7970M CF vs. 680M SLI

Both in a Eurocom Scorpuis, unfortunately not direct apples-to-apples though. Which the laptops were same CPU/memory. More details here

Pretty surprised at the massive CAD win for the 7970M (2x to 7x faster).

What's the cost difference?

 

I personally don't like that test, the systems are not equal like you said. Me and HTWingnut have identical systems apart from our SLI/Crossfire config. He is throwing up some benchmarks and ill replicate them on my system when it comes in, probably tomorrow night or Thursday for more accurate numbers. I expect 680m SLI is faster, but not by a whole lot.

 

Bump! 7970M CF vs 680m single I would be interested in.

 

I'm pretty sure the 7970m is quite a it cheaper than the 680m in single configuration. I can only extrapolate that the CF is cheaper than SLI. I think the benchmarks showed the 7970m is pretty close to the 680m in performance with a wide range of games so 680m is better for outright performance but perf/dollar is definitely the 7970m. Assuming comparable CF vs SLI scaling, I think the situation would be the same as CF would have better perf/dollar.
If anything, the only potential dealbreaker would be the 4gb on the 680m since thats much healthier for an SLI rig, SLI setups tend to push the envelope further than what any single card setup would ever achieve so the extra RAM helps avoid any unnecessary bottleneck.

 

From a reseller the difference in price is £150/ 200$ between 7970m CF and 680m single. The benchmarks on notebook check indicate a 150% performance increase. However given the enduro issues (and the ability to turn it off on Clevo laptops) is this performance worth the hassle? Apparently new drivers are coming out in October specifically to deal with this problem. But I am in the market at the moment and trying to make the comparison on a 17" setup.

My 2cents on price/perf is that I don't think nVidia are going to magically release a set of drivers which super powers the 680m. I think they are happy to say that if you want the most powerful you pay top dollar, and people are happy to.

 

nvidia has better dual cards because of better driver support but both cards are about equal when comparing them individually. Some games AMD murders and others Nvidia murders and some are ~ the same. Also as shown in a notebookcheck comparison. The Dell 7970m is far better than the Clevo one. Not sure why but Dell 7970m beats it in many tests. Granted the 680 is far more efficient on power draw but for the price I'll take AMD any day because it is ~2x more for a stupid 680m...stupid.

 

Really? Is that your scientific answer?

Is a pure performance tire better than an all-weather one? Yes, unless it's raining. These test are equivalent to those quarter mile races vs the flat 0-60 (or is that 0-100km across the pond? )

Anyway, I think you get my point. Depending on where you take the reading in the performance curve, one can look significant better than the other. So you just have to take these results with a grain of salt and be aware of what they're measuring.

 

You are talking out of your butt good sir. I have made a lovely excel file giving you the data. In all tests 7970m had 3610 while 680m had 3720. Refer to Notebookchecks article on CPU performance for games. CPU actually plays a role in several games so very well the 7970 would be better with a better CPU. I have provided the link to both articles below. Also these tests were done with the junk drivers for AMD so most likely 7970m will even do better now with these new drivers.

As you can see I'll take the 7970M in single card any day. Dual cards is a totally different issue. 7970m actually smears the 680m in many tests with slower CPU and in all the areas it lost was only by a few percentage points besides COD:MW3. Would be interesting to see how much better the 7970m would do with the same CPU.




Review GeForce GTX 680M vs. Radeon HD 7970M - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Many games range from 1-10FPS more with better CPU. Interesting read.
Intel Ivy Bridge Guide for Gamers - Notebookcheck.net Reviews


Test.........................................7970m........680m
3Dmark 11................................. -8%
Vantage .................................... 1%
3DMark 06................................. -1%
3Dmark 05................................. -1%
3DMark 03................................. 33%
Unigine Heaven 2.1...................... 8%
SPECviewperf 11........................ -2%
Ensight..................................... 63%
Lightwave................................. 86%
Maya......................................... 4%
Pro/ENGINEER............................ 61%
SolidWorks............................... 158%
Tcvis...................................... 619%
Siemens.................................. 559%
Max Payne 3*............................ -9%
Dirt Showdown........................... -9%
Disen 2: DW................................. 4%
CoD: MW3................................. -14%
Alan Wake................................... 8%
Batman: Arkham City.................... -3%
Skyrim......................................... 4%
Anno 2070................................... 8%
BF3............................................ 3%
F1 2011..................................... -3%
Fifa 12........................................ 2%
Dues Ex HR.................................. 4%
Crysis 2..................................... 11%
StarCraft 2................................. 20%
Metro 2033................................. 11%



*uses Schenker 7970m since Alienware was not tested
Schenker 7970m is overall worse than Alienware 7970m BTW.

original excel file
http://www.filedropper.com/7970mvs680m

 

Im about to change my x7200 rig for a p370em with 3920xm and because of the price 7970m. It would cost me aproximately 1000 euro more to get the SLI 680m. And for that price difference, the hell with nvidia, unfortunately i dont have an euro printer at home.
Will also check if the 2TB 2,5" hdd will fin in the p370em . It did in the x7200.

I'm looking forward to the new drivers. But supposedely there are no enduro issue when crossfire. since it is disabled.
To the guy with CF system. ANy issues so far playing games ?

 

CAD scores going to AMD's favor are not surprising really, considering that compute performance is a lot higher on AMD cards (which they increased with this generation), and Nvidia actually lowered theirs in order to gain a 'slight' edge in gaming.

I'd pick AMD over Nvidia because of this any day.
Gaming-wise they both poerform mostly the same, but OpenCL-wise, AMD destroys Nvidia and it happens to be useful to me seeing how I work with CAD based programs that have started to adopt OpenCL.

 

Did anyone here ever go ahead and get dual 7970m's in their laptop spec? I ask because im currently looking at a pcspecialist vortex III elite with dual 7970m's for eunning CAD programs, or a dell m6700 with a single nvidia k3000m.... Cant decide, and info much appreciated

 

I believe the 7970m owns the nvidia when it comes to professional apps like cad. Otherwise the 680m are better at games

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