AMD's Mobility Radeon HD 6970 In CrossFire On Eurocom's Panther

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AMD’s Mobility Radeon HD 6970 in CrossFire mode forges ahead in mobile gaming with stunning “Full HD” 3D performance. But can it stand up to Nvidia’s high-end GeForce GTX 470M and 480M in SLI? Eurocom's 17.3” Panther 2.0 gives us its answer.

Power And Battery Life

Because the Eurocom Panther 2’s hard drive requires power to remain “active” while not transferring data, the GeForce GTX 470M and GTX 480M appear to have similar idle power. The Radeon HD 6970M consumes around 10 W more in 2D mode, though this may be improved later with new drivers and/or firmware.

Kick the system up to 3D mode and the single Radeon HD 6970M is in a dead heat with the GeForce GTX 470M. Nvidia's GTX 480M can’t even compete for thermal efficiency, converting an extra 40 to 50 watts per card into heat.

Problems getting the Radeon HD 6970M to idle down effectively with current drivers and Clevo’s initial firmware are reflected in reduced run time. These desktop replacement notebooks are designed to run primarily from a wall outlet anyway, but we like having the capacity to at least check our email a few times while en route to the next power source.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
42 Comments Comment from the forums
  • haxs101
    5292$... Are you kidding me!!
    Reply
  • dogman_1234
    Yikes!
    Reply
  • Crashman
    dogman_1234Yikes!What, you don't have a $180,000 car sitting in front of your $5m mansion?
    Reply
  • fstrthnu
    This is even more absurd than the other recent power gaming notebook that was tested. You could save almost $500 by using Sandy Bridge instead of the old i7s, for the same performance. Even Falcon Mach V's usually don't get this expensive. This is absolutely ridiculous
    Reply
  • Crashman
    fstrthnuThis is even more absurd than the other recent power gaming notebook that was tested. You could save almost $500 by using Sandy Bridge instead of the old i7s, for the same performance. Even Falcon Mach V's usually don't get this expensive. This is absolutely ridiculousNo you couldn't. Because as of CES when these cards launched, nobody produced a dual-graphics module chassis for the Sandy Bridge.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    There are the battery life graphs that I love! Thanks for adding those to the laptop review! My first laptop was a P4 Northwood that barely got 90 minutes of battery life. This one is insane!
    Reply
  • _Pez_
    Insane and impossible to get and pay in Mëxico :( ....
    Reply
  • Maziar
    First of all,great review ! I was desperately waiting for 6970M review from Tom's.
    The overall performance is quite good especially in single mode which it's faster than both GTX 470M/480M.I think if AMD pays more attention to mobile drivers, then 2 of this cards should perform better.
    About the price,well not everyone configures the laptop with i7 980x.Websites usually test the high-end specs in order to reduce the bottleneck and let the laptop run at its full potential.
    I've read that Sager will soon release a model with mobile Sandy bridge CPUs along with 1 6970M and it won't be very expensive I think.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    CrashmanWhat, you don't have a $180,000 car sitting in front of your $5m mansion?
    Duh of course, we all do but i mean 32 bedrooms IS kinda small. On a serious note, wtf 5k seriously? I could build a desktop and hook it up to a small generator for 1.5k and get at least 4 hours of power than pay 5k for 20min Fuk that $hit.
    Reply
  • christop
    Who is buying this? I bet it weights 50 lbs. Nice battery life of 22 minutes.
    Reply