I'm trying to figure out whether I should get a new gaming laptop with one GTX 980M or two GTX 980M in SLI. I know that SLI uses more power, generates more heat and costs more so is the performance boost worth the extra heat and money for a gaming laptop? Would I have to get a laptop cooler and/or undervolt to cool down my computer or are those unnecessary precautionary measures? Would a cooler or undervolting make any significant difference at all? Also, it's a desktop replacement so it'll be plugged in whenever I'm using it.
Here's what I'm looking for... I am trying to get the most that I can out of my $3000 budget...
- Due to my current living situation it MUST be a laptop
- Preferably 18" screen with 1920x1080 resolution
- I know I don't need it for gaming but I'd still prefer an i7
- Minimum of 4GB RAM, preferably 8 GB RAM (Maybe 16GB RAM...?)
- Weight is not an issue
- SSD not required, but certainly welcome (for the OS and a few games that I play very often)
- 1TB HDD (hopefully 7200 RPM but 5400 RPM is fine)
- Looking to play games on Max/High settings with 60fps, hopefully with a GTX 980M or GTX 980M SLI
- $3000 budget
Should I bother with 980 SLI or invest more money in a better CPU or more RAM? I'm thinking I'll get the 980 SLI because I'll be using this laptop primarily for gaming...but I don't have experience with SLI and the games I already play ran perfectly fine on my old GTX460M, so I know just one GTX980M will be more than sufficient.
My OLD Alienware M18x specs
18.4 inch screen with 1920 x 1080
i7-2630QM
4GB RAM
GTX 460M
500GB HDD (No SSD) I think the HDD might have been 750GB
for $2000
I'm only including this because even though Alienware is insanely expensive and I could have gotten better my old M18x did what I wanted it to well enough. Like I said, I know I got ripped off but I still wasn't disappointed with the performance even though I could have gotten better...
Now I'm trying to get the most that I can out of my $3000 budget...even though I unfortunately MUST have a laptop
Here's what I'm considering with my budget so far.
All of this came from xoticpc.com
Sager NP-9377S
i7-4710MQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB)
Dual GTX 980M 16GB GDDR5
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Two 512GB Micron M600 mSATA SSD in RAID 0
1TB 7200 RPM
$3107
MSI GT80 Titan-001
i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz - 3.6GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
SLI (2x) - NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Two 128GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA - Stock
1TB 7200 RPM
$3104
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-445
i7-4980HQ (2.8GHz - 4.0GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
32GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 128GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3009
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-444
i7-4980HQ (2.8GHz - 4.0GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
32GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 256GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3480
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-208
i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
32GB DDR3 1600MHz
4 256GB Micron M600 Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3172
MSI GT80 Titan-047
i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz - 3.6GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
512GB Micron M600 Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
$2999
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro Dragon-695
i7-4870HQ (2.5GHz - 3.7GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
24GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 256GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3008
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-210
i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
24GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 256GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$2913
Unfortunately I don't like the ASUS equivalents that I found. The GTX 980M that comes with the ASUS models has only 4GB of VRAM, not 8GB and less SSD storage than I could get from the other brands and models.
ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X
Intel Core i7-4860HQ 2.40 GHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M 4 GB
32GB DDR3L
512 GB SSD
1 TB 7200 RPM
$2798
On xoticpc.com if I'm not going to go with 980 SLI I have $650 to spend somewhere else in the configuration. Where would you recommend I use that $650?
If you have any other recommendations I'd appreciate them.
Here's what I'm looking for... I am trying to get the most that I can out of my $3000 budget...
- Due to my current living situation it MUST be a laptop
- Preferably 18" screen with 1920x1080 resolution
- I know I don't need it for gaming but I'd still prefer an i7
- Minimum of 4GB RAM, preferably 8 GB RAM (Maybe 16GB RAM...?)
- Weight is not an issue
- SSD not required, but certainly welcome (for the OS and a few games that I play very often)
- 1TB HDD (hopefully 7200 RPM but 5400 RPM is fine)
- Looking to play games on Max/High settings with 60fps, hopefully with a GTX 980M or GTX 980M SLI
- $3000 budget
Should I bother with 980 SLI or invest more money in a better CPU or more RAM? I'm thinking I'll get the 980 SLI because I'll be using this laptop primarily for gaming...but I don't have experience with SLI and the games I already play ran perfectly fine on my old GTX460M, so I know just one GTX980M will be more than sufficient.
My OLD Alienware M18x specs
18.4 inch screen with 1920 x 1080
i7-2630QM
4GB RAM
GTX 460M
500GB HDD (No SSD) I think the HDD might have been 750GB
for $2000
I'm only including this because even though Alienware is insanely expensive and I could have gotten better my old M18x did what I wanted it to well enough. Like I said, I know I got ripped off but I still wasn't disappointed with the performance even though I could have gotten better...
Now I'm trying to get the most that I can out of my $3000 budget...even though I unfortunately MUST have a laptop
Here's what I'm considering with my budget so far.
All of this came from xoticpc.com
Sager NP-9377S
i7-4710MQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB)
Dual GTX 980M 16GB GDDR5
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Two 512GB Micron M600 mSATA SSD in RAID 0
1TB 7200 RPM
$3107
MSI GT80 Titan-001
i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz - 3.6GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
SLI (2x) - NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Two 128GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA - Stock
1TB 7200 RPM
$3104
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-445
i7-4980HQ (2.8GHz - 4.0GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
32GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 128GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3009
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-444
i7-4980HQ (2.8GHz - 4.0GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
32GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 256GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3480
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-208
i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
32GB DDR3 1600MHz
4 256GB Micron M600 Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3172
MSI GT80 Titan-047
i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz - 3.6GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
16GB DDR3 1600MHz
512GB Micron M600 Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD
$2999
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro Dragon-695
i7-4870HQ (2.5GHz - 3.7GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
24GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 256GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$3008
MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-210
i7-4710HQ (2.5GHz - 3.5GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 980M (8.0GB) GDDR5
24GB DDR3 1600MHz
Four 256GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA
1TB 7200RPM
$2913
Unfortunately I don't like the ASUS equivalents that I found. The GTX 980M that comes with the ASUS models has only 4GB of VRAM, not 8GB and less SSD storage than I could get from the other brands and models.
ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X
Intel Core i7-4860HQ 2.40 GHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M 4 GB
32GB DDR3L
512 GB SSD
1 TB 7200 RPM
$2798
On xoticpc.com if I'm not going to go with 980 SLI I have $650 to spend somewhere else in the configuration. Where would you recommend I use that $650?
If you have any other recommendations I'd appreciate them.