Can someone help me understand what's happened with the 7970m?

I keep seeing all manner of issues popping up and I can't figure out if they're serious or not. For context, I'm considering buying a Clevo P170EM with a 7970m from a Portuguese retailer; what I would like to get is some clarification on what the issues really are and if they're actually serious in, you know, a "real world" sense, i.e. outside meaningless numbers like GPU utilization.

1) is the hardware working or not? I came across a couple of threads here going on about how one (or more) of Clevo's shipments of 7970m's were screwed up. The same threads stated Clevo was working on it and that it should clear up soon. Is this a real issue or was it just bad luck on that specific shipment?

2) is Enduro working or not? And what - if any - real-world impact does that have? Is it fixe-able through a future software update? From what I understand it should handle switching between integrated and dedicated graphics; does it do this correctly or not? If not, can it be disabled / managed? What are the impacts?

3) I've come across reports of games crashing or experiencing really degraded performance every now and then, but it's always vague-ish. Does anyone have more details? E.g., is it always specific games or is it random? Is there any way of managing / controlling it?

The thing is, this reseller offers the 7970m as a cheap upgrade over an nVidia GTX 675m, whereas the 680m is really expensive. This leads me to believe the 7970m should offer much better value for money than either card, but I'm afraid the above mentioned issues may make it unusable any help?

Thanks!

 

I have a P170EM from Clevo with a 7970M and I like it very much. I can run all the games I play (mainly CoD, LoL, Portal 2, and Skyrim) fluently with no problems. However, I have heard that some users have problems with their fps in some games (such as BF3...) as well. I don't think (and hope) that the hardware is "screwed up". I think it is the drivers that cause the problems, and I hope that the 12.7 release from AMD will solve most problems.

But as I said, - I have no problems, and I really like the performance of this baby . I have always been a Nvidia fanboy but I realized that the GTX 680M was overpriced, and therefore I decided to stick to ATI this time. I do not regret it (at least for now ).

And regarding Enduro: Yes, it works, - at least in those games I play. It does not interfere when I play. However, I have heard that in some games it switches to the weak GPU even though you need the power from the strong 7970M-GPU. You cannot disable it on the P170EM yet, but I hope that it will be fixed with the next driver. But as I said, - I have not had any problems.

 

good luck buying from portugal. 2x more expensive then everywhere. then don't worry about RMA. it just takes months.
Also don't expect clevo or AMD to give a propper driver support. They are known to release gpu's without any good drivers and totally forget about it. reminds me for example 3870.

 

When Nvidia released Optimus (a system like Enduro) they also had a lot of problems. I bought a computer with Optimus a couple of years ago, and I couldn't install new drivers, - I could only use the stock-drivers because Nvidia was lazy, and didn't fix the weird problem I had. However, they fixed after half a year. My point is: Both companies have problems, - however, you may be correct when you say that AMD has most problems at the moment.

 

It's an Enduro issue, not the card's itself. In a system which can completely disable Enduro (the M17x), the 7970M is running to spec. Unfortunately, Clevo did not have the foresight to include a manual switching option in their high-end machines.

That's a mistake I doubt they make again.

 

Our market does suck, but I wants me a Portuguese keyboard

Anyway, from what you guys tell me,

1) yes the hardware works, problems such as they exist are driver-related;

2) Enduro sucks but shouldn't have massive impact right now, and is expected to improve in the future;

3) random game failures should be mostly Enduro-related, so see above.

Does that sound right?

 

The card does work well and gives great raw price/performance (nV should be ashamed for charging so much for 680m which delivers around the same FPS for $300 more) . Using it in my p150 Em, I was able to run every game maxed save Metro 2033. I didn't notice any performance degradation due to enduro, but I ddin't have anything to compare it to.

I have a feeling most people complaining about the performance degradation caused by enduro are focusing on benchmarks - and I'm only concerned with how my games run. In the immortal words of Kenny Powers: "I play real sports. Not into seeing who the best at exercising is."

Crossfire with 7970m is another story from what I hear, but doesn't sound like you're going down this route.

 

P150HM don't have enduro...

 

There are some under utilization in some games but in my experience performance is awesome. The utilization will get fixed eventually, a lot of ppl who are upset are the uber enthusiasts who want pure raw performance out of the card and also benchers. It's new tech, give it time and they will fix it giving us even better performance. In the meantime I am enjoying my laptop. I play BF3 in default ultra settings and get 35-50fps. Diablo 3 runs smooth at a constant 60fps (vsync on). Shogun 2 I am getting over 30 fps highest settings w/ MLA. Witcher 2 I am getting ~45 fps in default high settings. What games are you going to play?

 

You are aware we can demand a refund if an RMA takes more than 30 days, right?

As for overpricing, totally agree, save a few exceptions. You can actually get a few nice deals with some Clevos.

 

To the original poster, the card is far from unusable. It totally kicks butt on everything I have thrown at it. It is solid, stable and great performance for the price vs. other options.

 

Sorry but on Clevo the 7970M is not stable... Check the Clevo Forum and Sager Forum

Best Regards to all

 

Dont know about that no more, they deleted the sticky threads.

 

Make sure you guys with 7970m's are running the 12.7b drivers...really helps

 

Right... methinks I'm about to take the plunge. I've had a few ATI's over the years and whilst driver support was never stellar, they have yet to let me down. I'm not a super enthusiast, I can live without 100% utilization as long as Enduro doesn't act up too much. Besides, I don't plan on maxxing out Metro 2033 or anything like that - I'm more into RPGs, RTSs and sports titles. I just want the 7970m for a bit of future proofing and, to be honest, at €30 more, it's a steal of an upgrade.

Thanks!

 

I really dislike the P170EM's keyboard and its awkward layout as well as the soundcard and the speakers.

On the other hand, I have nothing bad to say about the graphics. I don't know if there are utilization problems with the 7970m. There might be, but anecdotally I haven't noticed anything wrong using stock drivers and I haven't actively set out to look for problems like some other posters seem to have. The games I've tried since getting the machine (mainly Fallout New Vegas at the moment) run absolutely fine. In terms of drivers, I'd say it's slightly annoying that you have to specify whether something is 3D-accelerated or not, but that's a minor niggle.