Clevo P370SM(Dual AMD8970M) or Clevo P170SM-A(GeForce GTX880M)?

I already have a P170Sm and I'm happy with it. But my brother looking to buy a new notebook and i decide to give my notebook to him. So now I'm looking to buy a new notebook. My choice is P370SM or P170SM-A

I brought my previous notebook from Scan UK and decide to buy again from them.

P370SM:

Intel Core i7 4810MQ
Dual AMD 8970M (Crossfire)
16GB RAM
500GB EVO SSD
Blu-Ray R/RW
Windows 8.1Pro

Price £1697 Approx

P170SM-A:

Intel Core i7 4810MQ
nVIDIA GeForce GTX880M
16GB RAM
500GB EVO SSD
Blu-Ray R/RW
Windows 8.1Pro

Price £1688 Approx

I know Dual AMD is more powerful than the single nVIDIA card, but do I have to struggle with drivers? Specially switchable graphics?

I'm tired of Intel/AMD switchable graphic drivers and I like to OC the VGA using BIOS flash.

Which is the best solution for me? I like to know some feedback from AMD dual graphic users.

 

You wont have to worry about switchable graphics (Enduro) because its not on the P370SM. They dont put it on any dual video card Clevo computers.

 

It all depends on what games you are playing. Some games run better on a single NVidia GTX880m, others can run better on a crossfire setup.
If battery life is concerned, the P170SM-A will be a better solution. But looking at your configs, you may not care much for battery life anyways Its not going to be a laptop for work, right?

Overall, if you plan on carrying the laptop to work, P170SM-A will be the best choice:
- lighter weight;
- better battery life;
- smaller and lighter PSU;
- should be more silent than the other one.

Also, these benchmarks here will help you make the choice:
AMD Radeon HD 8970M - NotebookCheck.net Tech
AMD Radeon HD 8970M Crossfire - NotebookCheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

Just compare the FPS and see for yourself which you like best.

P.S. ALSO, very important: when you have SLI or Crossfire, you might encounter the "microstuttering" effect. Basically, if the framerates drop low enough, you will see the picture skipping and frames becoming out of sync. This is very annoying so you got to think about that too. Driver issues with AMD have been known for years now, they just cant compare to the kind of driver support Nvidia offers. Good hardware with bad drivers = unhappy customers. That's my take on that matter.

 

Thanx guys. I think I'm going for AMD solution. I really don't care about battery life or weight of the notebook. Recent AMD drivers are much improved and crossfire seems to working fine with most of the games I play.

Biggest plus point is lack of switchable graphic.

 

Good choice, i agree with AMD solution, much better performance potential.

 

Just keep in mind that not everything will be designed to utilize Crossfire. Even a single 8970M though is a very capable card. :thumbsup:

 

Most new games will these days which require the grunt though. You can also overclock the LCD on the dual card machines which is a nice bonus.