7970M - Dayum

[dangro474]

... So i'm an Nvidia fanboy, mainly due to the fact that the majority of my previous systems operated nvidia GPUs.

I have to say that both the 5870M and 6990M have been very impressive cards (aside from the whole 6970M enormous failure rate fiasco in 2011), but I always imagined i would opt for Nvidia cards in my future systems.

But then:

Obviously comparing a last gen card to current gen is beyond retarded, however given that the 7970M is cheaper than the 675M it make sme wonder if the upcoming 680M can live up to the hype and equal / outperform the 7970M...

It's been a while since any informationw as leaked / released, and what little information did see the light of day was not overly impressive. It is of course possible that in light of the 7970M's performance the 680M went back to the drawing board.

Now that Ivy Bridge has been released, the big question is: wait for the 680M (which may turn out to equal the 7970M at best and be more expensive as the previous top end comparrisons have been, such as 580M vs 6990M), or just go for the 7970M :/

Anyone remember the 480M by the way? What a colossal f*ckup that was.

.. and given that the 670 GTX and 660Ti GTX have both been confirmed as cut down versions of the GK104 (chip used in the 680 GTX) its looking more and more likely that Nvidia had originally intended the 680 GTX to be their 660Ti midrange card, remarketing it as a 680 when they saw it dominate ATI's (flagship?) 7970. Could the 7970M be an early model GPU similar to the 6970M with a 7990M to follow?

Two words. Mind f*ck.

Edit: All potential customers need to know is that the 7970M is really good and really cheap. As with the 6970M / 6990M and 5870M before them it dwarfs the competition.

... and after reading this thread I did something i'm not too proud of.

To wait, or not to wait...

 

[PlasticTastic]

PhysX. Says it all IMO. The performance that the 675 gives is good enough (30fps on BF3 on high is fine for me) yet PhysX can make EVERY game that supports it so much better.

 

[dangro474]

PhysX. Says it all IMO. The performance that the 675 gives is good enough (30fps on BF3 on high is fine for me) yet PhysX can make EVERY game that supports it so much better.

Yes and no; although enabling physx in certain games may provide additional effects, these effects are more or less barely noticeable, and enabling GPU physx is usually done to improve your performance slightly.

However as early benchmarks have shown the 7970M outperforming the 675M evenin in PhysX capable games by an average of 45% (aka ****s all over it) when the 675M is good for 30 FPS in current gen games completely maxed out 1080p, PhysX simply isn't a valid reason to choose the 675M over the 7970M.

If the 680M provides similar performance to the 7970M, PhysX would definitely be a good reason to favour the 680M even if it ends up consting considerably more... if only to gawk over the few games which boast the "NVIDIA" branding and were obviously coded to favour nvidia cards, such as Batman Arkham City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gECAZT6qTnA#!

 

[PlasticTastic]

Hang on I've just read into this (I'm unbelievably tired, bed time soon xD), can you enable PhysX with CPU? So if I chose the 7970, will I still be able to enable PhysX? I love physics in games more than graphics, so to me anyway, it's more important.

Also, I noticed in your sig that you have 2 (Almost) identical laptops, one with a Matte screen, one without. Just wondering if it's worth the money getting it? I can't decide haha.

 

[dangro474]

You can indeed enable Physx withy our CPU, but you take a considerable performance hit compared to having an Nvidia GPU handle physx calculations.

Even then the 7970M would outperform the 675M

At the end of the day its a current gen GPU vs a next gen GPU (technically as it not in stock yet) so this is to be expected, however the fact that the 7970M is CHEAPER than the 675M means that opting for a 675M is simply nuts, unless you are a graphic designer.

Note: Both systems in my sig have matte screens, however I struggled with the 15" and as my brother wanted a new system I passed it on to him and ended up purchasing a 17".

 

[PlasticTastic]

Oh riiiight haha that clears up a lot. You just made my mind up for me, thanks ^.^ Can't wait haha. As SOON as manage to find a job, I'm getting me a killer laptop

And I know, I read your PM, thanks

 

[dangro474]

Regarding physx; I'm looking for more concrete benchmarks to confirm the impact forcing the CPU to calculate physx over an nvidia gpu has, as well as whether certain effects are present or not. You can force your CPU to handle physx calculations with an AMD GPU however I am not certain whether this is possible with EVERY physx title and whether or not certain effects are lost by doing so.

Don't take my word for it, I need to continue to look into it

Edit: So far it looks like Physx based games use the CPU by default if an Nvidia GPU is not present. In some games this can lead to a performance drop, but in others it makes little to no difference as long as you have a decent CPU.

I am beyond a doubt that all physx titles will still perofrm far better with a 7970M paired with an ivy bridge quad core when compared to the same CPU + a 675M.

I hope the 680M isn't too far off

 

[zacmar]

Ugh, I was considering ordering a new Vortex III this week with a 675M and now this. My problem is I'll need to have my laptop delivered by the 8th of June at the very latest, does anyone know if that's going to happen if I get a 7970M instead?
If the ETA is end of May then hopefully I can get it fast (worst case I go for fast delivery), but is there any chance it will come later?

 

[Kimikus]

First had to wait for Ivy then I thought ' Ok once Ivy is out I'll take the plunge and buy asap' , then found out about the 7970M lol. Finally took the plunge though and ordered my vortex III, now the pain of waiting till the end of May

 

[marvir]

Same boat.. And the hard part is I am into graphic design and 3d animation.. I have always preferred Nvidia, and with what I do I will still go with Nvidia, although it's hard to ignore the flat out performance differences.. That and I need a laptop quite soon. Who knows how much it'll cost to upgrade to the 680M when it comes out. Sheesh.

 

[clancy2k]

I decided to stick with the GTX 675m, couldn't be bothered waiting for the HD 7970m. The GTX 675M is more than capable of running any game maxed out at 30fps+ and that is all you need, because the human eye can't even detect the diffrence after 30fps lol. I will definatly consider upgrading to the GTX 680m later this year though. Mainly cuz i'm also an Nvidia fanboy lol

 

[dangro474]

Clancy ><

I agree that the 675M is technically all you need.

However...

because the human eye can't even detect the diffrence after 30fps lol

not quite true when it comes to video screens.

General screen tearing with vsync disabled is more noticeable the more inconsistant the framerate is, especially at lower framerates.

With vsync enabled your frame rate becomes more noticeably choppy inbetween who number fractions of your refresh rate. With a 60 hz screen, gameplay will be the most playable at 60, 40 and 30 FPS.Anywhere inbetween (with the exception of 45 FPS) becomes noticeably choppy.

The 675M will dip below 30 FP Sin more demanding games such as Skyrim, Metro 2033, Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 etc, and withh the 7970 massively outperforming the 675M you will get a much better gaming experience overall.

That said the 675M is enough for current gen gaming and you will undoubtably be pleased with it, it's just.... more expensive and slower than the 7970M... even as an Nvidia fanboy i CANNOT justify picking up a 675M over a 7970M.

 

[Agito]

I am hoping that an option for a 7970M crossfire will appear with the release of the graphics card. I've already eyed a laptop from the US which actually takes PC processors and has a GTX675 SLI. You might think it's expensive but for the spec I've gathered + the VAT I'd have to pay for import I'd be paying only £2200. My main reason for wanting to purchase from PCS is the fact that I don't have the time to wait 1 month for the delivery + customs. By the time I'll have the money ready I'll have about 2 weeks to get the laptop as I'll be leaving to uni. My current spec I have gathered for a Vortex III 17` I'm standing at £1700. I can still spend more on an additional graphics card. So shut up and take my money! lol

This is the spec I'm looking at as of now, hoping to get crossfire in there:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series:17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3820QM (2.70GHz) 8MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM (PRE-ORDER, ETA END OF MAY)
Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,713.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[dangro474]

Very nice spec at an excellent price