2GB GT 555M or 1.5GB GTX 560M

Alright so the 555M has optimus with imbedded intel HD graphics, and I've heard this gives you a little more battery life. In the NP8130 with the 560, you get around 3 hours, but with the 5175, you get 3-5 because of the optimus technology. Now, I'm not too sure if I want to get that, as I'm pretty happy about the 560M. I won't be gaming too much with this computer, Skyrim once in awhile, and thats about it. Mostly for school, so the idea of longer battery life is nice.

Both configurations have the same specs, except for the graphics card.

'Dunno. It really comes down to what's more important to you: performance or battery life.

I can tell you that the 560 is hands down going to be the better card for any gaming. I have a GTX 560 in my desktop and am running skyrim with everything cranked all the way up and a few mods to improve texture resolution, 2x AA, 8x AF, at 1080p and I rarely drop beneath 30fps. Indoors is ALWAYS 60, towns are usually ~30, outside is usually ~45, BUT my processor is shit and probably holds me back a lot.

Keep in mind that you CAN make a custom performance profile that does things like throttle your CPU to improve battery life, and then switch to that while going to class. Then you can switch back to performance mode when you have it plugged up.

As for the VRAM. the extra .5GB doesn't matter really. I've said this somewhere before, but it's still pretty uncommon for a game to HAVE to pull more than 512MB. A gig is going to be good enough for most games, much less 1.5.

Also the GT Chipsets are usually not geared towards gaming. Usually it's for budget performance level graphics that can handle most things reasonably well, but aren't particularly mind blowing.

IF IT WERE ME, I would go wit the 560, but that's just me.

Very true, it would definitely be a better card for gaming. I could see using it for gaming, but next year I won't have time to hard core game, if I do I'll play on my shitbox. The battery life appeal is really nice appeal though, even if it only another 20-45min. How effective is optimus?

go for the 560. i have a 560 and it runs everything perfectly, battlefield 3 on high and always above 35-40 frames. skyrim doesnt need a really good card though...

optimus is a lie.

go for the 560. i have a 560 and it runs everything perfectly, battlefield 3 on high and always above 35-40 frames. skyrim doesnt need a really good card though...

optimus is a lie.

Yea that's why I want the 560, it's a beast card. But I really want the battery life of optimus

Where did you read about the battery life? Do you know whether they were saying those are what you can get while gaming or just from normal use?

^It's regular use.

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I decided I'm going with the 560M. A 17inch laptop is far too bulky, and I'll just buy an additional battery before school starts.

^It's regular use.

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I decided I'm going with the 560M. A 17inch laptop is far too bulky, and I'll just buy an additional battery before school starts.

Not a bad choice my good sir.

Just turn your brightness all the way down when In school to save life.