Are you Satisfeid with your AMD 7970m Crossfire?

Mostly, upon reading the thread I notice that for most part, The people who bought their 7970m Crossfire before July/August are the ones having issues. Also, Both my video cards came with the factory updated vbios. Driver has never been issue on my Cards. I Dont even practice clean install. I just install on top of the older driver without using CCcleaner or Driver sweeper. I really wanted to experience all the problem on this card to give me reasons to return it and justify buying me the SLI 680m. NONE came UP lol!

If you request a 7970m replacement, They will mostlikely give you a refurbished same older model as your cards and will mostlikely have the same issues.

I would be most curious to know about the the people who bought their m18x R2 ( Brand NEW customized online) with 7970m crossfire if they are having any issue at all. I may be just one of the few very LUCKY person who got a perfect working 7970m Crossfire.

 

It could certainly seem like that. However, to be fair I think we should remember that most people come to communities like this looking for solutions to issues. I'm going to take a common sense guess that there are more good ones than there are bad ones simply because we are only hearing from a small number of people that have the good ones, and probably a higher percentage of people with bad ones. It's not difficult to get a false impression that a product is categorically bad when people experiencing problems all show up in the same place. The problems are real, but possibly not a scary percentage of the total number in circulation other than those with an earlier manufacturing date. I wish I knew what the actual statistics would work out to be, but I doubt anyone will ever be able to determine that. And, the people that would have the records for all in-warranty system replacements (Alienware, Clevo resellers, AMD, etc.) are not likely to make that information public.

 

^^^ totally agreed!
I would have bought the SLI 680m in a heartbeat if any problem would have arised from my 7970m crossfire. Money was never an issue, I just cant justify spending Double the amount of cost for almost if not same equal Video card.

I have a GTX590 Quad SLI setup on my Desktop rig just to let you know I'm in no means a AMD Radeon Fanboy lol. Just expressing my experience.

 

Can you check vBios version with GPU-Z?

 

I'll be quite impressed if you actually played Darksiders 2 and had no problems with it.

Having said that, I think that the travail of getting that game to work is kind of rewarding at the end. Only because it worked of course, otherwise I'd be quite pissed still

 

I play darksiders 2 with absolutely zero problem. Zero glitch, no problem at all, nothing.

 

...few questions for you:

1.When you bought it?
2.What drivers you are using?
3.What vBios you have on ur cards?
4. thanks

 

The logic is absolutely sound, but I can, and will justify it for myself going forward. I used to feel the same way, and rightfully so after many years of excellent results with ATI graphics cards prior to the release of the AMD HD 6900M series. From that point forward it has been nothing but repeated failures for me. I seem to be a magnet for defective AMD graphics cards, LOL. That, or I need to lower my expectations... it's not very likely I'll do that, so avoidance is the route I plan to take. I now consider the cost difference to be the price of admission to an enhanced user experience and the premium for better driver support, even if benchmark scores and FPS are the essentially the same.

I noticed that Clevo has released a 7970M card with a "Enduro disabled" feature. If an AMD fan with an Enduro-crippled system is reading this thread and wants to upgrade their single-GPU Clevo or M17x R3 to 7970M, that sounds like a really great thing. [ LINK]

 

I feel ya bro. I been reading and following your not so nice experiences with your upgraded 7970m. I only wish I can share you the experiences im having with mine. NO driver problems / NO performance problem just pure POWER!

There was a thread started here from this person who bought the exact same configurations as my m18x R2 but with SLI 680m. He posted his heaven benchmark results that he got with photos. I Compared it to mine on same exact setting. I didnt bother posting my result on his thread coz i didnt want to ruined his excitement since my m18x R2 crashed all his score.

 

The 680M and 7970M are going to trade hits for first place on synthetic benchmarks and games, no different than 580M and 6990M did. They are so close to the same performance it's almost scary. For every benchmark one wins in the performance arena, the other GPU is going to win in a different benchmark. I think as long as they are both in business and competing against one another it will be that way. That's good for enthusiasts regardless of their brand preference.

What is interesting about that is the 680M is clocked more than 120Mhz lower on core and 300Mhz lower on memory (at stock speeds) and still runs right along side the 7970M. Looking at results in the benchmark thread, 680M seems to be a more stable overclocker. I have a hunch that downclocking the AMD GPU to match NVIDIA, or overclocking the NVIDIA GPU to match the AMD, there would be a gap in performance tilted notably in favor of NVIDIA. I also find myself wondering if any of the stability problems some are having with AMD GPUs and drivers are because AMD had to push the GPU harder to match the 680M performance. Nothing wrong with doing that at all, especially considering end users are going to do it if they don't, but if some of the components (VRM or vRAM) are not rock solid, it's going to result in many of the problems people are posting about.

 

Ill find out 27 Sep if im satasfied.

 

We tend to forget that the SLI 680m cost double than the 7970m crossfire. Instead, we just keep comparing the 2 as if they are identical in every matters. Well they are NOT! The cost and price difference between this two card are significant.
A more fair comparison should be between a 7970m crossfire vs. the SUBPAR gtx 675m SLI or a single gtx 680m. All graphics cards cost the same in m18x R2.
Comparing it to a 680m SLI should be just a bonus and Icing on the cake since it can match its power with half its price.

Those people that are having problems with drivers shouldn't be focusing on waiting for updates. You should try to replace your card with the NEWER version ones. I have NO driver problems with the april version and now currently updated july 28 version whatsoever. This is just my 2 cents.

here u go...

 

Can you check your voltage on GPU0 & GPU1 with GPU shark? Thanks

 

Here's what mine shows using the same vBIOS you applied from my link Heihachi.


(click image to enlarge)

 

Ok im a little scared now. I ordered a m18x with the 7970 cf set up. Initial research indicated it was a good choice, and id use the saved money on a sata drive and games. Now im a little scared, ive been reading about down clocking, less detail than team green, bsod, and everything in between.

Am i setting myself up for failure? The M17x guys seem to be happy.

 

If you ordered recently i think you won't have any issues. I have ordered mine from end of may and i am happy with 7970m CF. Downclocking needed just for 1 game - DarkSiders 2 by 50hz less on core (800/1200), other games works smooth.

 

@Heihachi88 - Out of curiousity, what happens if you leave it on stock clocks?

 

If i understood your question correctly - if i leave stock clocks while playing DarkSiders 2 i will get a black screen after 5 minutes of gameplay, if i just stay on the same place it won't throw a black screen (tested for 1 hour, lol)

 

More details in this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/684414-darksiders2-m18x-r2.html

 

whats the deal with the microstuddering on this system and the 7970m CF? I heard that has been a long time problem of dual gpu set ups.

 

My fresh 7970m cfx M18X R2 failure <<< ___ CLICK ON

how happy can you be with system thats 24h since delivery literally 20hours of runtime havent even gamed yet...!!! LOL


will be reordering with 680m sli once they take it back next week

 

Not sure why we have a new thread asking the same question. Merge this one with the other one. Please look before posting.

 

Just got mine yesterday running very good
I update the drivers to 12.8 with latest cap.
I tried Dota 2 and GW2, both running great at max settings

 

firefox issue? cant see what is going on apart from screen flickering.

no issues with my 7970 setup, glad i saved £500 ($800ish)

 

You have installed 12.8 drivers i guess. They're bugged with HW acceleration in FireFox. 7970m crossfire setup works fine for me

 

I found it was same troughout 12.6 12.7 12.8, making me bigger and bigger ati hater ...

I will rather go 680 SLI on my next M18X

 

Sorry Mr. Fox, just reading some of your earlier comments and it made me wonder, why, if your travelling around so much and need a reliable work machine, do you always stay on the bleeding edge and why with your knowledge of ATIs issues with their flagship cards (MY 6990Ms still haven't skipped a beat in a year *touch wood*) do you continue to purchase, then gripe when they don't work (We all know ATI have driver issues)...

Sorry just got under my skin in the wrong way...

 

I'm guessing Mr. Fox isn't one to immediately write off a company just because something doesn't work correctly the first time he uses them, hence the purchase of the 7970's after the 6990's......kind of a "give them one more chance to do it right" kind of thing.

Too many folks out there are IMMEDIATELY ready to scream for compensation and cry to anyone that will listen that they'll never buy from company xyz again because they have ONE bad experience with them. Shoot even I've vented like that about companies in the past.

I too purchased another AW with ATI products, knowing full well that I had issues with my other AW with an ATI product in it.......because I wanted to believe that they'd resolved their issues. HA, joke's on me.........now I'm out $5100 in computers that have substandard video card implementation in them because a company refuses to support what they sell in a satisfactory manner. I too will warn others NEVER to purchase ATI junk and I myself won't purchase anything they produce again either.

 

Im unsure if you were some way pointing at me or not with your primary comment, but anyway not that I care, my point of view is that a brand new product should be trouble-free out of the box, im not kind of person gonna be patching issues left by ATi, I guess that's the reason for the price of ATI mobile gpu's... Im not saying there all crap, there are cards that perform like gold but yet hard to find.
I already had run with 1 x 7970m few months ago, seller exchanged it to new unit which after ran absolutely flawlessly, I was pleased with performance back then so was expecting the same output from M18X R2 with 7970m cfx, but have burnt my time only, no luck, so from now on only NVIDIA.

I know and so everybody else does, NVIDIA know how to build their drivers for hardware they make, their drivers most time rocks, where ATI drivers most times sucks...

not trying to throw flame around, just my 2cent... no offence everyone

BR

 

Wasn't pointing at you or anyone else, merely making a statement, to wit: Too many people ready to scream "give me free stuff or I'll sue you / never buy from you again / badmout you all over the internet every chance I get" when they have a first time issue with a company.

I agree that stuff should work 100% when brand new, sadly this is the real world and sometimes that doesn't turn out to be the case. I also agree that it's unsatisfactory for a company to foist poorly implemented driver technology onto end users when they purchase a flagship video card. In the case of ATI they have shown me twice (6990 and 7970) that they'll happily do just that while pocketing the money they make from the sale of these cards. That tells me that ATI is a company that I don't want to do business with and that I can't in good faith recommend to anyone questioning what company they should look to for their video card needs.

 

Right, I was just wondering for a moment since I have recently pointed out my opinion regarding my issue with M18X R2 that I just bought. Yea however advising on what to buy is hard to be correct on, but today's world is something you got to pick and find out and experience for yourself before you personally judge the thing, IMO that's the way...
Well said about ATI, maybe one day they will come to their senses and will do a better job. However desktop graphics that I had business in dealing with had way fewer faults vs. the mobility gpu issues, but its for everyone's personal experience, as again, in this case I may be wrong towards somebody else experience haha.

However, we must be back on topic

my verdict was that Im unhappy with my 7970m crossfire setup.

Ordered system with dual 680m SLI, the world of driver crashing wonders should end, but again I will see about that, of course I expect now only the very best.
period.

 

I didn't see this question until now... sorry for the delayed response. I don't need a more reliable work machine. I have a different machine for work. It belongs to my employer and I am not allowed to make changes to it. Not that I would want to, because it's a pretty lame system as far as hardware specs are concerned and not worth any amount of effort it would take. Because I am an enthusiast, I travel with both systems and the M18x is my entertainment. The M18x is extremely reliable, but I cannot say as much for the 7970M video cards and AMD drivers.

What SlimShady said sums it up pretty well. I also agree with UltraGSM and I expect things, especially a company's flagship product, to not be defective. I also expect them to have decent working drivers to support their flagship product. Up until now, I was not really a fanboy for red or green, and my goal has always been to own whatever delivered the highest level of performance. I had always been able to deal with software issues that were common with both red and green cards over the years by using registry and vBIOS tweaks as workarounds. I had used mostly ATI graphics cards for many years and I was always pleased with them, so I felt AMD deserved another chance to convince me their products were not junk. I haven't enjoyed good results with their video cards since AMD took the reins from ATI and I plan to avoid purchasing AMD products going forward. Using the 3-strikes rule, after 6970M, 6990M and 7970M, I have made a decision as the umpire and they're out of the game for me. I'll need to see a strong comeback after at least a couple of generations of GPU releases without a bunch of hardware or driver drama before their products will be considered a viable option for me going forward.

 

Sorry you guys are still having issues with the 7970 gpu, I'm so happy with my setup and have had little issues, just trying to find a stable clock to run them at when overclocked. Had afew crashes so still need time .

Have there been any new drivers released? I'm running 12.8 with cap 3.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

 

Have they fixed the drivers yet? I picked up an m18x with 7970s for 2k on eBay. Seller said he never had problems with it. Have my fingers crossed.

 

It's still a work in progress. Key word there is progress. There has been some improvement in the drivers.

 

Never had a problem. 12.8 Cap 3, runs everything flawlessly.

 

I got mine last month, my fears werent warranted. This thing is a beast. It crushes BF3 in Cross Fire with multi player and campaign modes at WAY over 120 fps on all settings maxed. Crysis 2 is gorveous with hi res and dx11 add ons and all settings maxed, achieving around 85 fps. Temps havent gone past 74. I get a little tearing in crysis, meh. Get it!

 

wel a few months later how is the overall happynes now ?

 

I had a7970m in my m17x r4. Good card but I missed the physx eye candy some games have

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

See signature.

 

Lol.. good question. Well I can say that I am very happy with the performance on my 7970m CF setup. But I get extremely annoyed once a new driver is release and I have to look at a Blue screen mid install again and again until they decide for no good reason to install. Its enough to make me want to change teams next time, simply because AMD must clearly think such an installation procedure is acceptable for their mobile clients. Is it enough to make regret my purchase? not even close.
These cards are beastie, but AMD your drivers suck...hard

 

As the old saying goes, "actions speak louder than words" - ditto... see signature.

 

i got no complaints at all lol. maybe im one of those with luck of the draw?
performance had been all out outstanding. had to do minor tweaks here in there. fiddled with 2 or 3 drivers.
bf3 60-70
crysis 1 40-60
crysis 2 80-100
starcraft 2 - 120 -220
dayz- 60-70
farcry 3 60- 70
CS:GD 120
black ops 2 90-120

12419 on 3d mark 11 stock

i will upgrade drivers soon probly to check it out. but thats no big deal im enjoying these right now.
ive also played alot of other older games like morrowind elderscrolls oblivian. warcraft 3 all the Quake games.
runs older games pretty swell as i heard some people are having troubles playing older games on the newer gpus

 

That's close to 2000 points higher than mine at stock You pushed your CPU to 5 GHz or something?

 

A stock 3DMark11 run is normally around 9.5k to 10k with 7970M CF depending on the CPU. It takes a hefty CPU and GPU overclock to hit 12k. All of these runs in the table below are with heavily overclocked systems.

---

3DMARK11

#	USER	VER	CPU	CARD	LINK	SCORE	GPU	PHYSX	COMBINED	POINTS
1	Terry702	R2	3920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P13675	15399	11242	9029	5
2	Riri-Fifi	R2	3920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P13019	14316	11214	9057	4
3	Grimy1	R2	3920XM	HD7970M	LINK	P11883	12615	10874	9172	3
4	Speedy Gonzales	R2	3720QM	HD7970M	LINK	P11868	13423	9404	8046	2
5	PimpFinger	R2	3920XM	HD7970M	LINK	P11565	12859	9522	8074	1
6	Mr Fox	R1	2920XM_QS	HD7970M	LINK	P11563	12676	9704	8292	0
7	DumbDumb	R1	2960XM	HD7970M	LINK	P11451	12161	10444	8859	0
8	Sketch	R1	3720QM	HD7970M	LINK	P11413	12375	9945	8383	1

---

The difference might be completely explainable if tessellation was disabled through CCC, which prevents the score from being validated as an accurate result by Futuremark. (Disabling tessellation bypasses parts of the benchmark test. While it definitely boosts the score, the results are not accurate.)

 

miss type sorry! 11419

 

I get around 10200 with no OC, but my CPU lets me down on the last couple of benches

 

Still perfect. No problems at all and performance that satisfies my gaming habits.
I'm still running the factory settings, I do no tweaking and no drivers updates because "it is not broke so I don't fix it".

 

I ordered mine late may 2012, I had no reportable issues playing games, but I did seem to have a strange issue that I could only take the internets word was a DirectDraw issue when I had crossfire enabled. My skype window would freeze after X amount of time placing a skype video call with my wife, just the window our call was in skype itself was still running just fine. After awhile I got used to disabling and re-enabling CFX, since I had to disable my two extra monitors to be able to share screen on skype anyway. I also had chrome windows turn completely black after alt tabbing from some windowed games, but it happened so infrequently I didn't really keep track of it.

I updated earlier in Jan and haven't seen skype freeze or chrome turn black on me so far. I've also been running three monitors, switching between eyefinity and extended desktop for most of the time I've had the rig.