560M/6970m Questions - Size and GPU switching

Hey guys. I'm likely going to return my second HP laptop with the 6770m due to the way AMD and HP have botched the GPU switching. I am wondering if the 6970m and 560M have the same graphics switching in place as their 6770m and 555M cousins.

Another question regarding size: As you know, the 555M and 6770m are the thinner mobile cards that are weaker than the much larger 460M and 480M. I am wondering where the 560M and 6970m land on this spectrum. Is it possible to get a laptop with these newer high-end cards that is around 7lbs?

Thanks!

 

I wouldn't say the 555m and 6770m are thinner cards, more that they are soldered to the motherboard to save space and make production cheaper. It also eliminates any chance to upgrade the gpu at a later date.

It depends what model you are talking about when you refer to the 560m and 6970m.

All sager/clevo models lack gpu switching. Alienware m17x r3 has the 6970, and it does have gpu switching. Asus w/560m does not.

 

Botched? You mean the fact that it has to be done manually?

 

Thanks for the input. I was under the impression that these cards were massive, almost desktop-sized, and greatly reduced portability. Would anyone confirm/deny this? I'm not looking for an ultra-portable, but I wouldn't be buying a laptop if I wasn't going to carry it out of the house when needed.

Quite the opposite. In the newest revision of the dv7t and dv6t, HP implemented an early version of AMD's dynamic PowerXPress 4, similar to Optimus. However, this new format has killed the ability to use OpenGL on the Radeon. We in the Pavillion forum thought that it was just a driver issue, but someone found an AMD developer Powerpoint which apparently stated they have no intention to enable OpenGL support on the dGPU. So now we are left hoping they will re-enable the option for manual switching in PowerXPress 4.

 

6970 in 7lb format? LOL

6970/560 at gaming cards, which require cooling, which require a thick and bulky frame to accomodate.

 

Kahn, the cards physically are not that large. In fact, the 460m and 485m, despite the enormous power differences, are pretty much the same size and use the same heatsink (mostly). Can't give you exact sizes, but they aren't huge by any means (compared to 20in desktop cards!)

The thing about it though, is that to adequately cool it, you need appropriately sized fans. Hence, why macbook pros make for such crappy game systems, due to their thin nature and inadequate room for a fan/bad positioning of fan vents.

Also @Bearclaw, if I'm not mistaken, the Sager np8150 (I think that is it?) is a 15in from sager that can fit up to a 485m and only weighs ~7-8lbs max. However it has no gpu switching

 

the 460 and the 560 are the same card, the 560 just has higher stock clocks.

My 6770 switches fine. There is like a 1 second lag when you come out of a game, but it doesn't really bother anything.