Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 Laptop: i5 3230M 2.6GHz CPU, 6GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M SLI, 15.6" LCD (1920x1080), Backlit Keyboard, WiFi N, 6 Cell, Win 8 $900 + Free ship

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSea...RQH1h3aLzg

mwave shows it as single similar pricing.

Quote from tenchichrono : http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSea...RQH1h3aLzg mwave shows it as single similar pricing.

You can see it installed on Newegg's photos.

This is a really great deal, the second 650M is pretty expensive (>$200) when bought separately from Lenovo. In addition you need to buy a higher capacity A/C adapter that the SLI version comes with.

I can confirm via the pictures on the Newegg listing that this is the SLI version - otherwise you would see a DVD drive on the right side.

If you can deal with the i5 this is a great price, otherwise maybe the i7 for $1050 and SLI is better.

I own the Y500 and replaced my DVD drive with a simple caddy and an SSD, but the mSATA slot is great for an SSD as well, either as a boot drive or for caching.

Lenovo has their OEM version of Expresscache (SSD Caching) that runs great on this model. I can confirm it works on any SSD installed in the system. I wrote a simple guide for getting that going if you own this model and are curious: http://forum.notebookreview.com/l...cache.html

What would be better for laptop gaming? SLI 650M or a single 675M?

Quote from totherescue : I don't see any way they could mistakenly list "Dual" in the item name, and also error in stating that it's "Equipped w/ Dual NVIDIA Geforce GT650M SLI." That is a highly unlikely scenario. That is absolutely true. Lenovo's CS sucks. The last time I wanted a refund, I had to wait an entire month to receive it (they absolutely refused to cancel the initial order), even though they had the product back at their warehouse for 2 weeks. Barring some incredible deal, that I would be absolutely comfortable with keeping, I will never order from them again..

lenovo isn't IBM.

Sounds like it'll be way too hot... damn.

extremely hot deal

talking about the GPUs

1920 x 1080 !!!
HDMI !!!!
Bluetooth !!!!
52fps @1366x768 on Sleeping dogs!!!

Quote from waveofdestiny : What would be better for laptop gaming? SLI 650M or a single 675M?

The 675mx is faster (mx are based off kepler)
The 675m is not faster (m are based off the older fermi, these laptops came out in october to get the win 8 launch date, the kepler models were not ready yet)

THIS IS dual GPU, It has the ability to have 2 gpus using the "ultrabay"

Quote from kyfelix : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...6834312438 Lenovo main website does not offer Dual GT650m SLI But Newegg does Spec: Graphics Card: Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M SLI Video Memory 2GB WIN 8 Core i5-3230M 2.6GHz 15.6" (FHD 1920 X1080) 6GB DDR3 Hard Disk 1TB when you click into the images , you won't see DVD/CD rom So this Y500 does come with "DUAL graphic card"

Seems like a decent deal. If it were a 17in I'd jump on it.

what a letdown. i thought this was core i7.

you should put Core i5 in the title.
I can't tell what it is even by hovering over the link preview.

heard this batch of the y500 sucks with trackpad problems

Nvidia has two generation of gpus with the 600 series. Kepler (the newer chip) and Fermi (the older chip).

Kepler and Fermi are very similar gpu designs. Kepler is made on 28nm and is Fermi version 2, while Fermi is 40nm and was the original design. GPUs made on lower processes generate less heat and use less energy (thus better battery life if all things are simple), and allow a gpu company to more calculation units in the same area.

Kepler to get much better battery life and due to have lots of extra space due to new manufacturing process purposefully doubled the amount of shaders and kept the shader clock the same speed as the base clock. On the old design fermi the shader clock was twice as high as the base clock for manufacturing costs were more important than heat and battery life.

Thus a 40nm fermi with 192 shaders at 600 mhz base 1200 mhz shader performs almost identically to a 28nm kepler 384 shader 600 mhz base 600 mhz shader.


Kepler
GeForce GTX 650M 384 shaders at 790Mhz base+shader clock
GeForce GTX 660M 384 shaders at 835MHz base+shader clock
GeForce GTX 670MX 960 shaders at 600MHz base+shader clock
GeForce GTX 675MX 960 shaders at 600MHz base+shader clock
GeForce GTX 680M 1344 shaders at 720MHz base+shader clock
GeForce GTX 680MX 1536 shaders at 720MHz base+shader clock

GeForce GTX 650M SLI 768 shaders at 790Mhz base+shader clock

Fermi
GeForce GTX 670M 336 shaders at 598MHz base clock + 1196 MHz shader clock
performs like 672 kepler shaders at 598 MHz base+shader clock
GeForce GTX 675M 384 shaders at 620MHz base clock + 1240 MHz shader clock
performs like 768 kepler shaders at 598 MHz base+shader clock

Now the 670mx and 675mx have 25% more shaders than two 650m. Yet the 650m sli has 31% higher clock speed. Thus if the game supports sli and has good scaling the 670mx and 650m sli perform about the same. If the game does not support sli you will get more than double the frame rates with the 670mx solution.

For more info go read the reviews on the y500 on notebook check or read the reviews on other notebook gpus.

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If it was me there is no question I would prefer the 670mx solution, but lenovo purposefully went with the 650m sli solution for it cost them less money to buy those gpus from nvidia as well as it is easier to cool two 45w gpus vs one massive 75w gpu (thinner laptop with two seperate cooling areas vs thick laptop with one cooling area.)