AMD 7970m vs GTX 680m

Eventhough this is expected, I think it is a bad move by Nvidia. Even the most die-hard Nvidia fans will have a hard time justifying +$368 at Schenker for the 680m.

I can only imagine what Alienware is gonna charge

 

I cant even imagine considering they already charge 150$ more for the GTX 675m

 

Well historically Clevo have not been good with GPU BIOS updates for new GPU's. The HM series (the models before EM series) have not yet had the BIOS upadated to accept new 7970m's. So if you only plan to stick with one gpu (preferably a powerful one) you'll be good.

 

Historically? Mate, you're just using their latest mess as an example they have updated the older models to support newer video cards in the past, that was their business model, they only limited this on the hm models due to technical limitations.

 

If Clevo provides their Bios and EC code, this HM mess will get sorted out promptly. Technically, because the MXM slot in the HM is compatible, there are no physical limitations...only code issues with regards to the newest GPU's

As of right now:

7970m has less than 5 mins before the EC shuts the computer down
660m (kepler) black screens immediately.
680m (kepler) if it behaves like its 660m kid brother, will probably black screen too

 

I also agree, of clevo were more transparent these issues would be solved much quicker. Though Sager have been trying the newer cards in the hm models for a while with no luck, i'm only guessing wrong thermal reads.

 

the 7970M has just been confirmed to work in the HM's.

We'll see about the 660M and 680M's.. nothing is impossible

 

Well that's very promising, thanks for the update.

 

What does the upgrade kit consist of?

 

The cooling assembly along with the GPU itself, I'd assume..

 

Well that is great then. A result that current and potential Clevo laptop owners will be happy with.

 

Been proven wrong, props to Sager.

 

By who? Clevo themselves?

Great news, means I can use my np9150em to get 680m/7990m.

 

Fantastic news!

I hope similar upgrade kits will become available from UK retailers such as PC Specialist, or that Sager are willing to ship to the UK.

I have two P150HM's which would definitely benefit from a 485M -> 7970M upgrade

 

great! i am very excited about my switch from alienware to sager! very cool! thanks NBR! I can't wait to get my laptop....

I may or may not have tried to bribe the sales guy from xoticpc to see if he could bump up my order hahah.... it didn't work

 

Sounds like P170 buyers got a bad deal then if they have more complications with the upgrade.

 

That's because they can't, it's in Sager's power to do that (but they will still not do it, I tried lulz)

 

I was almost sure I was going to upgrade to sli gtx 680's but if nvidia is going to ask 300 dollars extra per card that means I'm looking at an additional 600 dollars compared to CF 7970m's. I'm having a hard time convincing myself the sli 680m is worth an additional 600 dollars over CF 7970m.

I will wait and see when NBR members start receiving them and actually test their OCing capabilities and we get a true max oc'd 7970 vs max oc'd 680. For me to spend 600 more over the 7970 upgrade I need to see atleast a 10-15% average increase in performance across the board on a max oc'd shootout or I'll most likely keep that extra 600 in the bank and take the 7970's.

Some of us actually have this thing called a budget. Early indications show the gtx680m is better but +300 per card better I'm not so sure about that.

 

Mother of God! I just ran UniEngine Heaven 3.0 at 1920X1080, Extreme Tesselation, and 8X AA and got over 62 FPS average... Stock clocks on everything, running the 8.98-120604a (June 4th unofficial beta) with the AMD CAP 12.6.

THE FA! Seriously! Also, 3DMark11 scored over 9,900!

 

Arestavo I like your choice of ram for your m18x. Same exact modules as me

 

my "complete gaming" friend just spent 1.6k$ on a msi gt70 (or w.e the model num is ) with the gtx 670m..... i couldn't help but smh. He for some reason hates amd and refused to get a perfectly good sager with the 7970m with the same price saying "my 670m can play everything perfectly fine".
.
.
.
.
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i pity him

 

40nm gpu vs 28nm gpu not even comparable 670m sucks compared to 7970m. Your friend is an idiot

 

yeah i just couldnt bring myself to say it to him... i tried at first but then just went along with it saying "yeah thats good mhmmm..." while in my head im thinking "what a waste of good money"

 

I'm a pretty hard core Nvidia fan, but even I realized the re-badged 675M vs. the 7970M was a no-brainer.

 

he just outright refused... then last minute attempt im like fine if u want nvidia go for the 680m but that was way too much so he stayed with the 670m sigh... another person lost to nvidia's naming scheme and rep

 

Mother of Vegeta

 

You chill on PC Specialist's forums don't you? you seem familiar, anyways, ever considered having one on a 7970M and another on the 680M? money might be tight haha

 

To all interested, the petition is closed, finally.
Sager offered a way to upgrade those HM owners gpu by directly contacting and dealing with them
I would like to thank you all for your support into joining me, and us, in this fight.
Since theres a good chance that some peoples dont know it yet, here i am. Sorry for the OT.
Thanks

 

Still great work dude. It was a great effort from you. May be you are the reason all this turned out so well. Who knows??

 

Same here. I love nvidia for their drivers. The last ATI card I had was an x800xt 256 and the drivers were absolutely horrible. I hope they've gotten better over the years.

 

Yeah who knows anyway we've reached our goal. I hope to see soon hm users benching together with new users along their new gpu

 

Not even the same company. Not even the same person at the helm of their driver development. Not even the same drivers/software anymore. Not even the same technology.

That's like comparing Blizzard from 1992 to Blizzard 2012. And AMD drivers have been consistently more stable than Nvidia drivers past few years now and don't have the disasters like drivers causing massive overheating. I've had no issues with their drivers past 3 years. I found almost always the complaint is user caused, not AMD. Easier to blame AMD than to admit their own idiocy.

 

anyone run Witcher 2 on 7970?

 

gtx 680m 3dmark11 gpu score 6024 performance

GTX 680M

 

interesting, doesn't seem like that much after all

 

Yeah and that's with GPU Boost. If 680m vs 7970m in fixed stock clocks the winner would be 7970m.
Plus 7970m is such a good OCer it's Performance scores got 6402 with 950/1450. http://youtu.be/w1H9B-yUKhc

 

Thanks man. I`d be much more interested seeing the Extreme preset done but finally we have some other results than what happend at Computex.

Just wait and see. The 680M will be in Average around 15% faster than 7970M in games.

Like I showed earlier although 680M score 10% better in Performance preset GPU score in 3DMark 11, I think it will increase that lead once the settings is higher, 1080p with MSAA.

Oh please. Educate yourself on how Kepler operate.

 

7970m scores over 7000 in 3dmark11 with Max overclocks, I'm scoring 6900 easy and could even go farther , 680m better have some oc potential if it wants to beat the 7970m

 

I already ordered mine p170em with 680m...
i am betting 300 euro on you Cloudfire xD

 

oooops, stuff just got real

Jarred, the guy who reviews tens of GPUs each year for Anandtech is foreseeing 10% over 7970M based on roughly calculating the desktop GPUs.
Nvidia says up to 30% faster than 7970M, but in average 20% faster than 7970M.
I personally think its between the two, around 15%

Yeah the 7970M is a extremely good overclocker. Personally I won`t be overclocking my GPUs so I want the best at stock. Time will show if 680M can overclock just as much or if it sucks at it

 

I knew Jarred W personally before he started writing when we were just young pups on firingsquad. He even offered me a job writing an article years ago for anandtech. He's just a regular guy. 10% is just a number he threw out there. There is no magical formula based on anything.

Lets just wait and see before you throw out 10%-15%-30% estimates

I almost guarantee that Alan Wake will run better on the 7970m...so my point is some games will prefer one company or another...and I will reiterate...these cards score similarly on the synthetic benches. Logic dictates that there is no 30% increase as a result. Now it is logically possible that the 680m just sucks in 3dmark but runs amazing in games. This is unlikely though as nvidia knows how important these benches are to the public.

 

GPU Boost is not overclocking. If it is enabled by default in the out of box config, that is stock. (Just like Intel's Turbo Boost).

 

Gawd, why do people keep saying this...fine, it isn't technically overclocking because it is a feature of kepler out of the box. PS...Intel Turbo is overclocking, but it is system controlled

however, just to level the playing field, if boost runs 10% on the 680m, i'll overclock my 7970m 10%

 

Another one who have no clue how Kepler works

 

Agreed.... Need to compare Apples to Apples....

Of all the Benchmarks I have seen of the 680m, what has jumped out at me the most is the temperature under load. Very obvious when comparing it to the 7970m that the 7970m has much more overclocking potential.

Whether it is a feature or not fact is it is still overclocking your card, and 7970m owners can do the same.

 

So why don't you explain it to me, oh great one

I've read all the articles just like you have

 

yeah slickdude hasn't even touched a Kepler GPU ever how dare he say anything! oh wait...

But seriously a certain member is becoming quite obnoxious.

 

Time to get some new eye wear that's not manufactured by nVidia.

 

LOLO....actually I have. My desktop sports heavily overclocked SLI 670's

 

Lol, GPU boos IS overclocking, just self regulated. It depends on several factors, such as temps, power, etc...

Not every game will allow the self overclock due to how it taxes the system. At its base, the gpu will run by its default max clockrate, and only if possible will it overclock. Thus there will be games with no difference whether its enabled or not, but in others it will.