AVADirect's Clevo X7200 Redux: AMD 6970M CF Takes the Crown
by Dustin Sklavos on June 2, 2011 3:05 AM ESTConclusion: Nothing Wrong with the Radeon
As far as the Clevo X7200 itself goes, our previous conclusions still apply: budget be damned, if you simply must have the fastest, most powerful notebook on the market, here it is. While Clevo's dogged persistence in using this awful keyboard feels like God's punishment for a hateful world, and the notebook itself is easily big and heavy enough to use as a murder weapon, it's also more powerful than...well, anything. It's certainly in contention with a lot of the desktops I review, and that's saying something.
The real subject of our review today is the AMD Radeon HD 6970M, specifically in CrossFire, and this is a big winner. After a long dry spell of mobile graphics having a very hard time catching up with their desktop counterparts, the 6970M at least makes a decent stride towards closing the gap. AMD's much improved CrossFire scaling pays off in spades here, too: generally you'll get close to 100% performance improvement with the second GPU (at least at higher quality settings), and that's outstanding.
Thermals for the X7200 are mostly unchanged from last time, as Intel's Gulftown processor consistently impresses in both this shell and on the desktop. Power consumption is a little bit up on the battery, a little bit down on the mains, and ultimately inconsequential: this isn't a notebook you're going to run on the battery.
If you simply must have the fastest notebook gaming performance, it stands to reason a pair of GeForce GTX 485Ms will probably (however slightly) beat the AMD Radeon HD 6970M CrossFire solution. Of course, at AVADirect you'll pay dearly for the privilege: an extra $638 more than the two 6970Ms for what'll be at best around 10% more performance and certainly nothing that's going to break any games wide open. That's not AVADirect gouging you, either; a visit to Sager reveals a similar premium, and CyberPowerPC doesn't even offer the GTX 485M.
AMD has had a storied history with their high performance mobile parts, oftentimes struggling to actually get them to market. That history is over: the 6970M is here, it's available, and it's fast. Get two.
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Creig - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
No, it's not a "sign of fanboyism" on behalf of the author. It's more of a lack of reading on your part. From the very first paragraph in the article:"and while we hope to review the GTX 485M in SLI soon"
Since they haven't had a chance to review Nvidia's new 485M SLI yet, they can't say for sure that 6970M CF is currently the fastest laptop video solution available. I'm sure they'll declare a winner once they benchmark the 485M SLI.
Meaker10 - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Because there are already reviews out there.The 485M is a little ahead of the 6970M in single card configs, but since Xfire is scaling better than SLI the 6970M is pretty much level pegging when you have two of each.
erple2 - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Yes, but posting definitive information about a product that has not yet been reviewed is disingenuous at best, and fraud at worst.Anandtech can't make definitive info about the performance of products until at the very least after they have reviewed said item.
While it may turn out to be true that 2x 485's are faster than 2x6970m's, there's no internally consistent data at Anandtech to back it up (yet). Given that the performance of the 6970m and the 485's are so similar (10% isn't that much of a difference - only barely statistically significant), there's no telling where the SLI vs. CF battle will fall.
So I'd support the conclusion that the CF solution is currently the fastest solution. I am, however, glad that they included a nod that they'll be reviewing the SLI configuration in the near future.
scook9 - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
You all need to get a loaded M18x to review. It has dual 6970m's as well and an Intel Core i7 Extreme 2920xm (even with an optional factory OC) - beast processor.It has switchable graphics and can get near 5 hours battery life on the Intel HD 3000
It is an all around awesome laptop (PROPER KEYBOARD) and very high build quality.
I had to weigh between the two and had NO reservations about getting an M18x myself, it is replacing my Core i7 965 and CF 5870 desktop
jecs - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
You would really need with you the extra performance the CPU on this machine could deliver over a SB 2xxx CPU, maybe around $3000, and go out very often.I know these machines are not for everyone but I mean, the CPU choice is my biggest concern in this particular system as I think it adds very little and even downgrades the gaming performance. It would be interesting to see what can be done to reduce weight and cost keeping all the other components and upgrade capacity.
Besides, with a machine like this I would also consider to have with me an ultra light laptop or a tablet for lighter work or personal use.
khimera2000 - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
I had one of there older models when the core 2 duo came out, it broke :( not the computers fault trust me. Its vary hard to reduce the weight on these things, the amount of copper they use for cooling is crazy, but looks like its needed. The machine got warm even with that much cooling.If they did get the weight down im sure there would be some really happy sailers out there though.
I do agree with you, when a rig gets this big it feels more like a shrunken down desktop, then it does a mobile notebook, and as fast as it was, the weight of power supply+ laptop was a pain to carry around.
After I got out though I didnt bother replacing it with another clevo, instead i took the budget and built a desktop, and got a descently fast portable that wouldent take my shoulder out.
tipoo - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Just wondering if it was in the pipeline?JarredWalton - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Waiting for it to arrive, along with M14x and M17x.scook9 - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Got to request an M18x!The M17x R3 is an awesome single GPU laptop, but it does not support the extreme CPU. Also loses things like ExpressCard slot - but gains Optimus OR 3D
Can't have both as the HD 3000 can't work with a 120 Hz screen apparently :(
tipoo - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Thanks for letting me know!