AMD Radeon 6970M - ETA from Resellers?

Does anyone know when the 6970M will be available? Trying to decide if I should go GTX 485M now or wait a bit longer (it's already at least a month out due to SB issues).

AMD Radeon HD 6970M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Thanks!

 

Italian Reseller SANTECH already have it;
SANTECH SANTECH N67 - SANTECH Notebook

So I bet others will follow soon;

cheers

 

Eurocom has them as well.

Later,

 

Didn't MALIBAL say that they were a few months out in their models? In the 8150 owners lounge..?

 

I think alot of us are waiting on this puppy, great performance/cost ratio. And maybe just maybe nvidia will drop their prices a tad with some high end competition.

 

I was about to ask the same question!

I am looking to put one into my w860cu. Any reseller oter than eurocom want to comment on this? Or is there anyone that have got a 6970M in their w860cu?

 

Yeah, I want a Clevo/Sager with Sandy Bridge and a 6970M in the U.S. - I can't imagine it is due out too much later than next month!

All of the resellers I have been emailing about it have been a bit "dodgy" of the question - so maybe they want to lock in those $500 GTX 485M orders while they can because once a $250 6950M drops it will be a tough sell cost-wise for only ~15% more performance (GTX 485M).

EDIT:

Eurocom Racer ETA 4/1. Interesting:

http://www.eurocom.com/products/future/specselectfuture.cfm?model_id=219

I wonder what type of chassis that is??

 

That's the Sager NP 8150, and it's with the AMD 6970 available since February 1st. The card though is an engineering sample, not the official production one.

 

notebookcheck reviewed the w860cu with the amd radeon 6970M but they experienced some problem eurocom told them it can be solved with a bios update here you can read it

Review AMD Radeon HD 6970M Graphics Card - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

i also sent an email to eurocom asking them about it i will let you know when i receive a response from them

 

Thanks!

Notebookjournal.de has also done a review of the w860cu with a 6970M:
Google Translate

 

mounting the amd radeon 6970m in the w860cu
YouTube - Mount AMD Radeon HD6970M to EUROCOM Cougar Laptop

 

Hadn't seen that, pretty cool!

Something is a bit off though. It seems that they are using a nvidia heatsink, where as in the review you can clearly see that the heatsink is different. Actually it looks like the 6970M and 5870M uses identical heatsinks:

6970 heatsink:

Spoiler

Source: Review AMD Radeon HD 6970M Graphics Card - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

5870 heatsink:

Spoiler

Source: Review Deviltech Devil 9700 DTX (ATI HD 5870) Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

GTX 280M heatsink (used in video):

Spoiler

Source: Review Deviltech Devil 9700 DTX (W860CU) Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

This is good news - getting hold of a 5870 heatsink should not be too difficult. However this might be the cause of the high temperatures seen in the notebookcheck review. What I'm most worried about is the power though. Will this card with a 45W cpu be too much for the w860cu in the long run?

 

i don't know i still haven't received anything however i asked him if the w860cu can be paired with the 920xm and the hd6970 but i doubt it i think it will be fine with 45w cpu i noticed on eurocom website when you choose the HD6970 you don't lose the option to put the 920xm but still nothing is for sure or maybe they were using a newer revision of the w860cu

 

Eurocom wouldn't actually be advertising an engineering sample unless they are receiving some very bad legal advice or want to get blacklisted by AMD... However, the odds that AMD gave Eurocom and no one else the 6970m to sell seem a bit odd as well...

 

As someone said in another thread, there is a difference between pre-selling and shipping. Chances are (as in 99.999999999%) that all vendors are in the same boat; they can pre-sell the 6970m, but won't be shipping them out very soon.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I am comfortable with a vendor that didn't make that distinction pretty clear.

 

mxm upgrade has them
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/

 

I've asked a couple Resellers as well, all with the same answer of 2-3 months. No way can that be true though. At least I hope so.

 

Sadly, I'm forever tied to Nvidia. I've had them for so long, I based my hardware around them. I bought into 3D Vision (and love it, although not for everything) and have all Nvidia hardware in my desktops. As much as I'd like to go to ATI for the cost drop, I'm probably going to end up staying with the more expensive Nvidia 485 for a) the (slightly) better performance and b) the fact that I spend $350 on 3D Vision and I'd like to keep using it.

That and I had bad experiences with AMD (ATI at the time) back in the wild days of yore and haven't gone back since. The drivers then were bloated crashy pieces of crap and drove me out. I'm sure they improved, but I've gone firmly to camp green since.

 

Is the 485 even that much faster? Some of the recent reviews that have come out have shown the 6970M awfully close if not outright trading blows with the 485

 

Supposedly it averages 10 - 12% faster. You're right though, in a lot of things it's much closer than that, if not surpassed.

 

They only have engineering samples The general consensus is, don't jump on the ES samples even if someone sells those, there are still issues with HS's, drivers, etc.

 

It's only around 4% average from what I've seen. Pretty marginal, but for you it's worth getting the 485M anyway so you can use it with your 3D vision.

 

Not to mention that what we've seen was done w/o optimized drivers. And by not optimized I mean, not even ready for the first release. According to AMD, the drivers should be finalized by Clevo before we can even think of comparing the cards.

CeBit should shed some light

 

Bah, my rig really picked the worst possible time to die... all this waiting is killing me.

 

^^ Totally understand. I'd upgrade my system today if the cards were ready. We can only get engineering samples at this point.

 

No chance you could get your hands on a bare w870cu, eh? I think you're the only reseller I didn't contact over the last month.

I like the idea of upgrading again and all this info has me exited too, but if I could get a w870cu bare, or with a 470m I'd be just as happy.

 

The W870CU is no more. Was a popular system and we are still getting lots of inquiries...

 

the heatsink is almost the same as gtx460ms
YouTube - AMD Radeon HD6970M CrossfireX Installation in EUROCOM Panther 2.0


btw Aikimox, just visit your website it says
business-up to intel xeon 7500 +nvidia...........
is that a notebook or a server??

 

I wonder if the gtx 460M HS was used in this case?

You can customize the X7200 to be a server

 

but xeon 7500s are all socket lga1567 nehalem ex..........

 

In regards to the w860cu, I believe that the card has been tested in the first motherboard without USB 3.0.

The USB 3.0 ports are blue (here is from Schenker XMG P500):)


From the notebookcheck test test:


From the notebookjournal.de test:


Though the angle is not the best, I can't see any blue USB 3.0 port. Notebookjournal.de also states about the model:

Overall, I am quite optimistic for putting the HD 6970M into my w860cu somewhere down the line

 

Wow, there's a huge typo on the website. Thanks for pointing this out. You are 100% right! Only LGA 1366 Xeons are supported.

+1 Rep

 

Any educated guesses on the price of this thing when it comes out? I know you can't be that accurate, but I have no idea of the range of these things since I've never bought a notebook GPU a la carte before. I'm guessing around $600 usd?

 

I contacted OriginPC.com regarding their future systems equipped with the 6970M/Sandy Bridge and they stated that the EON 15-S will be out next month.

 

Yeah, I seen that it is listed in the technical specs on their website, but when I try to configure it, the 6970 isn't listed yet.

 

Re-reading the email reply to me from OriginPC.com - it could be that their rep just saw "Sandy Bridge" in my email and automatically replied "next month" (instead of reading or looking into the Radeon 6970M part). In fact, that's my assumption now. I am thinking more like April for the 6970M's wide availability.

 

It's possibly, however we really don't know since it is already listed on their site with the 6970M. So it's really up in the air, my guess is that it will be announced at Cebit and we will be able to add it to our order after that.

 

Kind of off, kind of on topic - the M17x R3 (equipped with Sandy Bridge and a 6970M) was reviewed by LaptopMag.com a couple of days ago. In their YouTube video the guy said it would be available in "a week or so" - so maybe it will be March after all.

Alienware M17x (2011) Review - A Review of the Alienware M17x (2011)

 

Five hour battery life... yikes.

 

120C temps for the m17x with a 6970m? Man that can't be right. This was what I was afraid of. 5870m runs so much cooler, sigh. Not sure if I'd want to swap this considering how hot it runs.

 

That's definitely not right. There is an error somewhere.

 

You might want to look at that again. They're talking about the temp. of the bottom of the M17X, and it's 120 fahrenheit. There's no way the GPU could hit 120C.

 

Wow, thanks for posting this link! This has me reconsidering what to buy now.

From the review (and seen as better in the Alienware to me), I really would like in a comparable Sager model (no particular order):
1) Back-lit keyboard
2) The wireless display could be fun to shoot your games onto a 50" LCD in the living room.
3) Switchable GFX (over 5 hours on the integrated display!!)
4) HDMI input (I could see this being used on long road trips with the kids and a Playstation 3 along or something). Even better if you can HDMI in the PS3 to M17xR3, then shoot to a big screen somewhere wirelessly.
5) Much better keyboard layout (pretty important to me)

Negatives (compared to NP8170):
1) Heavier (9.6 lbs vs 8.35 lbs)
2) A bit deeper (11.96" depth vs. 10.87")

Are Alienware's hard to upgrade/open up?

 

Ya, I'm thinking this too.

 

no they are easy to open up
YouTube - M17x Teardown Video1 of 2 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video)

 

Well, I guess we're kind of off-topic now...so I may as well add my thought process - I'm thinking M17x R3 with 6970M now because I typically buy/sell my laptops yearly...and I think a big, namebrand like Alienware will help my ROI (return on investment) be nearly as solid as when I was buying MacBook Pros yearly. Say what you want about how awesome Sager/Clever are, but they are not well-known by the general public which in turn makes them a bit of a tougher sell when it comes time to upgrade.

 

Bigger investment up front so you have to recoup a higher % to come out to the same loss overall though!

 

Yeah, we'll have to see once the M17x R3 is back up on Dell's site. I've been doing a lot of speccing out/haggling with the resellers for Sager/Clevo and the prices are good...but not great. It's not a huge savings over Alienware, at least from what I am hearing from the guys that managed to get SB M17x R3s prior to shipment. The only caveat being you have to be in my kind of situation - where I am going to upgrade RAM/HD on my own. Dell's prices for those are ridiculous.

 

I have a few issues with what people list as positives on Alienwares (and the negatives they miss:

Your positives:
1) Why do people like backlit keyboards on laptops so much? It seem to me that they drain the battery and the laptop screen itself does a pretty good job of lighting the keyboard on all the laptops I've used. Not only that, but are so few people touch typists anymore? Those raised ridges on the F and J keys are all you need to be sure you're on the right keys. Maybe I'm old school though.

2) I did research on Intel WiDi when I was working for MS (I believe that's the video streaming you referenced in that model, right?) The problem with it is that it will never play DRM content in addition to it having some serious input lag. If you guys are already running Windows 7, you should look into DLNA streaming (also called Play To). You may already have a DLNA capable TV/set top box/media center in addition to your computer that will let you stream music/videos/pictures to another display. Google it, it's a built in feature to Windows Media Player in Win7 and it works quite well actually. Win8 will be really expanding the feature set too.

3)Switchable graphics are something that theoretically the Sager's have too. It depends on whether the IGP is in use, or if the discrete video card is attached directly to the monitor. If it's not, and that IGP can also output to the display, then it would really only take a bios update to use Optimus. If not, then you're still getting 3-4 hours of battery life even *without* optimus on the 15" 8150's. That's not a lot of difference between it and the alienware running on integrated.

4)HDMI input is nice, granted. (Though I can't imagine lugging around an xbox to play on my laptop, when nearly everywhere you go anymore would give you a flat panel or similar to play on, bringing a console destroys the portable concept to me, so this is something I'd use very infrequently.) That said, my USB TV tuner does component input, so I have limited capability as far as that goes on any laptop. On to your input to WiDi suggestion: it'd never happen. Intel would have to allow not only DRM content, but external playback. I can almost guarantee you that this will be blocked by content providers. I bet you'll be able to do one or the other, but not both. In which case, why would you want to do input to the laptop and beam it to the TV? The wireless is slower and will degrade the quality more anyway (also, input lag is a . Do you want a 1-3 second lag between your controller and the output?) Try it out before you buy it. When I tried it over the summer it sounded cool but was disappointed. It also requires you to purchase other boxes.

5)Keyboard layout. I'm moving up from a 15" that didn't even have a numpad. I'm personally quite happy with the Sager. Chiclet keys are great for laptops, I'm tired of my low profile keyboard on my current model.

Cons:
1)I'm not getting the 8170, but compared to the 8150 both of those are doubly true.
2) Alienware hinge issue
3) Dell tech support. Seriously, consider this long and hard before you buy an alienware. I got lucky and got my xps m1530 through the business side and got a 3 year on-site warranty. Assuming you don't do that and get the standard alienware warranty, you may be hurting down the road if something happens. At least Sager gives me 3 years of labor and 2 years parts (through my AmEx card).
4) Cost. You may think it comes close in price, but check all the components. Dell is known to use cheap and crappy parts. My XPS was mostly offbrand guts and this is why they've been replaced completely since I got it due to failure. You pay more for lesser quality stuff.

Just my opinion. I've been burned on Dell stuff before. And don't trust the hype on new tech. If you haven't heard about it before, research Play To and DLNA and you might be surprised that you can already beam your content to any display in the house. I use mine at home to watch movies from my home server storage on my xbox and bluray player. (And technically my phone supports it too, but eh, it's a phone screen)

EDIT: Alienwares are not hard to open up per say, but depending on what you do it may either 1) be proprietary parts that you can't replace. Dell is famous with this on their power supplies and memory for desktops. No reason they wouldn't do the same for laptops. and 2) it may void your warranty, or at the very least give you trouble down the road.

I have Dell now and after seeing Sager will probably never look back. It's been a pain, even with my on-site warranty. I also paid way more than I should have for the quality of the machine I ended up with.

 

Just to let you know WiDi 1.0 (First gen core i's) could not do DRM'ed content.
WiDi 2.0 (Sandy Bridge) CAN do DRM'ed content, still has input lag, but you can stream some protected content.