GTX 660M vs. GTX 670M

[Samusfury]

I know this thread has surfaced before and there is a lot of back and forth on the net about the debate between last gen 570's redbadged 670m vs. the all new kepler 600m. I still can't make up my mind which laptop to go with, anyone using the 670M I am curious to hear from you on your thoughts. Is it true the 670M will peform better today, but will age less gracefully as the Kepler based 660M will better handle Direct X 11 games as more become available?
To me right now from what I have read the 670 seems to perform in the neighborhood of 10-20% faster then the 660M. I know you can overclock the 660M to reach close to 670 levels, but does that logic not apply to simply OC the 670 and go higher?

[mrwolf]

Yes this is a classic debate right here lol :p..

Well ive got a G75 with the 670M and i really and truly believe it is beefier and more powerful than the 660M despite having an older architecture. To decide which one you have to pick out all the benefits and uses of each.

The 660M runs cooler and can be overclocked highhly to match the 670M levels. If cooling is an issue and you are gaming in a really hot room or you want a much cooler card so you OC really really high then go with the 660M.

The 670M runs a little bit hotter but is more powerful, around 10-20%. Both will perform the same now and none will age better than each other. If you overclock the 670M you can easily go wayy past the 675M so in my opinion if you wanna go for the highest level of performance go with the 670 🙂

I personally like to play my high end games on ULTRA graphics, if i cant get it running on Ultra, im not a happy camper lol, So for my case the 660M and 670M are not powerful enough to be honest, A 680M would be ideal !
However since the G's dont come with 680's i have found that the 670M fully OC'd at 740/1650 does a great job at handling pretty much everything on ultra

[Samusfury]

What kind of temperature / battery life difference are we talking about between the two? Are we talking the difference of 15minutes battery life or an hour+? As for temperatures would we say that the 660m is very comfortable and cool while the 670m is not tolerable to be on your lap and very hot while gaming? When overclocking is the 670 burning hot in your lap.

[mrwolf]

Well, in terms of battery life i have no idea since i dont really use my laptop off battery. Its way too heavy and not comfortable on my lap. I use a Asus transformer tablet for when im moving about lol.

Temperature wise, im not so sure about the 660M, i think it normally stays at 60-65 on full 100% usage (but it all depends on what 3d application you are running, some stress the GPU alot, other do not). My 670M stock will hit 70 Max on 100% usage. With an Overclock, 75degrees.

You ask how tolerable it is on your lap while gaming. I hope you know that this is not a lap-top to play games on your lap lol. Its more of a desktop replacement that gives you alot of power on the move. Also it will not perform well when unplugged, you cant play any games while unplugged, will be very very laggy.

[Samusfury]

So it's looking pretty clear to me the 670M is still the way to go. Why would you go with the 660m? I guess cheaper?
Fortunately in the models I am looking at the 670 comes with the 1080p screen while the 660 brings along the 900p. I really hope the 670 can run skyrim in ultra and the next batch of big games.

[jdotjdot7]

Basically, the 660M technically can be overclocked higher than the 670M (to the point that even while OC'd, the 670M will be the same as the 660M), but you have to do some modifications to VBIOS and stuff. The 670M will run about 5-10 degrees hotter, and that could in a sense shorten life. My G75 with a 660M stays around 45-50, when I am in a medium game, shoots up to 60 in an intense game, and around 65-70 if I am doing something stupid like trying to play BF3 on Max settings haha. Even 3Dmark11 only gets this thing to 58. However, if I were you, i'd wait for the 670MX. Seeing as how game companies are trying to push graphics cards, you need the best you can get. Sadly ASUS won't put something like the 7970M in their laptops. That card is more powerful than the top tier desktop 7870 GPU. The 670MX however, will be in the new G75 VX and will feature the 670M but with Kepler. Meaning, it will perform at 675M level

[mrwolf]

Yea, waiting for the MX model is the way to go. But if you are in a situation where you need to purchase one of these, the 670M should handle all your needs.

My bro plays alot of skyrim and ive seen him playing on Ultra graphics with a bunch of graphics mods on and he gets about 40+ fps with all that stuff on and an Overclock :)..