NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M vs 960 GDDR5

[Phamon]

Hey guys, I am thinking about possibly getting either the Lenovo Y50 UHD http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50-uhd/?sb=:000001C9:000124D6:
or the Lenovo Y70 Touch http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y70-touch/?sb=:000001C9:000146D5:
These computers are quite simular apart from one of the main differences which is the screen quality and the GPU's. I am not sure what the difference between the 860 and 960 is or if the difference is worth getting the 960 with a screen that is only half as good as the other.
Thanks in advance

 

[Vana Ivan Pandovski]

Go with the 960 is way newer and much faster bandwith and she is designed to be OC a lot...

 

[sz0ty0l4]

The gtx 960m is much better than the 860m. it's newer technology, less powerhungry, more powerful.

The y50 UHD is an own goal by lenovo. There is no way the 860m( or any single mobile gpu) will run any decent application( like games) on 4k with decent settings. Regarding this there is no purpose to buy a 4k display laptop, which can't play anything in 4k.

The y70 with 960m will play most of the modern games on medium - high settings on 1080p, above 30fps( maybe even more) .

 

[photonboy]

I think people confuse native resolution with game resolution.

I can play a game at 1280x720 on a 4K screen if I wanted to. Or 1600x900, 1920x1080 etc.

It can be nice to have a high resolution for non-gaming usage. Having said that, DPI scaling can be an issue. I prefer 2560x1440 and IMO having a 4K res is problematic. Personal opinion maybe. 1920x1080 isn't too shabby either since you generally aren't as "close" to a laptop (distance/diagonal ratio).

I should add that I use between 25% and 40% for DPI scaling and also use NoSquint for Firefox to preset scaling. CTRL+Mouse Scroll for manual adjustment of we pages.

(I don't have a high-res laptop but I know you want a fairly high polling rate for the mouse so it's worth investigating if the touch pad is problematic in that regard for a particular model. and if buying a mouse do some research)

Benchmarks:
I can't seem to find an exact comparison that's reliable. I did find THIS, and if it's accurate then the 960M is a pretty capable GPU. Just don't forget to TWEAK THE SETTINGS FOR OPTIMAL FPS like you always should but many do not:
http/laptopmedia.com/review/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960m-benchmark-results-and-gaming-tests/

 

[Xemko]

Although the GTX 960M has the same memory bandwidth as the previous GTX 860M, its higher core clock leads to a slightly better performance. Overall, the 960M is almost 10 percent faster and similar to the desktop GTX 750 Ti. from www.notebookcheck.net
also check this : http/www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-960M-Review.137893.0.html

 

[luislad]

The GTX860m and the GTX960m are basically the same GPU,actually the GTX960 it's a rebranded overclocked 860m,wich performance is arround ~10% better than the 860m,both are maxwell architecture based,both have 640 cuda cores,GDDR5 and 128bit bus interface.

 

[Trun187]

Get the 960m just for the fact its newer, my 860m is OC'd im running modern games on ULTRA getting anywhere from 30-40 FPS, on high im getting about 47-55

 

[Vana Ivan Pandovski]

Get the 960m just for the fact its newer, my 860m is OC'd im running modern games on ULTRA getting anywhere from 30-40 FPS, on high im getting about 47-55

anything bettwen 30 and 45 fps is not playble after playing on 60+ fps trust me it;s shity as hell...what can u do with 30 fps gameplay NOTHING u can move some times my rig on ultra preset on BF4 trops to 55 and its lagy as hell,and u saying playing on 30 fps nooooo,no no no ...always look for performance in this cases in laptops lower settings as possible reach the max framerate......just saying

 

[Kaisei]

Get the Y50 with the 860m. NVIDIA basically admitted that the 960m is the 950m but slightly overclocked, and the 950m is a rebranded 860m but slightly overclocked. What does that mean? The 960m is a rebranded 860m with the overclock. So that equates to getting the 860m and then just overclocking the chip yourself.

Check out this article: http/www.pcworld.com/article/2895785/nvidia-outs-geforce-gtx-960m-and-geforce-gtx-950m-gpus-for-thin-gaming-laptops.html

 

[Vana Ivan Pandovski]

Hey guys, I am thinking about possibly getting either the Lenovo Y50 UHD http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50-uhd/?sb=:000001C9:000124D6:
or the Lenovo Y70 Touch http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y70-touch/?sb=:000001C9:000146D5:
These computers are quite simular apart from one of the main differences which is the screen quality and the GPU's. I am not sure what the difference between the 860 and 960 is or if the difference is worth getting the 960 with a screen that is only half as good as the other.
Thanks in advance

If you think that ur problem is kinda solved can you PICK any of the answers as a solution ,all of the guys want to help but on the end they are really wait for thread to be closed and helped and some one to get the solution ..Thanks

 

[andyouf]

The 960 is basically a rebadge of the 860. Still 640 pipelines. Difference barely noticable. In fact I'd seek out an 860m that is cheaper once this is out a bit.
http/gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-960M-vs-GeForce-GTX-860M
http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-960M.138006.0.html

 

[Waftyminge]

do not buy anything from the y series, the track pad is litterally unuseable and the screen come standard with massive light bleed, on paper sound like an amazing system but the hardware falls short

 

[andyouf]

do not buy anything from the y series, the track pad is litterally unuseable and the screen come standard with massive light bleed, on paper sound like an amazing system but the hardware falls short

Agreed get an Acer Nitro. Gorgeous matte ips display. Still the same so-so synaptics trackpad but I use mouse almost exclusively anyway.

 

[YahikoUzumaki]

Between a 860M with 4GB and a 960M with 2GB, which one is better?

 

[andyouf]

The 860. Quit listening to these guys saying the 960 is so much better and has all this new tech. It's a rebadge. It's the same basic thing. These are guys who will sell their gpu's for pennies on the dollar the minute nvidia introduces a new model. It is a higher number, that is all. It is slightly better but not worth the markup just because it is new. Look at the gpuboss link i posted earlier in the thread. And don't bother with 4k because you need ridiculous amounts of power i.e. $$$ to run games decently in 4k and if you're on a laptop that means you are using maybe a 17" screen and 4k just isn't all that on smaller displays. Enjoy your games in 1080p, the 860 will run them fine on decently high settings and don't be obsessed with fps. You'll be happy.

 

[YahikoUzumaki]

Thanks for your insight.
My resolution will be 1080p on a 17'' screen. No 4k ^_^
Since it's the same thing, I think a 4GB GPU would fit better for upcoming games.

 

[andyouf]

Thanks for your insight.
My resolution will be 1080p on a 17'' screen. No 4k ^_^
Since it's the same thing, I think a 4GB GPU would fit better for upcoming games.

That's exactly what I am running on my Acer Nitro and couldn't be happier. I74720, 4gb 860, 17" screen because 15" just is too small for gaming but are everywhere. I had a Lenovo and returned it to Amazon. And once dx12 games start coming out around the holidays you will see a decent boost in performance. Currently I average 45 fps playing GTA V with a mix of high/ultra and FXAA. I'm fine with that. Project Cars is gorgeous and pretty much everything is on ultra and it sits between 50-60.

People tend to fixate on 60 FPS... FPS is NOT what matters. The experience you perceive when playing the game IS what matters. Sometimes, 30 FPS is a very smooth game. Other times, its 45 FPS, and occasionally, its 60 FPS.

And no matter how you try, you are NOT likely to be able to get a persistent 60 FPS in any modern game. It seems there are always some events or locations in a game where the numbers drop. Sometimes you can tell by whats happening on your screen, but many times, you cannot.

I see so many people with awesome pc setups all hot and bothered by the fact that a benchmark says they are “ONLY GETTING 58 FPS!”... wow.. ONLY?

Come on now. If you turn off the FPS counter, how does the game play?

 

[andyouf]

Get the 960m just for the fact its newer, my 860m is OC'd im running modern games on ULTRA getting anywhere from 30-40 FPS, on high im getting about 47-55

anything bettwen 30 and 45 fps is not playble after playing on 60+ fps trust me it;s shity as hell...what can u do with 30 fps gameplay NOTHING u can move some times my rig on ultra preset on BF4 trops to 55 and its lagy as hell,and u saying playing on 30 fps nooooo,no no no ...always look for performance in this cases in laptops lower settings as possible reach the max framerate......just saying

Awful advice and an example of what I'm talking about. No. Turn your settings up and enjoy the game at what you think is a playable frame rate. Also some laptops are amazing performance-wise (they just cost much more). In fact a 980m outperforms your custom build.

I love the advice from the other guy, get it because it's newer. Do you know how many people complained because they sat and waited for the 960 to come out only to get pretty much the same thing? Save some money and get what is essentially the same exact card with a lower numeric model designation. AMD/nvidia really has some people wrapped around their fingers, good for them.

Last, don't tell people to pick a solution. They can do that when they want. This is their thread. Just because there are answers doesn't mean there is a solution.

http/gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-280X-vs-GeForce-GTX-980M

 

[YahikoUzumaki]

That's exactly what I am running on my Acer Nitro and couldn't be happier. I74720, 4gb 860, 17" screen because 15" just is too small for gaming but are everywhere. I had a Lenovo and returned it to Amazon.

Good to know! This is also what I'm lusting after. An Acer Aspire V Nitro VN7-791G, with 16GB RAM.
I'm just a little bit worried about the battery which seems to be unremovable.

And once dx12 games start coming out around the holidays you will see a decent boost in performance. Currently I average 45 fps playing GTA V with a mix of high/ultra and FXAA. I'm fine with that. Project Cars is gorgeous and pretty much everything is on ultra and it sits between 50-60.

Talking about DX12 games, according to specs, the 860M --- and 960M since this is the same base --- does not support this standard. So should it be a problem any time soon?