I don't know why i bother but here goes:
What i don't understand is that you keep talking about battery life while i didn't say one word about battery life.
1-
http://www.nordichardware.com/en/co...om-reveals-geforce-gtx-480m-100w-monster.html
Google?
2- 100w isn't that much? For a laptop?
Never mind the battery life of a laptop having a GTX 480M ... how is one supposed to cool one of these in a laptop. This is going to result in a very fat and loud laptop.
Consider this:
- RM 5870 = 50W
- Mobile Core i7 = 45W
- 65% of laptops are supplied with a 60W adapter
- 30% with a 90W adapter
- 4% with a 125W adapter
- and i guess 1% has a 150W adapter
Now take an i7 + 480M + rest of the system and you're way over 150W. That's just not normal for a laptop! You talk about 50W like it's nothing. Maybe not for a PC but most laptops use less than 50W in total. Even if you compare 100W vs 150W, that will result in a huge difference in the cooling system, especially in a laptop.
But i agree, Optimus is a really nice piece of technology. I like it. But ATI has similar technology already available to manufactures. It's is up to the laptop manufacturers to implement the feature, just like Optimus.
http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/switchable-graphics/Pages/switchable-graphics.aspx
The thing is, a laptop is designed with the max. TDP in mind. So while Optimus will extend battery life while you're not gaming, it won't make the laptop less bulky.
3- While it's true that nVidia can charge the same amount of money for a 480M as ATI does for a 5870, it just won't. We're talking about 3x the size silicon. 480M will be more expensive period. For reference, Eurocom will charge €285
extra for the 480M over the 280M (or 5870, as it costs as much as the 280M). Do you think 10-15% extra performance is worth €285?
Concerning the PCB, that has nothing to do with nVidia. Making a board with 128-bit tracing is cheaper than a board with 256-bit tracing. Less layers = less money.
4- Well ATI has something called 'Ultra Low Power State' for Crossfire systems. This works only on the 5000 generation cards. When idling, it takes the slave card to an even lower power state than normal idling. This feature is enabled from driver 10.2 onwards. This does alleviate the problem a bit. The second chip adds <10W while idling (if i counted correctly, that puts it at around 22W for both without ATI Switchable Graphics).
But one can't argue about this: when you're in the market for one of these huge, ugly, useless and heavy gaming laptops, you're better of with a Radeon Mobility 5870 CF.
You pay the same amout, the laptop is as heavy, it's as loud, it's as bulky, will eat batteries like there's no tomorrow but it will be 30-40% faster.
I know one thing, i won't buy either.