Nvidia Gtx 680m vs Amd Radeon 7970

Hey everyone,

In the search for a gaming laptop I am not sure which one to go for. I know that technically the 680m is the better card but at almost 300 euro more expensive than the AMD I am not sure if it is worth it. I would like this laptop to last as long as possible and be able to keep up with newer games. So for the sake of "future proofing" the laptop I am leaning towards the 680m. What do you all think? Thanks.

 

Save the money and put it towards your next machine lol.

 

680M performs better in benchmarks but from the looks of it, both cards are pretty even when it comes to gaming. You should be fine with either choice, but if you're going to go with the 7970M, it should be in an Alienware system since that card seems to have problems in Clevo based systems.

 

makes 0 difference. from what ive seen in actual game benchmarks theyre so close in performance its not funny, 680 is a few frames faster in some games, the 7970 in others. for gaming its nothing but personal preference. now for pro apps, CAD etc its a no brainer for the 7970

 

Well if money is no issue, it looks like the 680M is a good clocker so it will overtake the 7970M, but they are so close its a lot to spend on it.

 

From all reports, 7970 and 680 are split by single digit % in terms of performance at the regular clock speeds. Price is a huge deal though, the AMD card is quite a lot of performance at that price point given that without OC it's on par with the Nvidia card.

Sadly, Clevo systems are experiencing some problems with the Enduro feature of the 7970, but AMD will come through with a good driver for this card in the Clevo system. If you look through the benchmark threads, you'll see that the 7970 is still a good option though, even in the Clevo system.

 

I was worried about that as I am getting a Schenker p702 pro which is a barebones Clevo. I know the 7970 is a great card and while I think I can afford the 680m it still makes me wince when I see the overall price of the computer.

I'm not sure what kind of release cycle both companies are on but my friend told me that by around christmas neither card will be the top dog and therefore maybe there will be a price drop. I am thinking of buying in November so hopefully the 680m will have leveled out by then.

 

Well by November you will be able to see if the 7970 gets it's issues worked out, and actually see some 680 reviews and feedback from customers. And yes, by then the prices will drop on both cards.

 

7970m has its share of issues, but likely driver related. By November there may be an 8000 series GPU released. In either case the prices should drop a little bit by then. I went with the 680m over the 7970m because of the issues reported on the 7970m, primarily Enduro (switchable graphics) related. Of course I don't really know if the 680m will rear some ugly performance hiccups either, just I know nVidia's drivers are a bit more mature and refined especially when it comes to Optimus.

Not to mention the 680m seems to run cooler. Although some Clevo users are finding bad heatpipe/heatsink contact with the GPU which contributes to high temperatures.

If issues with the 7970m get resolved, then it's a no-brainer cost to performance.

 

Congratz on the new computer dude! looks great!

Ya, enduro is giving clevo owners fits (well, at least the ones that are experiencing issues). More than likely, if someone didn't come to NBR, he or she might never know that the 7970m is running better on Alienware (because we can switch off the integrated graphics). They are probably gaming happily away on their Clevos

But you make a great point...Optimus is a mature technology so switchable graphics in the 680m will work better than Enduro. Hopefully, after a few driver revisions, Enduro will get fixed

From what I have seen with real data from users:

From the few benches i have seen, and from user experiences like with NBR member Hackness, the 680m scores higher in 3dmark11, so if a user wanted the highest possible 3dmarks, the 680m is a must

As far as game benches, it is not so clear cut. Some games favor amd and some nvidia. So i guess it really depends on what games you play. It is very close.

Either way, the 7970m and 680m are great cards. They are huge leaps in performance over the previous generation. Ultimately, the buyer has to decide what fits their comfort level and their budget

 

I wonder if the 680M will have a price drop to $350-370 like the 580M last year.

I would vote on a 680M, since nVidia has been known to optimize and update drivers faster. Plus, you get PhysX, which is something that AMD cards does not have.

 

when the price of the 680m drops, you may or may not want it anymore because it is a signal that the next gen is on the way or the refresh is coming. We have already seen references to amd 8000's show up in some beta drivers.

Video cards are manufactured and pushed out to market at a torrid pace...refresh cards and next gen cards are always just around the corner

 

I'm not saying this because I have a AMD gpu - I had a nv classic (9k series) until a few weeks ago and I was extremely impressed how well it handled games and CUDA.

That being said, remember that PhysX support is only useful when games are written to use it. Also, PhysX is simply a physics engine. In the absence of PhysX support, a quad core CPU is more than able to handle the physics for video games. Besides, for newer games, the GPU will be under too much stress to keep cores available for PhysX. Generally, PhysX is continuously enabled for SLI setups or for older games when using single new GPUs.

About driver support, you are correct. NV has generally been more reliable/quick but I had crashes and issues with my 9800m GTS as well. I did not own a high end AMD card before that so I cannot compare but others will tell us that the AMD GPUs have more trouble. However, that does not mean NV is without problem. I think the general outlook on this forum (this is completely my opinion from what I have hread) is that if money is no object, then the 680m is fine and not otherwise.

 

No offense, but the NotebookCheck article is terrible and flawed; it's been heavily discussed here recently. I would look more at user reports on these forums in the Alienware/Clevo sections to get a better idea of what you will be looking at if you were to buy a machine with "X" card.