AMD Announces Radeon HD 8970M High-End Mobile GPU

MojoKid writes "AMD is announcing its Radeon HD 8970M. The mobile GPU is based on a design that has a few small feature changes that have led it to be unofficially labeled a Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.1 part versus AMD's previous gen GCN 1.0 technology. AMD claims that the Radeon HD 8970M is significantly faster than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680M in a variety of tests, but high-end laptops that use AMD hardware are harder to find these days."

Comments

Re:There should some kind of standard

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

There should some kind of standard for laptop video cards both slot and cooling / space in higher end systems.

It vaguely exists; but the real-world utility is kind of a clusterfuck. Only the most monstrous of desktop replacement machines implement 100% to spec, availability of replacement/upgrade parts is spotty, and even within the bounds of the spec there is a bit of a morass of thermal envelopes and other variables.

For better or worse, The Market appears to have spoken in favor of slim, rather than modular, on this matter...

Ya well AMD

[Sycraft-fu]

Have you fixed your drivers yet? I have a laptop with their previous 7970M and man, it has been a trial. To being with performance was hamstrung really badly by under-utilization. It is set up in an Enduro config, meaning it passes its video through the integrated Intel GPU, just as nVidia does with Optimus. However they had continual problems with underuse. That is now mostly fixed, though it took over 6 months for a driver, but there's still big issues of stuttering and such. There's a driver coming "real soon now" that has been that way for a few months. Also they make getting it rather hard. If you go and download the driver from their site, you get the "notebook verification tool" which says that it isn't compatible with my laptop. You have to go find the actual driver file elsewhere and install it.

So really, I am a little unimpressed about their bragging compared to the 680M. The speed of the 680M was more impressive since it actually worked when it was launched. The best hardware is not that impressive if it isn't backed with properly working software, and AMD really seems to like to drop the ball on that. I've been rather annoyed at the problems I've had with my laptop and the length of time it has taken to fix them.

Re:Ya well AMD

[hairyfeet]

How much of that can you blame on AMD though versus how much of it is Intel cockblocking? After all the reason Nvidia got out of the chipset business was intel cockblocking and Intel has been making it pretty clear that the future to them is Intel APUs with Intel boards and Intel support chips like it or lump it, so I have to wonder how much of the problem is Intel refusing to give jack shit to AMD to help interoperability as far as samples, docs, and specs.

Ultimately if you are going with an AMD GPU you'd probably be better off pairing it with an AMD CPU as that seems to be the best combo as far as drivers, at least from what I've seen at the shop. Lets face it CPUs haven't been the limiting factor in games for awhile, hell the new XBox and PS4 are both using chips originally designed for tablets and netbooks for the love of Pete. So unless you are one of the handful that need every bit of speed you can get (which I would argue why are you on a laptop if that is the case) you'll save some money by going all AMD which can then be used on a real performance booster like fast SSDs or more/faster RAM.

Re:Ya well AMD

[blackraven14250]

It's all on AMD, since NVidia, despite being cockblocked in the chipset market, is able to produce a reliable driver and has done so for quite a few years now. On top of that, there's just as many problems with ATI graphics on AMD-based systems, which indicates there's no real problem that's being caused by Intel.

Re:Ya well AMD

[hairyfeet]

The only person to blame for shitty drivers in Linux is Linus Torvalds, who is an arrogant douchebag who thinks his shit don't stink. Quick, how many OSes OTHER than Linux use his driver model? NONE because its shit, that's why. Even BSD and Solaris have stable driver ABIs but Torvalds is just too fucking cool for that daddy-o, and the ones who defend it use fucking religious arguments. Its an operating system not a church,quit acting batshit.

And I'm sorry but I have to call bullshit because I have used a couple of hundred AMD GPUs in the shop and not had a single problem, NOT ONE. In fact the only time I can think of having a problem with an AMD GPU since AMD took over from ATI was a single case of not having the GPU detect the right format for the TV it was plugged into....and I wouldn't even blame that on AMD as the guy didn't tell me before he had it built he was thinking about using it as an HTPC so the GPU I had chosen had DVI but not HDMI so I had to use an adapter. A little futzing with the driver settings and voila! Perfect picture.

So blaming AMD for Linux having a broken driver model is wrong, they simply don't have the resources to pull an Nvidia and give Torvalds the finger (which is really what Nvidia does, they gut about half the Linux graphics subsystem and replace with their own proprietary builds) and the fact that you just can't run the Linux drivers they released just shows what a piss poor driver model Linux has. Sorry but if you use a crap OS you should expect crap performance and crap problems, as long as Torvalds has a pulse the drivers are gonna be deep fried tampons. If you want drivers that work, don't use Linux, end of story..

Re:There should some kind of standard

[DiSKiLLeR]

There is, I recently upgraded me Alienware M17xR2 from 4870M in crossfire setup with a single 7970M.

Its not dell supported to install the 7970M but it works perfectly.

More excited by thunderbolt bus cables

[BlueCoder]

A modern video card uses lots of power and needs lots of cooling so I am not really impressed with mobile video chips.

Thunderbolt is more exciting. It's PCIE over a cable. So you can have an external graphics card and enclosure. Plug power cable into wall. Plug thunderbolt cable from video card into notebook and voila.... top end graphics power. With some variations the thunderbolt tech the cable could carry enough power to power the laptop over the thunderbolt cable.

  The great thing is you still have a great portable laptop that can focus on saving power and having a great battery life but can be upgraded on the spot to a powerful gaming computer when you really need performance. The same setup can also upgrade a desktop computer in the same way so you can have a couple desktop computers and multiple notebooks and only need to buy one high end graphics card which can be quite an investment.

This tech is so revolutionary it will lead to a new desktop form factor without slots on the motherboard. You'll have a small CPU box with a closed loop liquid cooler. It might even be completely powered by a thunderbolt cable. You will then have a bus/hub box that will be similar in many way to a classic desktop in size. The difference here is that it can be large or small. It can have many slots or just one. It can be have many type of form factors.

Re:There should some kind of standard

[hairyfeet]

As a retailer I can tell ya why....its pointless. You know how many buy gaming laptops? MAYBE 3% of the population IF THAT, we are talking about a teeny tiny itsy bitsy niche so it is really pointless as the few percent that actually buy gaming laptops aren't gonna stick with an old CPU and replace the GPU so its just pointless.

Reality is that the majority of laptops sold are in the $400-$750 range, gamers tend to go for desktops anyway because no matter how powerful the cooling problems of trying to fit everything into this thin light package means you'll end up with slower parts that cost more, and with the amount of power the high end chips suck making battery life measured in minutes? All in all these just don't make sense to pretty much all but a handful of die hard LAN players and road warriors so its no wonder that the support for switching GPUs just isn't there.