AMD 7970m vs GTX 680m

People are saying the 7970m is a downclocked 7870. the 580m has been leaked.

A downclocked 7870 at 7970m clocks would score roughly 6000-7000 gpu score in 3dmark 11. The 680m scores 4200-4800.

Why does the 7970m perform so much better?

 

what? which 7870 scores 7k 3dmark11? also downclocked, as in 580m is a downclocked 560Ti, doesn't score as much as 560Ti

 

Not exactly

even 7870 is not a 7000 gpu score with stock clocks, let alone downclocks

See this chart (not 100% accurate for laptops duo the weaker laptops cpu)
http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=37129

It's quite safe to say that both cards will end up being 5xxx~ with slight advantage to the 7970m if the leaked benchmarks are accurate

In plain english, both cards will be around equal to desktop equivalent of

6970~ or GTX 480~ GTX 570~ they will be around that range only

 

680M was 4.9k in the leaked benchmark, and that was probably an engineering sample with some AMD quality drivers.

 

I see what you did there.......

Go be a fanboy somewhere else.

 

Typing this from a computer with a Mobility 3870 in it... and as the guy who first posted the link to 7970M specs from Dell. Was just kiddin'

 

Just wait for 7970m benchmarks. The desktop version of their new cards was not at all impressive, perhaps they have done better in the mobile cards, but I won't hold my breath.

 

What the? The current HD7000 series, specially the 7870, are among the best deals in price/performance ratio we have seen in a while.

If anything, nvidia has been quite late this time around. They always held the performance crown even before the HD2000 series which was the moment AMD stopped being competitive at the high end.

this time, the current top card of nvidia barely edges the AMD card, by a much lower margin than previous generations. Not only that, but they haven't introduced yet competing lower end GPUs which is the bulk of the customers. this is only based on actual products available.

Seriously... both GTX680 and HD7970 when overclocked, sometimes reach similar numbers to the GTX590 and HD6990.... thats quite a feat.

Looking at TDP though, it is obvious the new architecture combined with a ceiling of 100w can yield a decent performance boost. This applies to both AMD and Nvidia. If they will exploit it, it remains to be seen.

As for performance expectations, rumored specs of both cards (680m and 7970m) leave the AMD card at an advantage. It remains to be seen how true this will end being.

I say a decent jump in performance is due already from both vendors. We have been stuck for a while in a small increment.

 

P5381 3D Mark 11 for 7970M

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/658295-7970m-m15x-why-yes.html

 

I also heard that Amd has a bad driver compare to Nvdia. Is this true?

 

No. (10char)

 

not bad driver, but using nvidia's drivers is a piece of cake, you don't need to modify nothing in most cases, also recently nvidia's performance bumps of new drivers have been phenomenal

 

Not really that amazing, sorting out bugs sure. AMD have been easier to install longer than Nvidia.

 

sounds like 7970m wasted the 680m!

5400 gpu is pretty good, I get 4000 with my 6990m so no point in upgrading but still pretty cool. I just hope the next cards will be a larger jump and be compatible, if not i guess ill keep this laptop for 3 years and run medium settings as almost all games are console ports and medium to ultra makes little or no differance in the image quality.

 

Guys...just in case you are wondering if the 7970m is for real.

yes, this is SICK. I'll be posting a nice right up on the alienware m17x forums. Took me 6 hrs to get it to work.

This is at the stock clocks...850/1200

 

This is roughly twice the performance of a 580M ...
When is this due to be released (just wondering if i should delay and change my P170EM order)?
And is this with stock clocks? Can you provide GPU-z and CPU-z on the screenshots and maby some Vantage runs too?

 

I'll be doing a writeup tomorrow...just too tired tonight. Spent all night getting this thing to work.

THis is @ stock clocks. Will be overclocking tomorrow lol

STOCK Vantage run 850/1200:

 

Damn, i have to call up NEXOC and change my order. And according to Alienware prices its even cheaper than the 675M!
Is there any word when the 680M and 7990M will be released (just wondering before i go changing my order tomorrow )?

 

holys***, and people struggled to get the GTX 580M to 20k :O

 

i'm in shock how powerful the 7970m is. I wasn't expecting this at all.

 

how is the temperature? idle and load? its okay if you are tired now. We can wait until tomorrow.

 

How are the temps if you dont mind sharing that too?

EDIT: Ah beat me to it .

 

i ran furmark for 10 mins earlier...67-68c

I ran it again for 2mins just to give you the proof

 

we should let him rest a little bit i think

This is so great!!. We know that it will work on m17 r2 before the 7970m even is out fantastic . I think waiting for 7990m is going to be a hard time, looks like i must grab a 7970m as fast as possible.

The question is for me right now if my i7 920xm@3,2 i good enough for a possible 7970 X-fire?

 

^^^ LOL...yes good idea. Enough for one nite.

 

That is amazing! The 7970M looks like it can be around the levels of a GTX 570! I am very impressed... However, I doubt it was cheap to acquire though!

 

Hehehehe, i tried to tell people, all that lovely memory bandwidth.

 

Yeah don't expect something until August/September.. not worth waiting in my opinion. I'm settling for the 7970M it looks insane...

 

68 celsius max is pretty good. Desktop 7870 is a lot cooler than 6870, about 10 degree celsius lower when on load, so AMD have done an amazing job

 

Yes Victory has been achieved once again, no more can the naysayers and deniers spout their propaganda with the light of truth blinding them. Slick The Deliverer has put the mediocre and egregiously overpriced 580m/675m throttler, the powerhogging gtx 480, the laughable 560ti, the overrated 570, and especially the imaginary non-existent, 3 month late to the party, underperforming, +++100tdp, +2x price 680m into their coffins. When the 7970m overclocks, it will make known the final stamp of doom and deliverance, and even the 580 will tremble in its wake. All this at insanely cheap prices (lol + $200 upgrade), with incredible unprecedented temperatures and energy consumption, AND ITS AVAILABLE NOW.

Long live the True Elite Mobile King 7970m.

 

I know I don't really need to upgrade for another year, but that makes me want to upgrade anyway. That's a really sweet mobile card. But I couldn't come up with the proper cash till xmas ...so I guess I'm waiting for the 8970m anyway.

 

Oh god... MUST HAVE!
Thanks for the benches and temp readings .
This has made up my mind. Already wrote to NEXOC to change my order. Maby ill even get some cash back if the 675M is really more expensive .

 

For those who need to compare it to desktop cards

7870-580 desktop cards perform about the same
7970m = 7870 desktop with small downclock, so in a sense overclocking it lets you reach 580 DESKTOP speed or even passing it if heavily overclocked

Considering how cool 7970m runs (under 70C furmark benchmark, overclocking it wont be an issue really)

 

The tables turned back in 2006 with the introduction of the 8800GTX now 6 years later AMD have finally come back to bite if not in the desktop sector than certainly in the mobile sector.

Nvidia are going to have to chop their prices quite aggressively if their cards no longer perform better... for me this card is the only upgrade as another 100W TDP card isn't acceptable for the M15x or any laptop. The card looks to be about 80W tdp which is amazing considering the performance!

 

Yes, I think its sick that AMD is selling this GPU $100 below 675M. They could easily have charged $100 more and still sell this GPU like hotcakes. You`d be a fool to even consider the 675M. Oh well, I guess we have brand loyal fans that don`t really consider AMD as an option. Its a shame

But question: You say that the TDP is 80W. How do you calculate/know that?

 

With more and more professional programs supporting OpenCL, I would easily go with 7970m (of course I might wait another year or so before getting a new laptop though).

Besides, AMD was able to keep its compute power in balance with gaming performance and even increase it, while Nvidia severely cut off compute performance in their latest gpu's just so they can get marginally better than AMD in gaming performance in the desktop sector.

Aside that, the only reason I was contemplating Nvidia was due to CUDA use in 3dsMAx... but with other options at my disposal that can use AMD's gpus (and with an apparent higher adoption of OpenCL)... you should ge the picture.

Now if only we can finally get them to use diamond/graphene for chip production...

 

I agree. nVIDIA is selling their throne. And as stated before, if not the desktop market, it's surely the mobile market. They took the advantage they had for granted, I surely hope that the 680M will have some kind of perception or advantage.... if the 7970M is slaughtering the current leaks of the 680M, I wouldn't imagine what the 7990M would be capable of doing!!

 

Based on the temp tests in furmark at stock clocks in that it seems to run cooler than even my 6990M when it is undervolted at stock clocks I am assuming the tdp to be a tad under 100Wtdp.

I don't think 80W tdp is accurate but I think within 10W+- is certainly possible and I hope so as in my opinion the 6990M at 100W tdp is too hot.

AMD are in a great position. Nvidia will now react and release the 680M probably with performance to match the 7970M and try to eliminate their problems before doing so in terms of heat etc however AMD can then simply put out the 7990M afterwards and destroy the 680M and keep an iron grip on the mobile market By the time nvidia reacts AMD will be onto the next 8xxx series, competition is great!

 

I don't for a second believe the 680M is scoring 4500 myself.

 

Maybe a noob question but, I thought the 7970 wont get released till later in the month? How is it possible to get these benchmarks?

 

If the 680m truly does merely score 4500-4900 in '11 I'm jumping ship I've been back and forth a few times now AMD vs nvidia. In 2010 it was the 6990m for me, last year it was the 580m and this year unless nvidia pulls it out of the bag with reasonable prices, I'm crossing over again.

 

It'll have to score at least that to save face. I'm sure nVidia will make the 680M faster than the 7970M; even if they have to make a 130w TDP card so they can jack up their prices. That's how they roll. They also might do what they did with the GTX 680 with the boost clocks to saturate extra thermal space to add some performance, which I think is pretty smart on their part.

 

yea let's not jump to conclusions based on Rumors and early benchies, now I agree that the 7970m will be a Monster of a card no doubt, however let's not quickly say it wins over GTX 680m so quickly, considering the later hasn't even seen the day of light(other than that early factory benchmark)

basically, I won't take a final conclusion until I see 2 laptops, one with the 7970m and the other with a GTX 680m benchmarking and testing FPS next to each other

 

I concur. I believe that the 680m will be over priced because nvidia will say that it has their "awesome" new GPU boost feature.

It will be a 100w TDP card at base clock and when it GPU boosts it will probably run into 150w.

If their benchmarks are slow, I'm going to guess that they will chalk that down to GPU boost bugs etc.

All speculation of course (shamlessly saving my backside)

 

I agree with this. At this point who really knows what the 680 will really
bring to the table.

However, imo, you wont get a chance to really compare these two until the
xmas season. I am not waiting that long.

Replacing my AMD with another AMD in a couple weeks. So glad I didnt
jump on the 675.

 

I'm VERY interested in hearing your writeup. These benchmark results may have just convinced me away from waiting for the GTX 680M. I was originally planning to move back to Nvidia due to their generally better driver support (neither ATI nor Nvidia are bad, but having owned both in the past, I have to admit Nvidia is better with updating their drivers), but you may have just convinced me otherwise.

 

Trust me when i say this AMD/NVIDIA both have issues. If you dont believe that you are the one who is losing. If you want the best always go with the one with a higher bandwidth, pixel rate or just benchmark scores. dont block your views be open minded. i have owned amd for a long time(although I have gtx 560 SLI now lol) and they are very fast with driver updates.

 

Yes I agree, AMD driver issues are common misconceptions. Currently they bring out more drivers than nvidia do. I believe that they are equal in terms of drivers. The best indicator of value for money is performance. When I owned the 6990m, I was reluctant due to everyone telling me that the drivers were crap but I had no issues. Nvidia drivers also give people grief in terms of compatibility etc.

 

The thing is, in the desktop cards Nvidia new architecture is quite a bit better. If AMD can give these results with the 7970m, then the 680m should be truly amazing, with 20 watts of extra TDP and a better architecture.

 

I heard that amd 7970 will release in May and gtx 680m on June. Is this true?