many games in more-than-acceptable settings on 1920x1080. But a 15.6" 1366x768 display is a terrible display. You need to be concerned with improving a display that's pretty bad before you start trying to improve upon game performance that's already pretty good.

 

[airanp]

I know there are plenty of people that say stay away from 1366x768 laptops because they are "low quality" LCD's, but I can personally attest to the quality of my "low quality" LCD in my y480. It has great contrast, bright colors, good black levels and I am extremely happy with my decision in purchasing the y480 instead of upping my budget and getting a y580 just for a 1080p screen. Yes the 1080p screens may be "higher quality" but don't let anyone tell you that all 768p screens are garbage because they are not.

 

[edit1754]

Not all 14"/15.6"/etc. 1366x768 displays are low-grade with poor contrast and whatnot, but most are. The ASUS G46VW model I saw in Best Buy had a 14" 1366x768 display with contrast/quality that wasn't bad at all, but most I've seen are rather poor in the regard.

And keep in mind that with the Y480, there are about five different LCD panel models they use. Even if one's good, the rest might not be, and you don't really have a way to decide which one you get. Similarly with the Y580, there are four different panels listed in the HW Maintenance guide for the 1366x768. With the 1920x1080, there's only one (Well, two, but the other one's a matte panel which I've never heard of being shipped in the Y580) and that LG LP156WF1-TLC1 LCD has been shown to be good contrast/quality-wise just like most 15.6" 1920x1080 displays.

(HW Maintenance guide: http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/ideapad_y480_y580_hmm_1st_edition_mar_2012_english.pdf )