Vortex III & 7970m

[Bcsp]

Hi guys.

I'm currently considering buying the Vortex 3 15" with the AMD 7970m. Pretty much everything looks good but my main concern is for the amount of heat produced by this card in the p150em chassis with say a 3rd gen i7 at high loads and consequently how loud the fans will get. First off, I know this combination has only just been released or is only about to be released but I'm finding it hard to find any information on this. And I realize that having this much power means compromise.

But to understand where I'm coming from, I've had two previous laptops. A Dell M1710 and an Alienware M17x (1st Gen, dual 280m). I loved the M1710 noise/heat wise but eventually upgraded to the m17x and found it to be horribly noisy at full load and it would also leave you sweating buckets with a lovely pair of red legs. As a result I barely use the m17x as more than an external hard drive at this stage. It was a horrible waste of money for me and I'd rather not repeat it again. My hope is that the smaller fabrication process for both he gpu and cpu will have reduced the power consumption to allow for a more acceptable level of heat/fan speeds.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[dangro474]

Hi Bcsp,

As an owner of a P150HM, I can confirm that the system can get quite noisy under full load, however no moreso than you would expect of a 15" system powering a 100W(?) GPU.

I owned a Dell M1710 myself, and although the M1710 exterior seemed quite cool during operation, the cooling system overall was pretty poor. The CPU/GPU (45W TDP 7950 Go GTX) idled at around 60 degrees and would peak at over 80/90 degrees under full load. The P150EM keeps the CPU/GPU at around 40 degrees while idle and peaks at around 65/82 degrees full load (source to follow). Ultimately the P150EM is cooler, but noisier. You can operate the laptop on your lap but I would advise against doing so, but by doing so you will inevitably block the air intake vents on the underside of the laptop.

My P150HM is however quieter than my Alienware 15x under heavy load.

 

[_Francesco_]

I'm presuming nobody can predict what the heat situation will be like with a Vortex III and the 7970m, but I'm guessing how it fares with the GTX 670 / 675 can be some sort of gauge. Does anyone have any feedback on how it fares with that range of cards? If it doesn't cope particularly well with GTX 670 / 675, I for one would be reluctant to try the 7970m.

 

[Finn]

Define "cope" ? Neither the CPU or GPU get hot enough to concern me while gaming, and even for several hour sessions that keyboard stays cool to the touch. However, I use a laptop tray and wouldn't think about having it directly on my legs I know the amount of hot air vented out the back is considerable, comparable to a hairdryer or something so I suspect if you did have it on your legs and the blast of hot air hit your legs it would be unusably uncomfortable.

 

[_Francesco_]

Purely in terms of CPU and GPU is along the lines of what I meant, particularly after several hours. I know that's not the type of heat issue referred to within the OP, but I just didn't see the point in making another Vortex III & 7970M to specifically discuss GPU heat. Thank you for answering.