P170EM with NVidia 680m or P370EM with AMD 7970m suggestions?

Hi Everyone,

I've decided on either of the above combinations because they end up costing about the same amount overall.
The other components I've decided on are:

Intel i7-3740QM CPU
16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM
120GB SSD Primary Drive
750GB 7200RPM Sata secondary drive
Blu-Ray Reader/DVD Writer Drive

Anyway as the thread title suggests I'm stuck on whether to get a P170EM with the Nvidia 680m GPU or the P370EM with the AMD 7970M as they both cost around the same($100 more for the P370EM combo)...

I know the P370EM is slightly larger and does not have enduro/optimus, but I was wondering about what sort of battery life I would expect from either combination? Which would perform better with games?
My main uses with be as a desktop replacement that I can take to work to watch Blu-Rays on my lunch break so is the extra size of the P370EM that much of an issue?
Any advice regarding this sort of thing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Edit: I should have put this in the laptop purchase subforum. I've created a new thread there so feel free to delete.

 

I would take the p370em - because in the future you are able to use CFX with two AMD 7970m, so the Performance should be quite good as the Next Gen GPUs after the 7XXX cards. Also you have no problem with enduro and the 7970m performes like hell @ stock clock in games at the moment.

Battery life? If you use the the Laptop as a DTR - who cares?

EDIT:

Ohhh.... just read the last words because of the wrong forum *creeps out from the thread - never been here....*

 

p370em all the way/ in the future you get another 7970m and have years to go

 

TWO 7970M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TWO 7970M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TWO 7970M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TWO 7970M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the way to go

No utilization issues.

Only issue of concern is the weight. From what I had read on this forum, it is not a laptop that you really want to carry around.

 

Thanks for the reply anyway.
I know I said it would mainly be a desktop replacement, but also as I mentioned I'd like to be able to take it work to watch BD's during my breaks so 2+ hours of battery life whilst watching the discs would be what I am after...

 

P370em all the way.
Better sound, much more upgradable and future proof,it will last long.
Start with one 7970m great card, super FPS.
After you see what will come next maybe Nvidia 7xx cards or Ati 8xxx cards or even 1 more Ati 7950.
It's Clevo , so from the graphic card side can be upgradable as you have choices and I will say a lot,

If you like to go , So mobile , and you need so much battery power you can buy one extra, get them full and get them super mobile, though if you watch movies or just surfing around p370 em even if its crossfire or sli they don't drink battery so fast, you will have at least 1 hour maybe more and those will be without playing of course (heavy gaming)

Thank you.

 

The sound chip is comparable but the speakers are ever so slightly better. They're pretty comparable to my ears but to be fair, most laptop speakers are pretty comparable to me as far as sound quality goes.

7970m is the better value but if you get Enduro, be prepared for utilization issues here and there. They've gotten better, but they're still evident.

Only advantage (if applicable to you) is the P170EM board has a firewire port. The P370EM instead has 4 USB 3.0 ports though.

 

I think that's why he is considering the 7970M in the P370EM though, as that avoids enduro

 

Yep, that's why. Although a lot of you people are trying your best to convince me to get 2 7970's in xfire(only $369 more)... But that would probably kill any battery life hopes I had...

 

You still get zero core which completely shuts off the second card when not needed.

 

I'm not exactly sure what that is, so can you please elaborate or provide a link to more info? As if I can get away with it I'd defintely go for the XFire if possible...

 

Feel free to read away:

AnandTech - AMD Radeon HD 7970 Review: 28nm And Graphics Core Next, Together As One

 

A single 7970 active with minimum clocks (150 mhzs core and 300 mhzs memory) with minimum brightness, wifi and clocked down CPU, altogether should pull around 25000 to 30000 mW. Considering the batery capacity at around 77000 mWh, you should get somehwere like 2,5 hours or so. Again, this is an estimate based on my P150em on battery with the 7970m active while browsing...

 

I guess I'm going to be THAT guy. I was in your shoes too until last week. I just couldn't decide. I really dug deep inside and made a list of what I didn't like in my last laptop (a Clevo D901C). I never did get around to adding that second card. I didn't like the 30 minute battery life, but I knew what I was getting myself into. Man, was it heavy. But, I loved the raw power, huge screen, and full sized keyboard. I also made a list of what I was going to do with it: games and VMware for development.

So, I made a decision to get the P170EM, with the best graphics card (better or same as SLI 670M) and up the processor. As you can see in my sig below for my specs that I'm using to type this on.

What I love so far: battery life, raw power, still lots of disk space. You will not be missing on graphics processing power, but you will not have bragging rights with people who are running SLI. But, you will have bragging rights when you have endurance (battery life). I love having Optimus (or Enduro if you're using AMD), it really really extends the battery life when I'm just browsing on the internet, or programming. I don't need my GPU when I'm in Visual Studio or Eclipse. But, I can always play an older game that doesn't need the GPU power (like Counter-Strike) with the Intel GPU instead.

So, my two cents: Get the P170EM and overclock the CPU.

 

What sort of battery life do you get out the laptop with general use? Have you watched any HD movies on your laptop(anything h264 encoded etc.)? If so which GPU is in use during that? The 680m or the onboard graphics?

 

Well in my 9150 experience it tended to be 3-4 hours. Any video playback will use the integrated GPU.

 

When reading papers or writting in my P150em, I often get a pull of 11000mA or so from the battery, and have been capable of getting more than 5 hours of battery (killing WiFi, no USB ports in use, no BT, minimum Brightness, integrated graphics, no sound). I do often stop I/O heavy services (such as indexing ones) and allow all cores to park. Theoretically, the maximum battery life in these conditions should be around 6 hours, and real life experience shows it doesn't fall too far from that.