7970M, 680M

TommyV

TommyV

TommyV

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14 Oct 2008
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I can pay an extra £80 for the 680M, with the same specs as the 7970M. Is it worth it?

Benchmark wise it seems worth it, with definite performance increases.

Without sparking a An AMDvsNvidia debate, if given the option and price difference, what would you do?

Cheers,
Tommy
 
Having owned both and working with a colleague who still has the 7970M in his P150EM, the 680M is worth its weight in gold for me. They're similar in terms of performance, one is slightly quicker here, one there but the ATi drivers are just broken. Even the latest releases specifically aimed at fixing the enduro issues are still nowhere near as stable reliable and mature as nVidia drivers.
If you just play one or two games and can check in advance that the 7970M will work well with them then the choice is yours. If you play a load of different games, save yourself a huge headache and go for the 680. I sold my 7970M because I spent more time trying to get it to work correctly with X game rather than actually playing.
Check notebookforums, there are lots of threads about how much hard work the 7970M is to live with.
 
Tommy

I see you've managed to snag a M17x from the members market with a 7970m, which IMO is a fantastic buy for you and it'll save you all the hassle of upgrading your old laptop..

Once you get the laptop, as I've got a M17x with a 7970m myself, the 7970m is know for stuttering with certain games, Skyrim for example.

I've managed to resolve all my major issues with this card (AMD Drivers have sucked till 13.1 and 13.2 also 12.11BETA) by using Radeon Pro and 13.2 drivers with a frame limit to 58 fps for Skyrim and for any other game that plays up and stutters..
 
Thanks iv-tecman, I love all the tweaking and playing around with drivers, I'll refer to this advice and the alienware thread upon receipt of the laptop.

Do CSGO, and the CoD series play OK?

Thank again!
 
COD MW and COD World at War are the only two COD games I’ve got, but they run 60fps never dip fully maxed out as they do not really tax the 7970m.

BF3 even on Ultra with good levels of AA you can expect at 1920 x 1080 45fps or more on average. This game works better with in game v sync with a frame rate locked using radeon pro, very smooth.

Oddly, Assassins Creed III which I’ve just purchased is a game that doesn’t run too well, but I’ve heard the game is very CPU intensive and from what I’ve seen on my M17x, the CPU cores are taking a hit, yet the GPU isn’t maxed and I’m left with a busy town area in the game getting as low as 35fps with max everything and AA 1080. Apparently setting the affinity on the cores to 0,2,4,6 helps..??

If you like tweaking around then you’ll have fun with the 7970m, as it can be an excellent GPU if you put the time into what works best. I can honestly say, the M17x coupled with an i7 and 7970m yelds one heck of a gaming experience which is portable, its not a true fully fledge top of the range triple screen dual GTX670 or 7950 setup, but its certainly a damn solid single screen 1080 max details 30fps + (60fps more like for a lot of games) gaming rig…

I’ve tried quite a few games recently, I’ve had a huge back catalog of games to play at decent settings (this is another story) so I’ve been in my element ever since getting my M17x…

Shift 2 and F1 2012 two racing games I’ve been playing recently after a little tweaking and getting the right Radeon Pro profile I can get solid 60fps.

Skyrim I’ve managed to get silky smooth with frame rate limiter.

Even got GTAIV working nicely.

AMD are working on newer drivers, they are slowly fixing the issues, Fn F7 be your best friend with the M17x, I never use the IGPU, the HD4000 is great if you don’t play games, but gaming, hit Fn F7 and take some pain out of getting the best out of your laptop.

3D mark P6500 score should be achievable if you tune the system correctly.. Have fun when you get yours, I remember you mentioning in my ‘finally got me a proper desk to game at’ thread that you were thinking of getting a new toy, pleased you got one..
 
Cheers mate. your input is invaluable, very much appreciated. Will be glad to be a part of the club!

I'll get benchmarking asap no doubt, will subscribe to the alienware thread and post my findings!

One question if it's not too much trouble, the killer wireless card...do you notice any beneficial effects over a traditional wireless adapter?
 
I’ve not done enough network monitoring to really tell if the killer wireless is worthwhile or not.

All I know is that I’ve not had a single drop out or disconnect from my local wifi lan or internet for that matter since I’ve began using the killer wireless. I think as it has been so troublefree I’ve sorta forgot about it, and its just worked.

As to if it’s gaining me anything. Don’t know, suspect it’s really not doing anything other then any other wireless adaptor truth told, but the wireless interface software is quite nice.
 
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