Laptop

 

With respect to the quality of the 7970M you're asking about...the GPU hardware itself is great. It runs warm but within specs and cooling is fine. It's a laptop; parts will always run warmer because of the form factor. I run the x17 with a 3820QM processor and the 7970M GPU. I have it on a hard smooth surface and my temps are fine. Just don't block those big fan openings in the back.

 

The card itself is fine...what you have heard is the driver support, more specifically Enduro, the automatic switching between the cpu graphics and the card is not developed yet by AMD. The 7970M card is AMD's newest mobile GPU and AMD is notorious for working mobile drivers much later than desktop drivers in addition to AMD stopping their regular monthly updates to a "when they get around to it" schedule.

 

The Enduro issue directly affects utilization; that is, in many games the GPU utilization is not 100% so the game is sometimes running off the Intel graphics rather than the video card. I see that in the game I run.

 

Based on the games you are playing, you will see under utilization of the GPU till AMD gets Enduro fixed. In my opinion, if you can afford the extra $319.00, I'd go with the 680M card because NVidia has already matured their Optimus switching technology and their driver support for mobile graphics is more reliable. If the $319. is out of your range, go for the 7970M. It is a great piece of hardware...just be aware that you'll be waiting till AMD matures their drivers and Enduro before you get full utilization of the card.

 

Hope that answers your question.

 

Bobby

 

The thing to keep in mind is the 675M or 670M are both based on the Fermi 40 nm architecture whereas the 680M is based on the Kepler 28nm architecture so their is a significant boost in performance. I can't say how each will impact your games. Someone else with the NVidia GPU's will need to post about their experiences