questions about 7970m and other amd cards on clevo

hey guys, now clevo supports optimus on nvidia cards, and battery life has majorly improved (approx 3.5 hr on P170em)

I'm just wondering does it also support amd's power xpress? because I can't find any information yet, and I also know that when clevo had 6990m, the battery life was awful due to the lack of switchable graphics

thanks

 

I'm pretty sure I read that some people had it working with the 6990Ms but I'm not positive. With so little being known about the 7970s right now, I don't think anyone could say for sure, but I wouldn't buy one counting on being able to switch to integrated graphics.

 

um, thanks

but if AMD driver supports switching graphics, even if it doesn't automatically switch, we should probably be able to do it manually or in the BIOS right?

 

That's correct..

 

wait, what's correct? clevo actually supporting it or the manual adjusting part?

 

You should be able to do it manually through the BIOS

 

There's no button for that to override in the BIOS.

 

No option to disable automagic switching in the bios? Guess I misunderstood again

 

What would your recommended course of action be? As tempting as the power advantage that the 7970 has may be, as a student, battery life is crucial to me. Would getting the 675M suffice my needs? (Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, etc.) Or will the 7970 provide enough battery?

How many more hours do you think Optimus will get me over the ATI chip?

And thanks ahead of time for the answers!

 

I think everyone needs to take a minute or a day and let us all gather the information

We are JUST getting in the first samples etc, we need to test things and figure it all out.

 

is the price on the website accurate? the 200 dollar upgrade over the 670m? thanks.

 

The price amazingly enough is about the only thing we know for sure

 

Already stated this is another thread but "The Radeon HD 7970M, apart from the ZeroCore technology carried over from its desktop counterparts, also packs a feature called AMD Enduro Technology, which "seamlessly powers down" the GPU when not required, below even 1W. The HD 7970M, we're hearing, scored many design wins, and should be launched by several notebook vendors today. ". Just saw this thread and figured i'd share my findings.

AMD Launches its Radeon HD 7900M Series Mobile Discrete GPUs | techPowerUp

 

That doesn't necessarily mean that it'll work on these particular notebooks. The 580m supported optimus but Sager notebooks from a year ago couldn't use it.

 

I would be very dissapointed if they weren't supported considering they were both just recently released but I see your point. Let's hope it does.

 

Why do that when we can participate in rampant speculation?

 

Supposedly the idle non gaming usage of the 7970 is similar to an IGP, thus negating the need to ever having an IGP to switch to.
Also, supposedly, in a CF solution the second card could go completly dead if not in use.
Supposedly it has a Feint dead Skill when used in CF that the previous generation did not had.

Cant wait to buy me 2 pieces.

 

Can't wait to have the p150em with a 7970m! Hopefully just in time for Diablo 3! This thing is going to be beast!

 

If you want it when Diablo 3 releases, I think you may be out of luck. They 7970s aren't set to go on sale until the end of may, and then you have to tack on build time + shipping time to that.

 

Lies!!! AMD would never be so cruel...

 

All of the resellers are putting an ETA of the 7970m at around may 21st, add on build time and shipping and it could take 10 days after that so getting it early June would be the earliest probably.

 

Some estimates put it at end of May but more likely it will be in consumer hands in mid to late June. So if you want a new laptop to play Diablo 3 on 15th of May when it releases you better look at the alternatives (675M).

 

Anandtech has a nice write up about the new AMD GPUs and their version of gpu switching. Seems like the devil is in driver support and AMD did not do a great job of this with their last gen GPUs. I would be careful about jumping on a 7970 without learning more. Nvidia's Optimus is more mature and Nvidia does a better job with drivers than AMD.

 

Optimus may be more mature, but let's be honest here. Who buys a gaming laptop for battery life? If the prices are going to be the same as the 6990m and 580m, the 7970m will be much more of a bargain.

 

That's a good point. I'm getting the 7970m no matter what. If Enduro is supported then it's just an added bonus.

 

Students like this guy <--------

 

Well if switchable graphics works, you'll be in luck. I wouldn't rely on optimus, it's still pretty buggy.

 

Other than hardware switched graphics, they'll all be a little buggy at times. When you use software switching like Optimus/PowerExpress/etc, they all rely on driver support for the technology to work. So there's always some lag between a new game coming out and driver support being 100%.

 

Im hoping for decent battery life with optimus. Workstations like the Lenovo w520 get around 8 hours with their optimus switching although thats a 1000m rather than a gaming card.

 

Quadro Optimus has a mux, right?

 

Nope mux's go on motherboards, not video cards =)

Quadro optimus, is normal optimus

 

Specs released by ATI

AMD moves to 28nm for mobile Radeon GPUs ? Computer Chips & Hardware Technology | Geek.com

 

hey guys, a source of mine told me that theyre gonna do some testing on the Clevo P-1xxHM series next week, see if they can get the 7970M to work Ill keep u updated once i know more! *excited*

cheers

 

Nice. can't wait for further information about AMD 7970m

 

Hi jaybee83
I see you change your signature (soon to be 7970M), it's mean that the test on the P-1xxHM series was OK?

 

Could someone clarify if the AMD card will require different heatsinks on a P170EM for example, going from GTX 675M? If so, upgrading won't be so easy (will require purchasing a kit?)