Of the currently Available GPU's...

Since the 680m isn't available right now on AW's config tool, which of the currently available cards would you choose for an m17?

My m17r2 (4870 gpu) just died (power jack on the mobo shorted). I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I won't be waiting for the 680m to become available.

I'll be replacing the mobo on the r2 and handing it down to my son.

 

Get the 7970m, best option after 680m

 

Call Dell and tell 'em you really need that 680M (or you will shoot a puppy). A friend of mine ordered an M17x just yesterday w/ one so anything's possible although it too wasn't listed. We are in Europe but still all AW hardware is built in/shipped from Shanghai so the source is the same.

 

If you can not get ahold of a 680m, a 7970m will be fine since you can turn off Enduro. If you want 3D you should wait for the 680m though.

 

Great info... now its going to cost an extra 150....

 

I'd actually go for the 7970M regardless of the 680M's availability. I don't really think I need that much graphics horsepower in a notebook (my desktop is for that) and it's way too expensive for my tastes. Oh, and because the GTX 660M is a bit underwhelming and the GTX 670M/675M are yesteryear's, and power inefficient.

And I value computational performance in a notebook GPU a bit more, since I actually target working loads for the notebook (i.e. Unigraphics, video processing, 3ds) because I'm more likely to bring a notebook to do some work, yes?

 

Get the 7970M. Use it with Enduro OFF. It's a no brainer.

 

7970m - good gaming performance, processing power, and price

 

If I were in your shoes I would wait for the 680M... much better choice in my view, if for no reason other than driver support. Or, save $200 and buy only the 660M and you'll have the heat sink you need for the upgrade. Then buy a 4GB 680M Clevo or MSI GPU and drop it in. Be sure to save the 660M in case you ever need to exchange or depot repair.

 

A little bummed about this situation was well as I'm finally in a position to pull the trigger on an order and want to go with the 680M (no more Radeon drivers for me)....

 

I'm in the exact same position as you man . On the bright side, it gives me more time to save up money so I won't feel as guilty about spending ~3k on a laptop

 

Thanks for the replies, Gents.

I've seen the reports on the 7970's performance, but also all the driver problems.

Still sitting on the fence for now.

 

No need to be on the fence, bro. Good things come to those that wait... 680M is just going to get better with mature drivers. Remains to be seen with 7970M at this point.

 

If you are talking about the Enduro issues, well, you are not going to face them considering you have a R2.

I don't know what other driver issues you have seen. I have played a multitude of games and haven't had any problems.

 

Being a hardcore Nvidia user i made the switch to radeon with my most recent pruchase being the R4 with the 7970M. I went with the 12.8 "modded" drivers weilding great stability. Games tested so far are Crysis 2 and Metro 2033. But when it comes to driver issues i've had my fair shre of issues with nvidia drivers as well so i would not only single out Radeon since my experience has been great so far.

 

Odd that they couldn't do that for me since the part wasn't even in their system. Are you absolutely sure that your friend placed an order with a 680m in it? He received an order confirmation and everything listing the 680m in the components? If so, I think I'm gonna have to call my sales rep again.

 

Yep, there are some 7970M owners out there that are satisfied. And, there are a number of 7970M owners that are not because of their poor experience with the product. The quality of the product is very inconsistent, to say the least. It's been that way for a while now, and while both do have issues with drivers, the frequency of issues to those of us that have owned more AMD (ATI) video cards than NVIDIA it hits very close to home. For those that are having good results with 7970M I can honestly say that I am very happy their experience turned out so good, and wish I could say the same. I wouldn't wish my AMD experience on an enemy. Well, maybe... if they were a really bad enemy I might...

 

Also owning an R1 with Sli gtx 260M, i had a hell of a time with Nvidia drivers being stable with most games but that was with the 200 series cards as time goes on and research is conducted finding the best suited driver becomes fairly easy if you are willing to put in the research.

 

That's funny coz in my experience, there are a LOT of 7970m owners that are happy and a few that are not. Note that this is the batch that do NOT use Enduro, as won't OP. Let's include all details here so we don't accidentally mislead members shall we?

 

Oh yeah.... I dont use "Enduro" as it seems more of a hit and miss, but i must say some games do respond to the Enduro fairly well such as Crysis 2, i recieved about 5-8FPS increase (12.8 modded drivers BTW).

 

As I am searching the web for solutions to the woes that plague the product, I see lots of people with desktop 7970 video cards with similar issues... but no solutions other than hardware replacement. So, it's actually quite the opposite of "misleading" others. I look at it as being full disclosure. No different than you or anyone else saying how pleased they are with 7970M. There are two sides to every story, and hearing both sides is always best. I'd like to see folks go into their purchasing decision with both eyes wide open and fully aware of the fact the pendulum can swing either direction.

I can identify about a half dozen M18x R1 and M18x R2 owners with defective or malfunctioning 7970M CrossFire in less than 90 days just here in our community, and some have already been replaced. And, a lot more than that who are stressed out about the Catalyst drivers working like crap, and their games that don't function correctly. Are there happy 7970M owners? Sure, and I'm very glad for them. It's good to know the defects don't affect every GPU that has been produced. That would be truly catastrophic. It takes little more than a passing glance to identify what threads are the most full of people looking for solutions to problems, and they are overwhelming red... and have been for a couple of years now.

I could also elaborate about my 6 defective AMD mobile GPUs before 7970M was released and my 2 defective AMD desktop video cards, (all in less than 2 years,) but that would be off-topic for this thread.

 

So you've had 8 defective AMD cards in the past and you still thought it'd be a good idea to buy two more? Haha oh wow.

 

Good idea? Not really. It was against my better judgment, but I had many years of good service from ATI video cards and there was a part of me that was more optimistic than warranted. I wanted to give them a chance to convince me their products are still good and earn the right to have me back as a return customer. Well... they failed, LOL. And, you can probably guess that I won't make that same mistake again. Plus, it's not like I purchased that many GPUs either. Multiple failed part replacements... when you're dealing with CrossFire, it doesn't take many bad pairs to equal 8 bad cards, LOL. Most were warranty replacements that, in turn, failed the same as the trash they replaced. One of the bad desktop GPUs was DOA and the other died shortly afterward. Both were handled in RMA by XFX promptly and the third one has held up OK.

I had bad NVIDIA parts a few years ago also, and I was part of the class action for that. My defective 8800GT SLI was handled appropriately by Dell and there was no need for me to have a moment's concern about the defect. But, I got royally hosed by HP and ended up with one of the $299 el cheapo Compaq CQ56 models as a replacement for an $800 Pavilion laptop with more power and much better specs. So, other than my Dell/Alienware loyalty, you will not find much brand loyalty with this boy, and especially not for GPU manufacturers. I'll throw them under the bus in a heartbeat if they produce garbage that ends up in my possession. Hence my disdain for 7970M.

 

Haha oh man, yeah your disdain for the 7970M definitely makes sense now. So are you in the same boat as the rest of us waiting for the 680M stock to replenish?

 

I am curious as to how DELL and AMD discussions are going on the back-end with all the issues they are having.

 

Neither the desktop 7970 nor the mobile 7970 crossfire solution is what OP is looking for (unless he wants to put two of these in his R2 which, I don't think he wants to do).

The links I have looked up so far (links numbering in the few scores) all discuss issues with Enduro (which I agree to) but few (and mostly user related) regarding dedicated 7970m usage. If any of you will be so kind as to direct me to a persistent, widespread issue whilst using the dedicated GPU (such as the poor frame rate when using Enduro or the known BF3 issues), I will gladly agree that this GPU is a sub par product. Until then, from personal experience and from what is out there, I find few, if any problems, when using the dedicated GPU.

 

Actually, the original post was to ask for opinions on which currently available ("available" meaning selectable as a currently shipping option in the AW config tool) GPU you guys would go with.

After my r2 died (turns out it was the 4870 card), I was going to order a brand new m17 for me, then fix my r2 and hand it down to my son. Turns out my boy doesn't want my r2, he wants a MacBook, so I'm replacing the card in my r2 with a 580 I just bought from an NBR member yesterday.

Other than the fact that the r2 is heavy (I'm an airline pilot, and it goes with me on every trip so my boy and I can do some online fragging while I'm out of town), I've loved it. Gonna try and get another couple years out of it.

 

Haven't spent much time in the M18x forums, eh? The threads are full of issues related to 7970M CF functionality. They seem to more often work fairly decent with only one GPU, but CF systems frequently do not function as they should. The performance results are very inconsistent from one CrossFire system to the next. There are ongoing driver issues and hardware quality control issues are readily apparent. Both affect usability, and those that have defective video cards are finding the ownership experience rather dissatisfying. (I see that in other forums as well. Examples are not difficult to find.) There are a number of M18x R2 owners (and a few M18x R1 upgraders) that have had their 7970M GPUs replaced under warranty in an effort to get a pair that work well.