GT 630m 1gb vs 2gb

[Sarutobi0997]

ive been looking at buying a laptop with a gt 630m to play games like Minecraft, BF3, Skyrim, TF2, Portal 2, Borderlands 2, etc. on med/high settings with ~28fps. ive looked on YouTube for game play with these games on the card but almost all of them feature a the 630m with 2gb VRAM but the hp dv6t-7000 only allows it to be customized with the 630m 1gb or get the 650m 2gb for 25USD (which i will chose if there's a good sale because in order to upgrade to the 650m i also have to upgrade the processor from the i5-2450m to i5-3210m which makes it about a 70USD upgrade overall). I'd like to know if there's a huge performance/graphical capability drop from not have 2gb of VRAM in the 630m. also I'd like to know just how big is the margin of performance between the 650m and 630m like if (theoretically) the GT 630m (regardless of ram) gets 30fps on skyrim high setting 720p but the 650m gets 80fps on same settings.

 

[Dnx]

:Hello: first of all, it has to be a laptop? in my personal experience every person i have met that bought a non high end gaming laptop had a bad expierence trying to play on them. that being said, yeah if you are going for a laptop get one with the best video card that your budget can get, otherwise from the 630 you mentiones to the 650 you will notice a difference maybe a little one but you will.

 

[montosaurous]

Both cards are too weak to utilize 2GB of VRAM. The 650m is a much better card though so go for it. The $70 would be worth it imo

 

[montosaurous]

:Hello: first of all, it has to be a laptop? in my personal experience every person i have met that bought a non high end gaming laptop had a bad expierence trying to play on them. that being said, yeah if you are going for a laptop get one with the best video card that your budget can get, otherwise from the 630 you mentiones to the 650 you will notice a difference maybe a little one but you will.

I'll agree if you can get a desktop definitely go for it and build it yourself to save money and get a more customizable machine.

 

[Sarutobi0997]

:Hello: first of all, it has to be a laptop? in my personal experience every person i have met that bought a non high end gaming laptop had a bad expierence trying to play on them. that being said, yeah if you are going for a laptop get one with the best video card that your budget can get, otherwise from the 630 you mentiones to the 650 you will notice a difference maybe a little one but you will.

i need to use the computer for school (should of put that in desc.) so desktop is out of question.

 

[Dnx]

ok if thats the thing ill give you 2 advises:
1.- if you are going for the laptop for school and also for gaming, like montosaurous said get the one with the best video card you can get.
2.- maybe you can get one of those super cheap laptops and use it for school stuff only, and save a little more and get a desktop for gaming, like i said before, every time and i mean everytime that some1 i know has bougth a laptop and has used it for gaming a few months later they completely hate it, a cousin got one like 2 years ago it just died some months later (to good he had special insurance on it), now he just spend another $700 to get a desktop one, my bro also bought another one like 2 years ago as well, some months later battery died, now it throws random mssgs that the memory its failing, its just an advise.

 

[bretmh]

The HD 4000 graphic given from the new CPUs is very good. Same thing from the new AMD processors. But from what I see others are recommending you get a new desktop. Laptops are not all that bad nowadays for gaming.

 

[Sarutobi0997]

The HD 4000 graphic given from the new CPUs is very good. Same thing from the new AMD processors. But from what I see others are recommending you get a new desktop. Laptops are not all that bad nowadays for gaming.

well the intel HD 4000 isnt terible, most new games wont run well on medium settings

 

[Derza10]

Get the 650m the 630m is low end graphics card. Well worth the step-up for better CPU and graphics card (remember its very hard to upgrade a laptop once you get it, so get the best you can now).

 

[Dnx]

Get the 650m the 630m is low end graphics card. Well worth the step-up for better CPU and graphics card (remember its very hard to upgrade a laptop once you get it, so get the best you can now).

yep, agree on that! +1 n.n

 

[Derza10]

Because you mentioned Skyrim I looked the 2 cards up. On high settings the 650m gets ~42 fps while the 630m gets ~23 fps. So in this instance the 650m is almost twice as fast.

Here are the benchmarks of each card

630m:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

650m:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html

Scroll down you can see all the games and FPS they get at low-medium-high-ultra.

 

[montosaurous]

Laptops will never be as powerful nor as good as desktops for anything other than portability.

 

[Sarutobi0997]

Laptops will never be as powerful nor as good as desktops for anything other than portability.

i didnt say anything about desktops

 

[Sarutobi0997]

Because you mentioned Skyrim I looked the 2 cards up. On high settings the 650m gets ~42 fps while the 630m gets ~23 fps. So in this instance the 650m is almost twice as fast.

Here are the benchmarks of each card

630m:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

650m:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html

Scroll down you can see all the games and FPS they get at low-medium-high-ultra.

medium settings at 30fps is more than enough for me plus im planning to but a cooling stand so i can overclock but thanks for showing me that representation

 

[Derza10]

medium settings at 30fps is more than enough for me plus im planning to but a cooling stand so i can overclock but thanks for showing me that representation

Just remember, just because it shows it getting right around 30 fps does not mean you will always have 30 fps. You will often experience drops in FPS and with only having 30 fps to start with many parts of most games will be near unplayable.

Edit: you would be better off using that money you plan to spend on the cooler to just get the upgraded CPU and GPU. Ok i'll stop harassing you about it, I just have a feeling you will regret your purchase shortly after you get it.

 

[Sarutobi0997]

Just remember, just because it shows it getting right around 30 fps does not mean you will always have 30 fps. You will often experience drops in FPS and with only having 30 fps to start with many parts of most games will be near unplayable.

Edit: you would be better off using that money you plan to spend on the cooler to just get the upgraded CPU and GPU. Ok i'll stop harassing you about it, I just have a feeling you will regret your purchase shortly after you get it.

if i can see the i5-3210m with GT 650m 2gb for around 700USD ill definitely get it

 

[Derza10]

You would be fine with a 650m 1 gb... the card really isn't strong enough to use the 2 gb of ram anyway.

EDIT: The settings you would need to enable in order to use more than 1gb of ram will make your FPS to low anyway, so 1gb is all you need.

 

[Sarutobi0997]

You would be fine with a 650m 1 gb... the card really isn't strong enough to use the 2 gb of ram anyway.

EDIT: The settings you would need to enable in order to use more than 1gb of ram will make your FPS to low anyway, so 1gb is all you need.

only cards hp has are Intel HD Graphics, GT 630m 2gb, and GT 650m 2gb. no 1 gb 650m

 

[montosaurous]

only cards hp has are Intel HD Graphics, GT 630m 2gb, and GT 650m 2gb. no 1 gb 650m

You don't need an HP machine. If there is any brand that I would rely on it would be Asus.

 

[Sarutobi0997]

Best answer selected by Sarutobi0997.