14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, when we wrote about the MSI GX70 gaming notebook, we mentioned that for all the might of the Richland AMD A10-5750M, the APU didn't have the best possible integrated GPU, despite it being much better than anything Intel offered. So a discrete graphics card has been added as well.
Said discrete graphics card is the AMD Radeon HD 8970M, a hardware part which some may have realized was not out before today.
Indeed, this discrete GPU has only now been formally introduced by Advanced Micro Devices, and is described as the world's fastest notebook graphics card yet.
Designed on the Pitcairn architecture, it is very similar to the 7970M, with 80 texture mapping units, a 256-bit interface for the 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM, and 1280 Stream Processors.
The frequency is of 850 MHz, but can go to 900 MHz in a pinch, while the memory operates at 1,200 MHz (4.8 GHz GDDR5 effective).
"Today's gaming notebooks need a graphics card that is fast, powerful and energy-efficient," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, graphics business unit, AMD.
"The AMD Radeon HD 8970M GPU is the perfect combination of technologies, blending performance, immersive features and an extensive battery life that delivers an unrivaled gaming experience, even on the go."
The GPU supports Eyefinity technology (multi-monitor), App Acceleration (takes the load off the CPUs in everyday applications) and Enduro Technology (optimizes battery life through dynamic power features).
All in all, the newcomer is engineered for speed, but still capable of rendering images and video in topmost quality while helping the CPU compute things in the background, as well as actively optimizing power consumption on the side.
"The AMD Radeon HD 8970M graphics card exceeded our expectations," said Eric Kuo, vice president for global sales and marketing, MSI Notebook. "Its speed, features and intelligent power capabilities perfectly complement our product. The GX70 is surely designed for professional and top tier gamers."