7970m wait for fix? or switch to 680m?

would it be worth it to switch? i really thought it was going to work out amazing but that is not the case. what if they never fix the problem! am i better off switching? pls help im kinda nub :/ thx

 

860M will probably be pretty beast when it comes out, so I'd go with that one.

 

I would go with 680m for now.. 860m is still far lol

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

I am already saving my cash for that bad boy!!!

 

Come one guys lol that was an obvious typo lol the sad thing is, the 860M would still probably be at the same level as the 680M (580M=670M, 680M=770M=860M), but back to the point, go for the 680M it runs super cool and you never have to worry about under utilization.

 

Deadpan transfers poorly online.

There is no 860M but the 680M. I'd wait unless the ~250 USD difference is no problem for you.

 

Yeah, but Tyranids was funny.

 

Until there is a fix to make the 7970 work 100% it is worth to switch to the 680M IMO.

The 7970 will still outperform any last generation non overclocked card.
The issues and games it affects the most (ie Battlefield 3)are well documented all over this forums. If you are willing to deal with that and don't mind waiting for a fix go for it.

 

Switch to 680M and forget about the 7970M, AMD and Clevo botched that one big time.

 

OMG sorry for the typo... wow thats a big one! hahaha. as some of you might have guessed i meant the 680m XD

 

Funny enough I am sending my laptop back today for the switch. AMD has recently been made aware of the situation according to some of the threads here. So even if a fix is coming, it wont be coming for awhile. $250 bux well spent imo for a faster/cooler/better performing card. Thats strike two for me on AMD cards...

 

I can't say i'm a fanboy of either one, but comparing the two they're so close that you won't be able to see a difference, except in scores.. In that case the 680m is slightly higher. So I will have say hell no to nvidia on this one, the 7970 is my first amd card, and so far it runs everything i throw at it flawlessly with the latest beta drivers installed.

 

I'm sending my 7970m back. I could put up with subpar performance in some games temporarily. But i'm getting occasional BSODs as well. That I won't deal with.

 

must be something else then, cause i been playing games like the witcher 2 and been having great fps, sure the back spits out hot air, but that's its job. I have n complaints really.

 

Not sure what's the standard of your great FPS but if you are happy with what you are seeing then that's good, however for people who want to use the full potential of what they've paid for, they aren't happy.

 

This is the really annoying thing about this issue. Everyone has it. Everyone. However, you've got all these guys who haven't upgraded in two years or whatever, and since their 7970 runs better than their GT240m or whatever, they say they don't have a problem. The problem with the 7970m is that it is running much slower than it should for the price, not that it's running slower than our last computer or something crazy like that.

 

The BSODs point directly to the video card driver. And it's always the same two places it has done it.

1) Closing a game.

2) Loading a video on youtube.

And it doesn't do it all the time. It's very random. I can go 2 days and not BSOD. And the next day i'll have 3 within a few hours.

 

Coors:
Which browser do you use? I have noticed that Google Chrome renders YouTube videos a lot more stable and smoother than IE 9 on the 7970M. I'd give it a go.

 

Firefox. The 680m is on the way though. Not going to swap browsers for AMDs poor driver issue.

 

There are some free upgrade right now. So you already save some money toward to the more expensive card on Nvidia GTX 680M.

 

You mean that some places are giving a free upgrade from the 7970M to the 680M?

 

Think he means some resellers are giving free upgrades on HD's and memory. You can then use that money saved to get the 680.

 

its going to cost me $300 to swith for the 689m. Im kind of short on cash but i really dont want to be sitting on a crappy card. i spoke with a tech guy and he said that the 680m is a better card anyway. runs cooler and has better performance. plus who knows if they are going to get it right next time around with the drivers if they couldnt even do it right the first time

 

My biggest issue here is that I don't feel like being out of a computer for a few weeks. The reason I get a gaming laptop is because I travel quite a bit for business trip. It's really nice to have a gaming laptop with me. I have a trip coming out already. So, if I send it to get swap, I won't be able to game for the few weeks while I'm out travelling.... kind of sucks..... Well, i still have a window till August 27..... still seriously considering about it.

Regarding the BSOD, is it very common for the Clevo with 7970m? So far, I had two BSOD. Once was with the video drive, because it shows the ATP...... thingy (please forgive me that I can't spell the whole error code). 2nd time was a memory dump crash. But each time, I was alt tab in and out of a game, and messing with the physically memory.

As far as the cost to performance ratio... this is how I look at it. Take note that this may sound funny and stupid. The cost between a mid range to top range video card is around $250 - $300. If the 7970m is running flawlessly as it should be, it's like paying 50% of the cost to a 680m, and getting a 80 - 90 % of the performance of the 680m. In this case, the ideal card to get will be the 7970m (and of course everyone knows that). Now, the fact is that it is NOT running as well as it should be...... with the low utilization problem. With the utilization problem, it is only running at 50% of what the 680m does. So technically speaking, it is on par with the $ we pay for it. Half the cost to the top range card, half the performance. And hence.... mid range card.

Worst come to worst if this is not fixable, this is something to think about and make ourselves feel better.

My goodness, I hope this logic won't come back and bite me in my you know what.

 

I have never had a BOSD but i have had graphical issues includiing low fps, textures mssing up, and stuttering in diablo 3.

 

689M must be just a rumor. First you want the 860M, now a 689M. You're dangerous.

 

Here's a thread that's pretty similar to yours, BTW.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/682588-680m-more-waiting-7970m-301-a.html

Hopefully the responses there will help you decide.

 

I had my reseller (malibal) ship me the card. I installed it myself and then shipped the 7970m back to them in the same box. They even provided a return label with the 680m. I am a fairly tech savvy individual, but it is really really easy to do. This is less painful for the reseller and you wont have to be without your laptop... Its worth a shot. It also saved me the time of having to take off the paste they applied to put my Gelid extreme on. I did have to front the 800 for the 680m and wait for a refund once they had received my 7970m.

 

I think until amd's enduro tech is more mature (and i don't have a clue as to when that will be), the 680m is the only way to go. The only barrier to many is the additional cost of the 680m or people that can't go computerless while the laptop is at the dealer. Fenryr gives a great example of doing it yourself and saving time.

Those that have the ability to switch off Enduro (like in Alienware) or are on older platforms where integrated graphics is not supported, the 7970m is a no brainer.

now the otherside of the coin is that if you are going to switch, do it now...because if you wait too long, the next gen will be out and you would have just paid big bucks for a last gen card

 

The key 9 and 0 are pretty close to each other on the keyboard, go figure

 

Haha. I know. I'm just saying that the amount of typos in this thread before the edits are crazy. It's like nVidia fast-forward to the future in this thread.

 

o wow i guess i really do need to check these thing over next time haha. my bad. Anyways I think I am going to drive over to sager and have them change my card to the 680. It sucks that i have to spend all this money but after all this i really dont want to ever touch another amd product ever. BOYCOTT AMD!!!

 

I'm no fanboy of either companies and I do prefer nVidia, like 51-49. Having said that, I do believe if you boycott AMD it's only you that will come out the loser. I say just be wary of future AMD GPUs instead.

 

Indeed, being able to choose between two or more product is a good thing.

Can you imagine Nvidia prices with no competition?

 

-DELETE please, wrong thread-

 

Even after reading this thread and countless others, I still have no idea if the 7970m is really that bad.

Either a ton of people just got a terrible card and a few people got a magically perfect card, or AMD really really screwed this one up.

 

I made that switch myself and I'm one happy camper, the best change is that I don't come 20 times a day to this forums with hopes for a fix, chapter closed for me

 

A few of them said they didn't find any utilization issue but then found out later on

 

Hah.... well, if no one mentioned anything, some people will never noticed the difference, especially they probably upgraded from an old vid card. It's just like a tiny dot at a corner of a picture. You never noticed it, until someone pointed it out. Next thing you know, that's all you are looking at all the time.

 

Not really, I find it very noticeable.

 

Is the 7970m that bad? Personally, I don't think so.
Did Nvidia ever screw up before like AMD? Oh yes... most definitely,

The "older" generation who experienced the Geforce 5XXX series fiasco, and those who experienced the optimus fiasco 2 years ago, I'm very sure if you look back on the history people said to boycott Nvidia. Well, at least I did.

Companies will come out with bad product ever once in a while. It's just a matter of luck for end users like us if we get stuck with a bad product.

Yes, we are all frustrated and angry, after spending so much money to get a high end product, and ended up with crappy FPS. Just a suggestion that there is no need to go boycott. However, the truth is AMD didn't even come out to say something and admit to a problem. That's kind of disappointing.

I boycotted Nvidia, and went with AMD. Guess what, I'm going to switch back to Nvidia Life is just such a sense of irony, isn't it?

Anyway, emailed powernotebooks.com and they left me a voicemail. They have contacted Sager for me, and Sager will be willing to swap out the card for me. Just need to call them back tomorrow to figure out the procedure.

 

As do I. Personally, I didn't notice the low FPS, and the low utilization. But the tearing was a dead give away. It's like paying games without Vsync. I thought i can live with that, and cross my finger and hope for a fix. But the tearing is really starting to annoy me, so I'm jumping the gun and swapping out the card.

 

Out of curiosity, was the Optimus issue similar to this Enduro one? Low GPU utilisation?

 

Nope. The detection rate of of the Optimus driver wasn't accurate enough and many games didn't use the nVIDIA GPU and stayed with the integrated Intel. I think you could have circumvented the issue by forcing the game to work with the nVIDIA GPU, but it required manually doing so for a lot of games, which I bet was annoying. Still, at least there was a workaround.

Benduru, I think you mean jump ship. Jump the gun is doing that:
USAIN BOLT IS DISQUALIFIED FROM 100M WORLD CHAMPIOSHIPS - YouTube (minute 0:49)


Anyway, I was still going for a 680M before the 7970M Enduro issues were known, but that was sheer luck, as issues could have happened with the 680M just as well. Being an early adopter has its risks. I regret not having the laptop early, but at least now I know for certain that the 680M is tested from every angle and found to be adequate.

 

The screen tearing was actually what pushed me over the edge as well. I fired up dead island to show my friend my new PC's graphics and the screen tearing was so bad he said "uhhhhh you paid money for that piece of ?" It was tearing with vsync on! 0 tearing with 680m

 

I switched to the 680m myself but wont have it back for another week or so. The low utilization is apparant anytime you adjusted your settings lower (Ultra to medium in BF3 for example). I was even getting mediocre performance on older games like Company of Heroes due to low utilization! I tried to suck it up and try to live with the 7970m but the problems just annoyed the crap outta me. You are already paying top dollar for your laptop and the gpu is the muscle behind it all. If I am paying that much money for a gaming laptop, I want it to perform at its best.

 

This is very true. And in the future, if there are issues with nvidia cards, the regulars here will be advising people to go amd.

But as of right now, it makes no sense to go 7970m on the Clevo EM platform. Things may be different with other laptops, for example, the 7970m is still a very viable choice in Clevo HM and Alienware M17x, m15x, but i can't recommend a 7970m in the Clevo EM...not until enduro becomes more mature.

 

this makes me kinda angry... how can it be that the 7970m is running better in the HM-Series than in the EM? Afaik the HM-Series didn't support the 7970m in the first place - only after complaints by people owning HM-series. i mean i'm glad for the HM users but i paid a lot of $ for my EM-machine and i guess it's not asked to get a card working as good as in the HM series, even though the EM series is "compatible"...

 

The 7970m runs better in HM because there are no enduro issues. Integrated isn't supported.

The 7970 runs fine on Alienware because you can either disable integrated graphics in the bios or bypass it with FN + F7. Enduro is bypassed

Clevo EM forces you to run Switchable graphics all the time with no way to switch it off or bypass it.

Enduro is going through teething pains just like Optimus did 2 years ago...hopefully they will fix it soon.

In the meantime, 7970m performance in the EM will be less than what one might experience on alienware, MSI, clevo HM. It is still a jump over last gen, but until enduro is fixed, EM owners aren't getting the full power of the 7970m

 

yeah, but at the moment i'm afraid that the problem won't be solved at all. i mean this is the amd flagship for mobile gpus but nothing official has been said by amd... a simple official statement by amd or clevo saying they've recognized the problem and working on a solution would make me very happy.