nice ati/nvidia mobility vs desktop review on tomshardware.com

[williamr]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/avadirect-clevo-w860cu-mobility-radeon-hd-5870,2615.html

[Fingersniffer]

I do not much care of Tom's reviews anymore, years ago they had very good reviews, but in recent times they have become very Pro-Intel/Nvidia and it almost breaks their heart every time they have to give a positive review for an ATI or AMD product.

And I'll be honest, in this review I found the testing to be rather generic and the fact they throw in a desktop into their testbed about mobile GPU's is just moronic.

I'm not bashing on you Williamr, but I think if you want to read reviews about products backed by a massive testing suite and unbiased information then I would suggest www.Anandtech.com (http://www.Anandtech.com) as they have been my go to source for quality real world information about electronics and technology.

As for Tom's, well I cant trust their judgment in their reviews and you can always smell the biased overtones they put into their articles which I find a disservice to those people simply seeking proper information.

[williamr]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about toms lack of objectivity and commercialization, but I haven't seen it layed out on the forums (in a concise form) the performance increase amd's new dx11 card has over nvidia's flagship with a "relevant" comparison to a desktop counterpart. I posted this as I'm sure there is alot of people myself included on the fence as to whether an upgrade will yield a measurable increase, and its looking like the mobile market has stagnated to the point where my next purchase may actually be a (semi-transportable) desktop for the first time in 8 years.

[Fingersniffer]

The laptop vs desktop performance is a flawed test no matter how you look at it. Laptops have never been as powerful as desktops so showing a graph only pointing out the obvious seems just stupid. In fact laptops are closer now in overall functionality to desktop than they ever have been before. As for the GPU's in laptops, well of course they suck compared to the identical desktop component, because a desktop has 10 times the airflow than any laptop has so until they figure out how to bring down the heat and power requirements of GPU cards they will continue to suck in laptops, but again the GPU's in laptops are more powerful and closer to their desktop counterparts than ever before.

As for the whole ATI vs Nvidia; this debate will strench on to infinity as the Intel/AMD debates have and no side will ever truly win unless they other side simply gives up. Both sides make great products and they always shift the balance of power from one to another depending on the year and products offered. Right now the "power" seems to lie on Intel/AMD but soon will likely shift back to Intel/Nvidia, next year we might see it shift again to AMD/ATI mainly due to 6, 12, and 16 core processors hitting the market from AMD over the next year or so.

But moreover my point of my original response was if you want a more definitive review for products my suggestion would be other review sites other than Tom's as their information is skewed and untrusted.

[Fr0st]

The laptop vs desktop performance is a flawed test no matter how you look at it. Laptops have never been as powerful as desktops so showing a graph only pointing out the obvious seems just stupid. In fact laptops are closer now in overall functionality to desktop than they ever have been before. As for the GPU's in laptops, well of course they suck compared to the identical desktop component, because a desktop has 10 times the airflow than any laptop has so until they figure out how to bring down the heat and power requirements of GPU cards they will continue to suck in laptops, but again the GPU's in laptops are more powerful and closer to their desktop counterparts than ever before.

As for the whole ATI vs Nvidia; this debate will strench on to infinity as the Intel/AMD debates have and no side will ever truly win unless they other side simply gives up. Both sides make great products and they always shift the balance of power from one to another depending on the year and products offered. Right now the "power" seems to lie on Intel/AMD but soon will likely shift back to Intel/Nvidia, next year we might see it shift again to AMD/ATI mainly due to 6, 12, and 16 core processors hitting the market from AMD over the next year or so.

But moreover my point of my original response was if you want a more definitive review for products my suggestion would be other review sites other than Tom's as their information is skewed and untrusted.

That isn't the point. The point wasn't to say "Hey look, desktops are better than laptops!", the point was to show you exactly what that performance difference is, so the individual can decide if a laptop would fit their needs - ie, weigh the balance between portability and performance. That is exactly the kind of thing a first-time laptop buyer like me is interested in - I want to know what I'll be able to do on my laptop in relation to my desktop. Yes, it's common knowledge that the desktop will perform better with equivalent components, but the exact performance differences are very valuable to know. It lets me mentally prepare what I can/can't do with my laptop, which is valuable.

And you're right, ATI/Nvidia debate is completely pointless. Buy whatever is best when you have the money - I have a 4890 in my desktop, for example, but before that I had an 8800GTS by Nvidia. Before that, 9800XT by ATI. Before that, 6600GT by Nvidia. In short, do research, and buy what is best in the moment - because things will always change.

My personal prediction is that AMD/ATI will be dominant in the coming years from a price/performance ratio, with Intel/Nvidia leading the market with the highest performers, but also not very efficient price wise.

[Virtuoso57]

I do not much care of Tom's reviews anymore, years ago they had very good reviews, but in recent times they have become very Pro-Intel/Nvidia and it almost breaks their heart every time they have to give a positive review for an ATI or AMD product.


As for Tom's, well I cant trust their judgment in their reviews and you can always smell the biased overtones they put into their articles which I find a disservice to those people simply seeking proper information.

I agree completely, you can just feel it by reading the conclusion: "Congratulations go to AMD for beating what is essentially an efficiency-enhanced GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB, but AMD's new mobile flagship still looks strangely weak". :mad:

[DRY_ICE]

My personal prediction is that AMD/ATI will be dominant in the coming years from a price/performance ratio, with Intel/Nvidia leading the market with the highest performers, but also not very efficient price wise.

I agree with that prediction. Intel/Nvidia know they're what people know/want so they're raping the consumer. AMD/ATI products are nearly as good or just as good in most cases, and the price difference is staggering. The smart consumer is going to start buying AMD/ATI (not necessarily together but more of each) while the overly needy & affluent consumer may tend to pay the premium of the grossly overpriced I-N duo.

[jbermi]

I agree with that prediction. Intel/Nvidia know they're what people know/want so they're raping the consumer. AMD/ATI products are nearly as good or just as good in most cases, and the price difference is staggering. The smart consumer is going to start buying AMD/ATI (not necessarily together but more of each) while the overly needy & affluent consumer may tend to pay the premium of the grossly overpriced I-N duo.

also seems Dell and HP have hopped on the AMD bandwagon, they are rolling out even more systems with AMD CPU's, especially HP. Dell has a new XPS system pairing the new 6 core phenom chip with a HD 5870 card for 1149 (no monitor).

[Fingersniffer]

With Intel and Nvidia's backdoor dealing with many major computer and laptop MFG's they have starts to screw themselves over because now many other major companies and distributors are starting to promote AMD and ATI more heavily.

Intel had their moment to take down ATI and AMD and they missed it, maybe intentionally, but now their secret deals and poor ethics dealing with other computer related companies have put them on thin ice both with the US Government and business's related to computer industry.

I for one am glad to see AMD and ATI starting to step up and make quality products again after they almost bankrupted themselves buy purchasing ATI. Better competition means better prices and performance for everyone.