Gaming Credentials
AMD's Radeon HD 7970M GPU is a 28nm part build around the Wimbledon XT core. It is essentially a mobile variant of the company's Pitcairn desktop graphics cards and, despite being shoehorned into laptop computers, it carries a massive 1,280 cores, 80 texture units, 32 ROPs and a 256-bit memory bus. Those numbers are in keeping with a desktop Radeon HD 7870, but core clock speed differs with the mobile 7970M coming in at 850MHz.
Specification aside, one thing's for certain; this is one of the fastest mobile GPUs currently available. A 3DMark 11 score well in excess of 6,000 is testament to that.
Our standard in-game benchmark for laptops entails running Just Cause 2 at 1,366x768 with medium quality settings. That's usually enough to test most laptops (if not cripple them) but it barely scratches the surface of what the Radeon HD 7970M can do.
Gaming Performance |
||
|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | Average FPS |
| Aliens vs. Predator | 1,920x1,080, DX11, 0xAA, 4xAF, Low Detail | 61.7 |
| 1,920x1,080, DX11, 2xAA, 8xAF, Medium Detail | 47.9 |
|
| 1,920x1,080, DX11, 4xAA, 16xAF, High Detail | 41.2 |
|
| Just Cause 2 | 1,920x1,080, DX10, 8xAA, 16xAF, Max Detail | 80.6 |
| 1,920x1,080, DX10, 8xAA, 16xAF, Max Detail | 72.1 |
|
| 1,920x1,080, DX10, 8xAA, 16xAF, Max Detail | 61.4 |
|
Giving the GPU more of a challenge, we've re-run two games - Aliens vs. Predator and Just Cause 2 - at various quality settings to see how the Radeon chip fares at the laptop's native 1,920x1,080 resolution. The results are impressive, with both games continuing to run smooth with ultra-high detail.
AMD's Radeon HD 7970M certainly has enough power to drive today's latest games, but there is a question mark surrounding drivers. The 3XS Graphite LG10 uses AMD Enduro technology to switch between the Intel HD IGP and the discrete Radeon chip depending on usage scenario, and though it works a lot of the time, there were instances in which we had to manually select which GPU to use via the Catalyst Control Centre.
Switchable graphics technology continues to evolve through driver updates, but from what we've seen on various laptops to date, NVIDIA's Optimus appears to be the more mature option and tends to require less user involvement. Food for thought, and Scan does have both bases covered as the LG10 can be configured with a GeForce GTX 680M if you prefer.
Battery Life, Heat and Noise
The HEXUS battery life test involves playing back a 720p movie clip until the laptop is automatically forced into hibernation. A balanced power profile is chosen for the duration of the test, all wireless radios are disabled and screen brightness is set to 50 per cent.
Give a laptop a quad-core CPU and what's essentially a desktop-grade GPU, and it won't take too long to chew through a sizeable 76.96 Whr battery. We were actually pleasantly surprised to see our video rundown go beyond the three-hour mark, but remember this test doesn't require the discrete GPU - load up a game and you'll eat through the battery at a quicker pace.
A couple of hours' battery life is in line with our expectations for a Clevo-based gaming laptop, as are the noise levels. The Graphite LG10 is audible whenever it's turned on, but there is a good degree of variance depending on usage. We measured idle noise at a reasonable 35dB, but it takes only the lightest of loads for the fans to spin into action, causing noise levels to rise to a more noticeable 41dB. Crank up the Radeon GPU by loading up a game and noise levels can quickly hit a loud 50dB.
What's useful is that the fans are pushing a good amount of air and do a good job of keeping the system cool. The chassis will get warm, but we never found it to be too hot.