7970M hotfix reviewed by Anandtech

I got the 680M for my laptop. Haven't gotten it yet, but I should have it next week.

I noticed from all the websites that I've gone to that you can only get the 7970M on Sagers, everything else is nVIDIA.

Anyway, how do the 7970M and 680M perform on Guild Wars 2? On my current laptop, it can't even run on the lowest graphical settings. Could I put it at max settings when I get my new laptop and play it comfortably with my 680M?

EDIT: Sorry, you can get the 7970M on Alienware too I think. But I didn't want to pay an extra $500 for flashy lights.

 

You will be able to max out any current game with the 680 and have good framerates. Guild Wars 2 will be no problem whatsoever. If you're curious about how other games perform with the 680m, look it up on notebookcheck.net. Tons of good benchmark info for every mobile gpu out there. Enjoy your new laptop!

 

what card did you upgrade to 7970m from though? If its something few gens old then yeah, 7970m even with enduro issues will seem very fast. I've swapped my GTX 480 and 6970m for 7970m because on paper 7970m should destroy both of them, when in reality the opposite is true. in the end its really going to boil down to games people play - ones I play do not run well enough for me, so naturally I am unhappy with my 7970m.
also, 30fps is pretty rubbish you need at least 40-50 for smooth gameplay.

RE: BF3 MP, only certain maps have issues - caspian border runs alright for me, but larger / DLC maps are very choppy.

 

I dont know what to say, but I was playing BF3 multiplayer for a while last night. One game on Caspian Boarder I believe it was - IDK, all I know was it was 64 players and the map was ridiculously big when I couldn't get in a damn vehicle. Did I notice a couple spots things could be better? Yes! Is it playable?! Yes! Do I think a 580m could run ultra settings on everything with only blur turned down a little bit? Heck no!

When this hotfix comes out - I'm going to be one happy guy!

 

Yeah... my old laptop had a GeForce 8400M. It lags sometimes on League of Legends. League... of Legends.

I could have a paper bag for a video card and it would outperform that piece of crap.

 

lol if 30 fps is rubbish you shouldn't be buying gaming laptops. I'm okay with hitting 30, but I like averaging higher. If I'm averaging 40-50 and it occasionally drops into the low 30s, it doesn't bother me. Even the 680m will do that with graphically intense games like BF3 and Crysis.

 

dude, don't rag on paper bag gpus. I overclocked mine and hit 60k in 3Dmark vantage, yo.

 

But can it outperform plastic? Huh? CAN IT??? =P

 

lol that happens to me every time I play that map. I end up running on foot from one side of the map to the other, then get sniped from 500 yards once I reach the action haha. I'm a noob.

well now you're talking about that high end shizz. it ain't fair to compare paper to plastic bro, you know dat!

 

LOL yeah remember that one.
It was really good to see your first bench of 680M too. We didn`t have to wait for the slow reviewers to recieve it. For that I`m rep`ing you again. Thanks hackness

 

Thanks for the rep mate Those benches were good memories.

 

I'm sorry but unless you actually have a defective gpu, your 675 is not beating your 7970 in anything regardless of the bandwidth issues (there might be some low spikes here and there though), unless of course you are playing on low/med settings at 720p. Which brings me to my next point, yes you are correct that the 675 did beat the 7970 in benchmarks but ONLY when the resolution was lowered to 720p and the graphical settings place on low/med, that was due to the bottle-necking that is being fixed with this update. Nobody is looking through rose-tinted glasses here, most of us feel that we were mislead regarding this cards performance, but you are taking your argument far beyond anything that could be construed as accurate.

 

^ there is something seriously wrong with his laptop, or he is plain bluffing. I have played three of those games, with the exception being BF3 (SP or MP) and they run just fine. You have to understand that sometimes people just want to rant because of other problems in life and not their GPUs. All such people need a scapegoat. It is a bit sad they choose a piece of electronics tech to fulfill that role.

 

aww, i've upset mav because i did not like the graphics card that he also uses...
so are you saying that there are no Enduro issues and I am only imagining the whole thing, or that your laptop magically does not experience any of those?
also, when you say you have played three of those games with exception being BF3 then you must mean Batman AC, ARMA 2 and Crysis 2 DX11, because I only named 4 games.. but dont worry its really easy to prove me wrong man, i can post you a youtube video of my fps issues and you can try to match my settings map / scene and post yours, deal?
EDIT: Actually just realised you've got M17x, so you dont have any of those issues, this post has detailed pretty accurately the performance issues currently 7970m users are experiencing: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...t-logs-no-questions-please-2.html#post8779261

 

You really need to get yourself a 680M before you an aneurysm.

 

yep, well I keep waiting for AMD to fix this card so I could actually sell it for a reasonable price, but they are taking their time about it. it will be what, 8 months in 2 weeks that this card has been released for? so a nice 66% of its lifetime spent being a treasure trove of future potential, because future potential is why i buy a new GPU every year.

 

HD7970M's GPU utilization is higher than GTX 680M after the hotfix, however in some games the FPS don't really seem on pair or close to the GTX 680M at all, perhaps those are running off PhysX. For Diablo 3 they didn't show the GPU utilization, is probably still underperforming, a difference of 58.4 FPS when compared to a GTX 680M is huge and probably only on pair with a GTX 675M.

 

At this point I can't tell if you're trolling, upset at life, or just plain stupid..............perhaps maybe a combination of the 3? I don't know, nor do I really care, what I do care about is your grossly inaccurate statements. I think maybe you need to talk with your reseller about a new card because even with the Enduro issues the card still performs quite well, handily taking any game thrown at on max settings (admittedly with some hiccups here and there).

Time to drop the "poor me" act dude, it's old.

(I just double checked my D3 framerates, they are hovering between 90-100+ so either those parses are inaccurate or the hotfix screwed with something)

 

wow, hit a nerve there no? ok, i must have been trolling, there is no problem with 7970m, all logs, screenshots and youtube videos are probably fake. anyone who doesnt agree with you has to be ranting or upset about life..

 

Yeah just going to put you on ignore, your whining and complaining is getting so old. It's one thing to be disappointed with current status of the drivers, but you just take it to whole another level. Ignore list it is.

If I was AMD, I wouldn't give you driver fix, instead I'd give you a few billion tons of cheese to go with all your whining and crying and complaining, and trolling.

 

oh noes, please no!

 

It¨s odd indeed, we'll have to see when people on this forum actually get hands-on the fix

 

I'm done arguing with you as it's only cluttering this thread up, and lowering myself to your level in the process.

If you want to live in your little imaginary world where "minecraft" lags the 7970 that's your choice, but do us a favor an keep your exaggerated problems to yourself.

 

because ad hominems and fallacies were my way of responding to actual logged data.. oh wait.

where have i ever said that?
,

if the problems weren't real i'd hardly be wasting my time b!tching about it, nor would there be a 47-page thread on Clevo subforum where other people are doing the same thing.

 

Where's my hotfix?!

...tapatalk...

 

I thought they would've released it by now. Wasn't it supposed to be out on the beginning of october?

 

I'm trying to be patient. I have to wonder if they didn't find some additional paces for improvement that they are having to test and get the bugs out of.

I guess we shall see.

I'm actually kind of surprised that gut on the UK overclockers forum hasn't emailed their connection again? Maybe someone can rattle that dude?

 

Not hugely surprising. Better drivers are all well and good, but ALWAYS look to desktop card performance for a near 1:1 comparison when possible.

GTX 680m is a GTX 670 with 21% slower core clock and 40% slower memory

HD 7970m is an HD 7970 with 15% slower core clock and same memory speed

Even though the 680m's clocks are cut down more than the 7970m than their desktop brethren, a GTX 670 is still around 30% faster than an HD 7870. If you do the math, the GTX 680m should therefore be around 15% faster than the 7970m - and, low and behold, it is.

As a side note, seeing how much GTX 680m's clocks are cut down from GTX 670, I think it's pretty much assured we'll see a "GTX 685m" which is essentially a GTX 680m with increased clocks (probably one of the reasons nV worked with Dell to lock down software overclocking on the GTX 680m).

 

Welcome after. I knew that long before the 680M were even released. Along with predicting pretty much everything about the Kepler`s

That depends GREATLY on what AMD does.
If AMD decide to make a 7990M, Nvidia will make a 685M. 100%. But AMD have to do that first? Why? Because Nvidia just follow after like a lame copy cat. They are almost never first out with the top end GPUs. They just follow

Its absolutely true that Nvidia have a huge headroom for a 685M considering the insane overclock we have seen with the 680M without much temperature increase.
But there may be that both companies wait for the next number, aka 8000M/700M series before unleasing what they have left of engineering juice.
Just remember that both pretty much always make two releases/series of the same architecture. gotta save some of the juice for later. We get a huge bonus if Nvidia decide to wait with a higher clocked GPU. Why? Because along with improved architecture, its going to be a great performance leap.


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780M speculation thread here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/692900-gtx-780m-speculation.html

8970M speculation thread here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/690649-8970m-speculation.html

 

I think they have bigger problems other than a notebook driver. Hopefully, for your sake, the guy writing the hotfix code is not one of the 1,770 employees looking for work. AMD takes big loss; laying off 1,770 workers - MarketWatch

 

That's precisely my point. I can't believe there are people still thinking a new driver will somehow magically give it parity with the 680m when the desktop GPU counterparts are so far apart. I thought this conversation was done months ago when nV first released their official specs on 680m.

To be clear, I've owned machines with both single and dual 7970ms and 680ms, on both AW and Clevo platforms. The 7970m is definitely faster than previous gen top-end cards, even when Enduro is gimping it on Clevo: it's a good card for the price. There is, however, a noticeable difference in both stability in performance vs. 680m, and the more and more I use my 680m-based system, the more it becomes apparent.

 

Not sure there are those people... not in this thread at least. I think people understand that the newer card that costs twice as much is going to perform better lol.

The arguments that continue to be made are over the performance of the 7970m. There are an upset few that continue to bash amd/enduro while comparing the 7970m to older, weaker cards.

 

I think AMD said Mid October. We only a few days over that now, so I think the hotfix are really just around the corner. Its working like a charm like shown by Anandtech, so AMD don`t have much reason to postpone it much longer imo. Monday perhaps?

 

We know the 7970M performs just as well as the 680M in most cases when not held back, obviously the obscene overclocking the 680M gives you helps it properly pull away, but considering most machines are enduro enabled its a big issue.

 

It would be nice to know Alienware 680m (Optimus off and on) vs Clevo 680m. If there are any reviews out there, please share!

 

I should've gotten an alienware

*thinks about using it at work*

wait nevermind, I'm good

lol jk, they're good machines, and the owners are really lucky to be able to disable switchable graphics.

 

Its right there in the same review as this one

1080p Max:
Clevo 680M vs Alienware 680M (Same CPU):

Batman: Clevo 18% faster
Battlefield 3: Same performance
Civ 5: Clevo 3% faster
Dirt 3: Alienware 7.6% faster
Skyrim: Clevo 12% faster
Portal 2: Same performance
Shogun 2: Only Clevo tested

 

So, considering that there might be future fixes for the 7970m and possibly putting the card ahead of the 680m, should I still order the MSI GT70(680m)? Or stick with the NP9170(7970m)? Btw, the configurations I did are identical and the only difference is the GPU, which made the MSI $200 more than the Sager..

 

Considering how long we've been waiting for this hotfix and that its performance is still far behind 680m I doubt that 7970m will even get to match 680m's performance with future updates. Also I would get the MSI because Clevo EM series have one of the worse soundcards of any laptop - both speakers and headphone socket sound truly bad; which is a bit of a shame as HM series was definitely better.

 

so pretty much the clevo version performs better than the m18x?

 

is it just me, or have the re-sellers bumped up the price for the 7970m? can anyone confirm this?

if so, clevo knows the hot fix is coming. aha

 

Yeah, they raised the price 50 bucks! I guess they did it because it was the same price as the 675MX, and the 7970 is a more powerful card. I'm glad I bought mine before they raised the price

 

You're right.

Sager:

+ $150 GTX 670MX
+ $250 GTX 675MX
+ $300 7970M
+ $495 GTX 680M

 

You should probably sell your laptop if you hate it so much..........just my opinion though. Anyway to answer your question BoB, do yourself a favor and get the Sager regardless of the card, MSI's build quality is borderline poor. It's a whole heck of a lot easier to buy a $30 USB sound card than it is to replace screen hinges that snap on the MSI in less than a year.

 

lol his excuse is he thinks he won't be able to sell his 7970 until the hotfix is out... I think the longer he waits the less money he'll get for it. Regardless, I would just buy the 680m and sell the 7970 later if I hated the card so much like articjoe and the other guy that constantly calls the 7970 a "POS" haha. Glad I don't have to deal with that though, and I'm part of the fortunate majority that's fine with waiting for a hotfix over shelling out hundreds on a new gpu.

 

I tried selling it on eBay, and was upfront about the enduro issue as I want no neg feedback later - I received few ridiculous offers but nothing close to £1200 that I'd like for it.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

See post above.

At what point does it become cheaper to spend the extra money than keep visiting these forums daily, checking if the fix has come out? 2 months? 3? What about if the fix improves some games but others run slower, like Batman AC did in Anandtech benchmarks? Another few months spent arguing with fonbois on teh interwebs or just spending a bit more for hardware that works?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

lol exactly, that's why I would shell out the cash and buy the gpu if I were that bothered by it. I would go nuts waiting around for the hotfix, especially after all these months. I wouldn't come here to argue with fanboys though lol. It's pretty pointless imo.

Like I've said, my experience has been different from yours, so I'm not disappointed with the performance. It would be nice if I got the full potential of the card, but for now only 2 games I own are gimped to where it's annoying. Everything else is great. I'm ok waiting for the hotfix; if I weren't, I could just ship it back to Sager and order one with a 680m. And if the hotfix reduces performance in a few games from 60 fps to 48 fps, I won't care lol. I would need to see them playing side by side to notice a 10 fps difference. Slowdown is only noticable at 35 fps and under to me. And unlike you, I'm not here on these forums watching for the hotfix, I'm here because I enjoy the community and I've learned a lot from being here. I don't even think about the hotfix until I see this thread or see another post where someone is calling the 7970 a piece of **** lol.

 

wh00t, only a $195 difference between 7970M and 680M now?
EDIT: Yep, looks like the case. Cool

 

Interesting, I wonder why they would increase the pricing on the 7970............is this across all platforms, i.e. from AMD or just exclusive to Sager?