7970m in a M15x....Why yes

Only time will tell.

 

The 680M will pack more power as this is nvidia's way but also it will probably run hotter and certainly cost ALOT more.

AMD put out cards that pack enough power are efficient enough and are cheap compared with Nvidia. Nvidia just aren't contenders in my opinion because they are so overpriced.

Plus the way AMD release cards earlier than nvidia, by the time the 680M hits the 7970M will have been on the market a decent amount of time allowing for prices to drop further. This gives AMD yet another edge over nvidia in terms of price vs performance. Not even to mention a potential 7990M release after the 680M.

 

I don't expect NVIDIA to let AMD claim the performance crown... at least not for very long. They've been fighting that battle for years, and it's awesome for consumers. In the end, the GPU that runs the fastest and lives long enough to tell the story wins. And then tomorrow comes and yesterday's victor is forgotten. To those that care most about having the fastest and most powerful, price is usually not an issue. It's all a matter of personal preference. There is no correct answer. For those with limited budgets, owning yesterday's best is an excellent option.

Of equal importance is reliability and driver quality. A fast video card with buggy drivers and a high failure rate is more pain than it is pleasure.

 

With the 680m 3dm11 benches vs the 7970m 3dm11 benches i dont think nvidia can actually win this time around while still maintaining a 100w max draw. Now who knows maybe they make a 130w card but that would be ridiculous. And i have seen people aruging that the 680m doesnt have driver support and with drivers the score will increase. Just remember there isnt any driver support for the 7970m either.

 

To be honest, given my experience with Nvidia mobile cards (albeit, it was a 260M) throttling badly in my M15x, I'd rather stick with the AMD card... That said, i don't know when I'll be able to buy a 7970M.

 

Well nvidia hasn`t released anything NEW yet, just rebagded 580m and called it 675m, they are not stupid to consider we will be fooled by this

Only reason I have 5850m in m15x is the problem of 580m with 940xm and CPU was/is more important to me, so went with 5850m, would be upgrading to 7970m as soon as i see someone running 7970m with 940xm

I reckon we all are stuck with 675m vs 7970m till nvidia opens there mouth

 

Okay... So I am lazy, but interested to know if this would enable 3 display capability?

2x 24" externals via displayport and VGA plus the internal lcd... all at 1080p?

Would just make for a better workflow... Just more cables... -.-" As if I don't have enough already...
USD HDD
Esata HDD
VGA
USB hub, nearly always full (4)
Bluetooth thingo for mouse
Speaker output
headphone output
Wacom tablet
Power cord

... Under my desk is a nightmare... and every cable is black... -.-"

Anywayyyy.... Has anyone tried it?

I'd look... but I haven't the time for 16 pages which may be fruitless... Sorry...

 

What luck, my card, and my thermal pads, anti-static wristband... All out for delivery

 

Excitement level rising.
Do you plan on taking pictures?

 

nice! wait for your pics. By the way, which version of your card is? DELL or others?

 

And... it's here. I will try to take a few pictures as I go along. Have to pull up the guide, clear the space, and get ready to roll.

 

Where did you order yours, may I ask?

 

I'm at a stand still fellas.. the screws from the heatsink don't match up with the retention plate from the 7970M. I can't use the 240M retention bracket, as it's not wanting to give enough clearance due to the transistors that its' touching on the back.

 

Check the box it arrived in. When I got my 560M there was a set of screws in the box between the foam and cardboard.

 

Yeah, I confirmed that they didn't send them. So Im' at a stand still currently. Not a huge deal... just anxious. Hopefully they'll be shipping out shortly. Will be here Wednesday at the latest if they ship today.

 

if im not mistaken the 6990m had the transistor issue and they just kept the black sheet on the bracket and just kept it on there...

 

Not sure. The xbracket from the 240M is touching the transistors too much to even let the card slide back down into place. There's not enough clearance. Hopefully I'll have some screws asap. Crazy, knowing that I have one down there, and can't do anything about it.

 

with the 6990m u had to do the heatsink mod to get proper contact between the gpu and the heatsink. possible this will solve your problem??

http://forum.notebookreview.com/7924137-post1142.html

 

No, it's making fine contact, it's the retention bracket. It's not giving enough clearance to push the card down into place if I use the 240M bracket. Just waiting on screws for the 6990m xbracket. Once they get here... I'm golden

 

errel do you have a dell card? If so, where did u get it from? Are you trying it out in the M17xr3(in your sig) or the m15x? Thx

 

You should change your sig ereell

 

Haha... I know. It's going in the M15x. And yes, the Dell card I'm assuming. Blue'ish color.

 

A DELL card...nice! I wanna get one soon in my country, just wait for your guide

 

Plus you should get your hands on a 920xm! The 720qm is gonna be a bottleneck when paired with this beast of a GPU. Considering the cpu is about a third of the price of the GPU I am sure you can afford it and chuck another 4GB of ram in for good measure

 

the 720qm will in no way be a bottleneck....

 

yeah its just the matter of high end components fitting together, otherwise all the first or second gen i7 should have no problem pairing with 7970M.

Don't give out misconception like that so others will not be confused and keep asking whether this or that CPU is gonna usable with this or that card or not.

 

Where can I buy these cards? Have a M15x with 260 card now.

 

Says someone with an ivy bridge processor and a 2920xm lol. In most games sure the i7 720qm will be adequate however there are titles out there that demand more such as battlefield 3 heck even crysis 2 on max settings demands a fair bit and will push that chip very hard especially when the GPU is so powerful...

So yeah I think it is and definitely will be the bottleneck in a system with a 7970M installed in the future. Also I never said the cpu isn't usable. Of course it is usuable, you could stick a first gen i3 in there if you wanted and run the 7970M but the question is would you want to? The 920xm is great value now and I think anyone going to the 7970M should do the cpu upgrade first.

Basically the 7970M makes the M15x last much longer in terms of future proofing. The 920xm simply makes the 7970M a more solid and future proof purchase as it is capable of delivering SB performance when OCed.

@OP head to ebay and go to"upgradeyourlaptop" PM them and they can give you a quote. Around $500 for the basic card just now. However their prices are climbing steeply currently.

 

the i7 720qm should be adequate for the 7970m but you won't get top end fps.

If you had a 2630qm then there would definately be hardly any bottleneck over an extreme cpu. Anyway unless you have an extreme i7 920xm 45nm cpu theres no point putting in a 7970m as it defeats the point.

I would personally never get 32nm cpu let alone a 45nm cpu with a 7970m 28nm gpu.

I want to get hold of a 3612qm with hd 7770m or gt 650m.

 

One question that is bothering me. The heatsink and retention bracket from ati5850, will it match this 7970?

I am planning to get 7970 from dell.

 

I'd say it's best to get the xbracket as well. Or else you may be waiting to use your card like I am...

 

I want to tell you, DELL of China already has 7970m, and my friend told me the price of the card(she has discount), is about 365 USD if I choose shipping(7-10 days) or about 430 USD if the engineer bring it to me. So I wait for your guide @errell

 

Is there any possible way to order it through Dell China? I really want to purchase one !

 

I have no idea, bro. It seems no service of DELL for shipping over countries.
Tomorrow I will ensure if they could really sell the card to me.

 

I'm still awaiting screws. Should be here tomorrow. Mail came and went, and nothing today unfortunately.

The guide is exactly the same as the 6990M, so I won't be doing a full on guide. With a 2yr old little girl, and 6 month old little boy, time is very limited

 

I see. I have exchanged card from 5850m to 6970m, so I just want to know some important things, such as fan issue, power draw and vbios.

 

destinymax, would you be prepared to sell some of those Dell China 7970m's thru the forums if you can get mutliples?

$365 is a really good price, even if you added a margin .

 

Looks like it'll be a while fellas. My screws apparently didn't ship out when they were supposed to have. Looking at Monday.

In addition, I'm getting a replacement mobo replacing the current one with the AlienFX part fried.

 

Can I have some pictures of DELL card first?

 

This is from pau1ow, credit to him.

 

What is that slot on left-middle, right next to the die?

 

I'm assuming CF slot, but I'm not in front of my card to look at it.

 

Thats definately where the crossfire bridge plugs into.

 

beiguo,what a surprise we meet here

 

It's nicely positioned for the M17x R2.

 

Good Eyes there Katalin!
We can use the original R2 Crossfire cables again. WooHoo!
Awesome!

EDIT: I hope! hmmm....Just looking at the 5870s CF connector positioning again. It seems to me that it is slightly even more higher up.



Cheers.

 

Looks like it's on target with the 6900 series crossfire port. Which means the R2 cable will work. Just may take some folding or pulling back the tape to offer some flexibility.

 

7970m crossfire is going to be ridiculous.

 

I wonder which game will ever tax his R2 now! Also will make his system a folding beast!!

 

You know what I was thinking today, does the 7970M have sero core technology? If it does, you could see a huge increase of battery life when using the M15x. Maybe it would be possible to lock the P-State into it and get very long battery life.